En Avant
The Grok Institute’s digital arts festival returns
Grok Institute co-founder and curator, Jean-Robert Saintil, introduces this year’s digital arts exhibition, featuring the talents of Tim Paris, PRICKIMAGE, Simon Elliott and Oscar Carlson.
For those who've not encountered us before, Grok Institute is a pop-up institute for Digital Art, Light and Sound in London. Not that we're in any way confined to the city, but this is where there idea for Grok Institute started. A couple of years ago whilst I had been editor for Vs Magazine and DJ and my non-sexual partner in culture Andrew McPhee had been working on his Apps and Digital Innovation company Harmonypark, we both realized that we felt underwhelmed with what London had to offer in regards to digital art. So, somewhat enflamed we plotted to create something that we would both be excited and enthused to attend. An event worthy of this beautifully diverse, intellectually rich and hell of a lot of fun city we live in. That it became a two week, 24 hour a day, five gallery space event inter-spliced with parties and talks in the Newburgh Quarter in Soho was something we didn't foresee. But we were young (it was last year) and we learned a lot from it.
This time around however, after a couple of smaller micro-Grok Institutes, and an inclusion into the Courvoisier Future500, they asked us to open their rather impressive Revolutionary Spirit 2010 festival thus we created En Avant (onward) – focused on presenting critically engaged, innovative, digitally-based art which reflects and precursors the world in which we find ourselves. Somewhat unwittingly embedded in technology, tacit participants in a world that we can use, but for many, the odds are don't quite understand.
Indeed, the digital permeates our lives in a way that we barely even realize it, or indeed take it for granted. With this in mind, we took the idea of immersion in technology as a starting point and commissioned three very different, but equally impressive, sets of artists working with the idea and who have created new work from very different perspectives.
The work spans from the Three Dimensional video mapping and living virtual sculpture FUTURE MENAGERIE by PRICKIMAGE, Memo and Simon Elliott to the pin-point invasive accuracy of the sound piece FROM THE HILAZING SERIES created by first time Grok collaborator. Swedish artist Oscar Carlson adapted from a number of 'audio spotlights' by American holosonic inventor Joseph Pompei. Plus one of our favourite artists, and long time Grok Institute collaborator Thomas Traum has put together an amazing video installation for us as well.
Another part of Grok is the engagement of the audience. Indeed, the word Grok conveys the mutual importance of the audience and the work. As a word it means to share the same reality as a physical thing or person – this can be ‘actually or conceptually’ and, without getting into the epistemology of it all, it’s about getting together and sharing ideas, thoughts and ways of working whilst being part of something fresh. We tired of the engrained fine art distinctions between the work and viewer, or the hierarchy of the arts. We hope to create a liminal space where all can converse and interact with each other and the work outside of the confines of other institutes, so everything from the music (our opening parties aren't private views, but PARTIES!), the work and the people who frequent the show are all as important as each other.
Even our talks, from the round table discussion that is Protein Forum 6, with the likes of the director of onedotzero’s Shane Walter and Ben Kreukniet of UVA through to our brand new Grok Institute Lectures with artist Memo, Tim Cowlishaw, Stephen Brewster from the University of Glasgow and hosted by UK Wired Editor David Rowan, the voice of those interested and inspired are as important as those on the floor.
There's much more that could be said, but the most important thing is this: if you don't like something, change it. That's what we did. And it’s looking pretty, pretty good.
En Avant by Grok Institute runs from June 16 to 18 at The Future Gallery, 5 Newport Street, London.
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