Output details

'Loop' - Digital Video exhibited in 'Dawnbreakers' curated by Juan Bolivar

‘Loop’ consists of two video screens placed one above the other and spaced apart, running separate digital animations on a loop. The physical gap is countered by an impulse to bridge the divide. Shared features create perceptual links; side-scrolling movement, a limited colour palette, and recycled pixelated scenery. Recurrent elements from Hughes-Watts' work with hardware restrictions when developing Computer Games at Sony. 'Loop' reflects a fascination with the proliferation of technologies (e.g.SatNav and smartphones) which demand fluid reading and processing of multiple layers of abstracted visual information.

The block animations are framed and influenced by the technical restrictions of early computer games, in their impact on mainstream culture in the late 70s and 80s, through blocky pixelated graphics and highly saturated 8-colour palettes. In the resulting abstracted worlds, simple graphic forms were assigned meaning, depending on context (a shape that in one game it is read as a tennis ball and assigned respective physics; in another a bullet that the player takes actions to avoid; or in another context an item to collect for extra points).

The digital animations strip the lexicon of 8-bit games to the point where abstracted objects become simple squares and the palette can be limited to 2 or 3 colours. The animations make reference to games but are not interactive; the tight loop accentuates repetition to the point where the flicker starts to take on the permanency of a static image.

The group exhibition was curated by Juan Bolivar. Artist include: Juan Bolivar, Mauro Bonacina, Tom Dale, Richard Ducker, Mathew Gooding, Stewart Gough, Andy Hsu, James Hopkins, Julian Hughes-Watts, Karl Marrow, Jost Munster, Pamela Richardson and Kevin Smith, John Richert, Angus Sanders-Dunnachie, Benet Spencer, John Stark, David Ben White, Leon Woolls, Neil Zakiewicz

Included catalogue (ISBN: 9780854329090).


Reviews in The Guardian newspaper: http://www.an.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/661133 http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/08/exhibitions-picks-of-the-week