In the beginning of 2016, an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London used the term “electronic superhighway” to address artistic forms and languages in the media age. In a Guardian review, we are described as “roadkill” on this superhighway. The freedom of information has brought great convenience: mobile pay, location sharing and all-round social networking softwares have endowed us with legitimate avatars of ourselves in the digital world. However, in the same time, it also interrogates urgent issues such as the boundaries of privacy: WikiLeak as a source of information has been in competition with traditional press; redundant-looking personal emails, chat histories and sharing activities can be utilised to probe into more precise social trends; whilst a fracture of information could trigger explosion of unprecedented scale.
In a sense, the internet is where linear time and strict geographic boundaries are recomposed. International events such as the US presidential debates, have become not only “relevant”, but also visual memes. “A Room with a View” is an immersive installation composed of real-time news about the presidential debate. The programme grabs and sorts imaginaries, screenshots of news websites, and keywords from the internet in real time, and broadcasts them in a gallery space at 798 Art District in Beijing. Meanwhile, visitors can submit “bullet-curtain” to comment on the work in real-time.
When detached from the original press context, the content creates a bizarre experience by keeping the official visual tone of where they come from, and simultaneously alienating the officialness by recomposing itself and absorbing visitors’ commentary inputs on-site. In Forster’s world, the British lady hoped for a room with eye-catching natural landscapes, while here we are confronted with mediated landscapes.
We are sitting in a room with a view.
Exhibition Duration：2016.11.12-12.12
Exhibition Openning: 2016.11.12 15:00
展览地点：妙有艺术 北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路2号798创意广场B区
