FACT/Liverpool

On a recent trip to FACT Liverpool I witnessed the new exhibition "Rock the Future".

This was a very unusual exhibition as the individual was asked to interact with the pieces instead of being a passing witness to the art on display.

The 1st piece we encountered was a simple box room painted in chroma key blue and at the centre of the ceiling was a small printer printing of small snippets of news chosen randomly from the internet.

Half the time the news had no meaning but putting them together created some strange results and even inspired. On entering the piece their was an explanation on the wall but I and many other people did not read this so we entered the feature with out knowing what was actually going on. This piece appealed to all ages with kids just loving the fact all the shredded paper was like snow an adults waiting to see what will pop out next from the printer on the ceiling. It wasn't a particularly challenging piece and didn't offer a sense of satisfaction when finished participating.

Another piece which was interesting involved three computers with graphic tablets that the user could interact with and when drawing on the tablet they interacted with the room itself. The lights would go off and sounds would be played depending on the speed of the pen on the tablet. Plus in an adjacent room people could see there art being reproduced for everyone to see on 3 big screens, this was also linked to a website where there art would also be displayed to be looked at again and again. We all had the habit of just running in and not finding out what the piece was all about again but upon working it out the art had a more satisfying experience than the previous room with the creations you made being published on a website you have the chance to experience the art again and again.

Overall the great thing about this piece was you ended up drawing to influence the light and sound and less to do a good picture which I suppose made re-looking at the art pointless as the design you had created was just a squiggle.

The third piece we encountered was a, plain white room with a painted walkway bending through multiple items that have been donated from people who live in Liverpool. These items are completely varied from Halloween masks to model Audi TT's. In the adjacent room it was painted black and has a massive screen with a projection of all the items in the other room randomly picked and then effects applied to them to alter their appearance. This was more a passive piece you just sat and watched the items have effects applied to them but with the effects and images randomly chosen you never saw the same image twice.

Again this did have the ability to inspire as no one image was the same again either being mixed with a different image or having various effects applied thus creating original art. That seemed to be the main feature of all the pieces, the fact that each piece encourages the user to interact and make their own art and not be just a passive viewer.