Geltung [validity]: perception of a natural right
Geltung [validity]: perception of a natural right
Opening night: 27 October 2017, 7pm - 9pm
Continues: October 28th to November 12th 2017
Performance as part of NEoN Festival programme: 9th November 2017, 7pm - 8pm
Generator Projects & NEoN
online at http://geltung.agorama.org.uk
Generator Projects, in partnership with NEoN, is proud to present:
Geltung [validity]: perception of a natural right
An offline/online exhibition curated by Alejandro Ball and Inês Costa 27 October - 12 November 2017
“The material basis of media technologies - and books are only one example - is changing, for which historical perspectives might give not only comforting back-up (‘nothing is as permanent as change’) but also ideas to push the change forward.” (Jussi Parikka, 2012)
We can certainly talk about change; our present landscape is a space where the digital and physical have become synonymous, which many believe to be signalling the coming of an ontology-less future, through the accelerated disruption of cultural value. In this light old standards show their age and obsolescence in the face of the new, and with each new wave of informational overload we are further alienated by the system, that revolves around an economy of monetary circulation. All these factors come together to push a re-evaluation of identity and the human value. This brings to mind the genealogy of currency, articulated by Joseph Beuys during the discussion entitled What is money? : “Of course ‘Geld’ [‘money’] comes from ‘Gold’, same etymology. But it comes equally from ‘Geltung’ [‘validity’], meaning the value people fix based on their perception of a natural right. The word ‘Geltung’ is rooted in representations of a natural right, while the word ‘Gold’ is rooted in the economy of barter!” (Joseph Beuys, 2012).
In this light, Geltung [validity]: perception of a natural right brings together four artistic investigations that re-evaluate established methods of financial exchange bestowing new material values and identities to their subjects. In a landscape where monetary currency is pinnacle, the artists interrogate notions of personal and individual history, locality and its impact in identity and the framework that contains our cultural objects.
Diogo da Cruz’s work, WORDCOIN (2016 - Current), proposes the implementation of a new currency, that will give a literal value to speech. By creating The Bank for Argumentation , the consumer-museum-goer will have the opportunity to trust his or her arguments to an institution that can save and trade them, giving the deserved and objective exposure to their ideas. Max Dovey presents Breath (BRH) (2017), a digital currency that is mined through human respiration. The installation combines breathing and micro-computers to mine, store and trade human breath as a virtual currency on the crypto-market(s). The market value of BRH is determined by the inflation created by respiratory miners who participate in the physical installation. In Property (2017), Felicity Hammond examines documentation of the landscape drawing upon images from her own archive, and images sourced online; those of both existing and imagined future spaces. In this way, Hammond utilises particular motifs and structures that respond specifically to the digital representations found online of Dundee’s vast regeneration programme. For I keep forgetting I’ve been to Tokyo: GAIDEN (2017), Petra Szemén follows the virtual self through parallel and intersecting realities, along the departure-initiation-return structure of a hero’s journey. Drawing upon personal and/or constructed experiences, the work explores the idea of a non-localised identity that is an archive of accumulated personal mythologies acquired from a multitude of realities.
The artists:
Diogo da Cruz is a conceptual artist based in Lisbon, working in an interdisciplinary field of speculation. His projects call into question some certainties and prejudices of our society, through a rigorous and impertinent research about concepts familiar to the general public. He creates symmetric and ironic objects, positioned in a stage-like installation, which end up being part of a performance piece. In 2016, he participated in the Independent Study Programme at Maumaus - Escola de Artes Visuais in Lisbon. His work has been shown in Portugal, Germany, Austria, Spain, Greece, Sweden and Bulgaria
Max Dovey can be described as 28.3% man, 14.1% artist and 8.4% successful. He is also an artist, researcher and lecturer specialising in the politics of data and algorithmic governance. His works explore the political narratives that emerge from technology and digital culture and manifest into situated projects – bars, game-shows, banks and other participatory scenarios. He is an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures and regularly writes for Open Democracy, Imperica & Furtherfield. His work has been performed at Ars Electronica Festival, Art Rotterdam & many U.K based music festivals.
Felicity Hammond is an artist and educator based in London. She is currently undertaking TECHNE funded research in the Contemporary Art Research Centre at Kingston University on digital representations of the built environment and their relationship with site. She has worked with major institutions including Tate Modern, The Whitechapel Gallery, The Photographer's Gallery and The Saatchi Gallery, and her work is held in international collections.
Petra Szemán is an artist based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. Working with animation and computer games, her practice is concerned with instances in which real life can be experienced as fictional. She creates fictional realms that fold back on themselves and dissect the ways our memories and selves are constructed. She explores liminal spaces, threshold experiences and non-localised identities on a personal level, but also expands into a broader sense of worldmaking and cinematic experiencing.
The curators:
Alejandro Ball is a Peruvian/American new media curator, artist, and fabricator, practicing between London and Dundee. He is currently undertaking a research degree with DJCAD in the field of Art and Technology. Recent projects he’s worked on are, PIL 2.0: Russia. Be Blinded by an Inner Light (VRC, DCA, Dundee, 2016), A Book of Burning Matches: Collecting Installation Art Documents (me Collectors Room, Berlin, 2015), Post-Internet Landscapes (PIL Project) (The Cass, London, 2015), London Open: Live talk event IN TRANSITION: the artistic and curatorial residency (Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2015), and the line that (...), (Five Years, London, 2015).
Inês Costa is a Portuguese independent curator and photographer, based in London. She is currently working as the Exhibitions Assistant at the Whitechapel Gallery, where she contributed to exhibitions such as Imprint 93 (2016), Guerrilla Girls (2017) and Thomas Ruff (2017). She attained a BA in Multimedia Arts - Photography at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon in 2012 and a MA with Distinction in Curating the Contemporary from the London Metropolitan University and Whitechapel Gallery in 2016. Recent curatorial projects include PROTECHT (Bank Space, London, 2015) and IT IS PROBABLY BETTER TO START FROM ZERO (Window Space, 2016).
For further information, please visit:
NEoN Digital Festival
