The New Sublime

5th Sep 2014 - 27th Sep 2014

Phoenix, 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton, BN2 9NB

The New SublimeMA in Digital Media Arts course leader and Sue Gollifer is co-curating The New Sublime, an artist-led group show being presented as part of the 2014 Brighton Digital Festival.

Now in its second year, the festival will feature at Brighton’s Phoenix Gallery. The New Sublime 2014 is conceived and curated by artists whose work and interests span digital and traditional approaches to fine art and features new work by some of the most innovative artists working in the field including: 

LIA, Julian Oliver, Scenocosme, Jan Vantomme and Marcel Schwittlick.

Curated by The Fortunecats for Phoenix Brighton,The New Sublime is an exhibition and series of discussions exploring the new ways in which artists who use digital technology are engaging with the viewer’s attention. This is a thorny subject because technology catches our attention in a particular way. When viewing this kind of work we may be initially fascinated and involved, but eventually slightly bored. This may describe our relationship to technology in general.

The question we are asking is: ‘Can art which uses digital technology move us in the same sustained way as other forms of contemporary art?’ Based on our previous experience of curating digital art exhibitions and making our own work, the answer is a tentative “yes”.

We will be showing work by emerging and established new media artists which we think either confirms our hypothesis or raises interesting questions around the subject. Pictured is “No Network” by Julian Oliver. It is an illegal network jammer in the shape of a battle tank. This work exemplifies what the is exhibition is about. Technology is an essential part of the piece but its socio-political comment overrides its technological interest. We are showing work by thirteen international artists who are more interested in how the art feels or what it makes us think than what it’s made of.

Scenocosme a collaboration between Gregory Lasserre and Anais. Based in France, they exhibit all over the world creating interactive works which explore our invisible relationships with our environment. Julian Oliver is a New Zealand born critical engineer and artist based in Berlin. Winner of the distinguished Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica 2011 for the project Newstweek (with Daniil Vasiliev). The Austrian artist LIA, a pioneer of Software and Net Art, has been creating digital art, installations and sound works since 1995. Her works combine various traditions of drawing and painting with the aesthetic of digital images and algorithms. They are characterized by a minimalist quality, and by an affinity with conceptual art. Jan Vantommeis a computational designer and artist based in Ghent, Belgium, he recently helped to create Hack The Artworld,a virtual exhibition, geofenced to the Barbican during the Digital Revolution show. He will be doing the same here.  We are also showing work by Henry Cooke, Mathew Plummer-Fernandez, Marcel Schwittlick, Nicola Schauerman, Rob Myers, Stephen Hilyard, Clive Frayne, Rachel Linton, Stephen Terry and the Fortunecats.

There will be a series of events linked to the exhibition:

20 September: FightLab 26 September: Transmute (Kate Genevieve and Rachel Blackman)
27 September: Closing event will be a Digital Art GONG Show.

If you are a digital artist and would like to take part in the GONG show or for more information pleasecontact the Fortunecats: info@thenewsublime.com

Please on Friday 5 September, 6.30–9pm.

Gallery Open to public: 6,7, 10-14, 17-21, 24-27 September, 2014. Weds-Sat: 11 am-5 pm



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