What is it to be human in the digital age? This is the question posed by the recent Digital Bodies
queer art exhibition as part of the And What? Queer Arts Festival
Combining a specially curated selection of artists and mediums the exhibit asks the viewer to consider the digital realm with a series of digital and non-digital installations. Non-digital was represented by the work of Jack Goode, a bespoke tailor and stalwart of the queer art scene. The presentations of clothing represented radical permutations of gender and form demonstrating a refreshing aesthetic to counter traditional tailoring.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jasmine Darlington
For digital the latest technology was employed to consider aspects of our digital lives. Jake Elwes ‘Machine learning porn’ used artificial intelligence to interpret our use of pornography as seen through the AI lens using a specially created neural network to generate pornography from scratch based on analysis of actual pornography. This created a mesmerising 12-minute loop visualising electronic pornographic dreams.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jasmine Darlington
Kate Davis ‘Logging onto Love’ imagines a near future of virtual and physical sex robots and as such provided an ethical exploration of the issues facing humans and the robotic sex industry.
The centrepiece of the event was provided by MaloMalo, a queer performing arts company. Crispin Lord collaborated with experimental VR artist, Jonathan Packham to present an exploration of the vulnerability of the queer space as presented by an innovative use of virtual reality to guide the participant in their movement using audio and visual triggers within the headset.
Combined with motion sensing technology and cameras this immersive artistic presentation pushed the boundaries of experiential performance art.
FAD & Acme VR captured the performance in 360 VR, a highlight of which can be seen here – viewable on desktop and VR headset.
Links
MaloMalo
And What? Queer Arts Festival
Jonathan Packham
Jake Elwes
Jack Goode
Kate Davis
