Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Sheffield Hallam University
Monsters of the Id
Monsters of the Id is the result of research undertaken in Afghanistan and at SEOS, the aviation simulation research and development centre in Burgess Hill. The access to Burgess Hill ran concurrently with two commissioned research visits to Afghanistan and provided an unusual insight into the relationship of the virtual simulations (being developed for EuroFighter training) and the real landscapes and communities that they were attempting to reference. Monsters of the Id disseminates an investigation into the power relationships, which are held from disparate vantage points. The exhibition comprised four generative immersive installations, which sought to explore the shift of perspective and engagement achieved through manipulation of the relationship between audience and content. Through hemispheric, panoramic and map-based projection the audience was invited to consider their role as participants or observers of a virtual community generated and displayed in real-time as a response to their detected presence in the gallery.
A publication (ISBN: 978 0854 329328) was produced to accompany the exhibition and a one-day symposium, Art, Image, Politics held at Southampton University (2012). The exhibition was widely reviewed including features by the Huffington Post, Furtherfield and The Guardian as well as numerous blog and other on-line commentaries.
This programme of research was funded through the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Research 2010, an Arts Council England Interact International Fellowship Award, and an ACE Managed Funds grant.
As a result of this exhibition, Cotterrell gained an Heritage Lottery Funded award to collaborate with Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, and the resulting public installation, In Other Worlds, I Love You was unveiled in the 2012 Tatton Park Biennial. The project has lead to an AHRC Network Grant to facilitate the articulation of shared interdisciplinary agendas with Professor Roger Kneebone (Imperial College, London, Department of Surgery and Cancer).