d o n ' t c o m p l e t e t h e c i r c l e

In relation to Yuri Pattison’s exhibition at Chisenhale there was a talk by Chris Brauer who is the Director of Innovation at Goldsmiths University. He gave was responding to the new exhibition and discussing the impact of technology on the future of the workplace. One of the topics at hand was the notorious bitcoin and he mentioned something obvious but also very important that was bitcoin is a critique of currency as much as it is an alternative to it. He also spoke about the ‘What-if Machine’ which generates questions beginning with the phrase ‘what if’ about a given subject or theme. This definitely appears to have serious potential when considering possible works we could make; What if the world suddenly lost all its art? Then beauty could not underpin arts, but tyrants would still suppress the critics that criticise arts. Another point he made was about Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby. He doesn't give very much away about himself. He is an observer of others – little insights about his life – his main interest is telling you a story where he plays a small part but he's there all the time observing everything.

And you think he's giving you the true picture. He contextualised this with the notion of smart houses and how they alter our behaviour using in built systems such as recycling and being energy efficient. The comparison here is that both Carraway and a smart house are administrators of the story/life that’s being told/lead and are both steering the individual towards a different cognitive process or behaviour. He finished his presentation by talking about Kurt Gödel and his incompleteness theorem; anything you draw a circle around cannot explain itself without referring to something outside the circle, something you have to assume but cannot prove. The exhibition definitely has the element of incompleteness and this incompleteness isn’t about idleness or lack of time, it’s about allowing a viewer to attempt to attribute his or her own subjective perception.

Plans for the phone piece are coming along – just doing some experiments with the technical aspects and should be recording the sound any day now. Updates to come…