Following a pilot created by Arts Council England and the BBC, The Space was relaunched last June to set up a commissioning agency supporting artists to create new work that lives on the internet so people from all over the world can enjoy digital art.
H A P P E N I N G now has the chance to discover more about this sometimes perplexing domain...
Animation from Together by Universal Everything,
a commission from The Space and Barbican
H A P P E N I N G: What is digital art and why is it important?
Sandeep Mahal: Digital art is art created by using digital technology, there is an undersupply of art which engages directly with the digital. Our commissioned artists create exciting and innovative new work using this kind of technology.
Digital art receives some criticism amongst the art community. How do you respond to this?
For The Space, we talk about art in its broadest sense, in fact we really don’t have a rigid definition of what is art or for what is an artist. We want to engage with lots of different communities, it is often in the collaboration that we get something new. Some of the best works that have come from our open calls are created by people that don’t even define themselves as artists.
We’re working hard to build the credibility of the medium.
You have a lot of big names on your site, how do these partnerships work?
We wanted to set the scene by commissioning some established stars like Ai Weiwei, he very kindly donated some data that we used in other artworks: the data is him reciting all of the names of the people who perished during the Sichuan earthquake. So any artist can now take that data and create whatever they want with it. We’ve also worked with Marina Abramovic, David Hockney, Jeremy Deller…
Jeremy Deller created a piece for the centenary of WWI inspired by the Sir Edward Grey quote “The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime,” so Jeremy created “Lights Out” which we commissioned. It was a really beautiful piece that was only available on the internet for a limited period of time, as the artist wanted.
We are very much artist-led and that is very important for The Space.
Sandeep Mahal
“Hack The Space” was very popular, what can you say about it?
It was really important for them to launch with a big hack event, it took place continuously over 24 hours and brought together digital artists, developers, etc. The artists’ brief was to take any form of data and turn it into a work of art. The hackers that took part in the event have access to a number of unusual data sets from the Tate, the Open Data Institute, The Guardian and the artist Ai Weiwei.
They created some weird and wonderful projects from scratch.
You must get such a huge range of work, could you describe your favourite piece?
The second prize was won by Robert Wollner and Adam John Williams. Challenging the perception of information and the channels by which we receive it. They use projection mapping and computer animation which shows Barack Obama giving a speech which turned out to be a historic Vladimir Putin speech. It felt like it was a speech that Barack Obama would actually make, but it was actually a speech given by Vladimir Putin. Given their relationship and their history it was quite extraordinary to see.
What is H A P P E N I N G next?
The Space closed their second open call last November and are looking to launch another open call this year. The winners of the second open call will be announced later this year. The Space's latest commission is Mix The City by Kutiman his four-minute video featuring 12 musicians who remix the sights and sounds of Tel Aviv. Anyone may now make use of the interactive online video to create their own mix.
