I’ve escaped the distraction offered by the digital too one of the last bastions of F2F interaction, a magical place that boasts things the Internet is yet to give us; human contact, smells, atmosphere and delicious cold booze – all things I personally find necessary for the creative process. Perhaps it’s a little ironic than that I’ve decamped to the pub to edit an interview conducted via electronic mail, but then again perhaps I should go home and check the actual definition of ironic on Wikipedia.
I’ve always found Chris to be quiet, friendly and very smart so was looking forward to his replies
How did you get involved with NGA?
I got involved with the NGA when I received an email from Robin Dobson in about October 2007 in which he invited me to submit a proposal for possible inclusion in the festival this year. I originally submitted a proposal which involved projecting one of my ‘Lightyear’ series onto a large building somewhere around Birmingham - this didn’t go any further as Robin was looking to get something more ‘indoor’ based.
How does the piece fit in with your usual practice?
I’ve reverted back to some older work for the binary pieces, purely because I wanted to create something which, for the most part, is “wireless”. I tend not to make as much sculptural/object based work anymore, my practice has become much more about research (the possibilities and ramifications of creating art in and for Outer Space) and relies heavily on my relationship with certain people and institutions. When I do make sculptural work now I tend to want to either be as economical as possible (both in terms of the materials and what the work is saying) or go for something which has much more of a presence - or for want of a better terminology - a ‘wow’ factor. #Cringes# Which is what i was going for with Milky Way.
Does the work engage with the theme of Digital Utopia specifically or do you think you were chosen because your practice engages with the theme?
The work does engage with this years theme, the Binary pieces in particular, but at the same time they relate to in almost a back-handed way. I knew that I wanted to create some work which explores the ‘digital’ through analogue means, there can be a tendency to approach a digital theme, (perhaps quite understandably) electronically. Reels of cable and monitors at every turn. The idea behind the binary pieces is that they contain digital information, which could quite possibly be scanned, logged and interpreted by a computer, and at the same time they have a physicality and have at least one toe in the sea of art history. The floor piece especially is a nod to minimalism of the 1960’s-70’s.
Digital Utopia? What is it? Is it achievable? Are we there even?
Digital Utopia, hmmm, I think the Digital age in which we find ourselves in was heralded as the dawn of a new era for mankind, and for the most part that is certainly the case. The Internet especially (without which I wouldn’t be able to send you this) has changed a lot of people’s lives, although not always for the better - collapsing dead because you’ve spent the last week living inside a computer screen in ‘Second-life’ isn’t what Vinton Cerf and Timothy Berners-Lee had in mind. But if you really can’t be bothered to traipse down to Tescos and back then it’s quite handy.
But I suppose in it’s most basic sense, Digital Utopia would mean that technology creates a World where nothing is impossible, everything is marvelous and life for all is made generally better. What this doesn’t take into account though is the socio-political and geographic factors which affect every person on the planet day-to-day, some of which we don’t even think about. The people who work in the factories making the technology don’t even get paid enough to be able to buy the 60″ widescreen TV that they’ve just spent the last 2 hours soldering together. Fair enough, I can watch Star Wars in glorious High-definition, but the person who packed the box or made sure the AAA batteries were included, can barely scrape enough together to eat. That is not Utopic.
I don’t think Utopia is ever really achievable, purely because it would have to be realised through human means - by that I mean Man would have to create it. By the same token, someone would always want to control it and exploit it, (screening emails “for our own good”, monitoring I.P addresses etc.) in the end the house of cards will always come crashing down. Nothing that Mankind can create is infallible.
The solution? Create a race of super robots who have no emotion, think logically and perform even the most menial task without a second thought. But we’ve all seen i-Robot, and we all know how bad that was.
How did you like the show? Favourite bits?
I think we really did ourselves proud with the shows, we worked like fury to get them together on time and with comparatively little time, all things considered. We would not have been able to put the shows on without the help of the technicians/decorators: Richard, Will and Lee, all of whom did an absolutely sterling job - even working through the night at one point. I would hate for those guys to be overlooked.
The work is of a really high standard in my view, every piece, every room, is a credit to the artists involved. I do really like Janet’s film piece, it is incredibly engaging with it’s seemingly endless (although it does finish) twists and turns and I was quite taken with her use of an actual cine projector - I’m not sure, but that seemed to be a deliberate move away from the ’digital’, which in realtion to my own work, found really interesting.
Anything else you have saw or are looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to seeing Jane Prophet’s work at the Mailbox, which I believe is opening on the 23rd? (Outside festival time but that’s what the lady at the Mailbox told me!?) If you go there now - level three, one of the empty units, you can peer through the window and see the pseudo - gallery set up but the lights are off and nobodys home. She’s also (hopefully) installing a 20 foot Cow Parsley sculpture which is going to ‘grow’ - looking forward to that!
Chris can be found here and is asking for input on a project to put art on the moon here.
I’ve already mentioned the plenary speech by Richard Charkin, in Thursday’s blog. This packed afternoon also saw readings from some of the students on the 
In his talk, he spoke of the art of writing, as he’s studied it and as he himself has employed, comparing the styles and techniques of different writers. For example, he spoke of John Irving’s method as starting with the book’s final sentence and working back from there, never touching that final line until reviewing the whole book at the end. He approaches his writing as he did his wrestling in his previous, more physical calling - that is, grappling with every line until it yields its intended meaning. David himself writes, as he regards it, fairly conventionally - that is, proceeding linearly a chapter at a time, reviewing and pruning all the way along.