Techne - Hyper, virtual and imagined worlds

Friday 4th January 2019

The modern term for ‘technology’ comes from the Greek word ‘techne’ meaning art, or craft.

Techne seeks to push the realms of human perception through an exploration of the intersections of technology, art and imagination. Utilising audience immersion Techne will question our interpretation of reality and seek to create new worlds or at the least query interpretations of existing worlds. 

Using an entry point of play the audience is invited to engage in simulations that will simultaneously encourage reflection and reconstruction. The use of technology as content and medium allows the visualisation and embodiment of virtual and imagined realms, referencing entertainment, art, wrestling, video games and fictional literature. 

The artworks use technology as a mode of communication to tell an immersive narrative that is open ended, as the audience constructs their own interpretation to question the boundaries of ‘real’ space and ‘virtual’ space. 

SHOWCASE DOCUMENTATION

Click through to view event and artwork documentation

Photos by Joseph Lynch, Perception Productions

MEET THE ARTISTS!

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: NEVIN HOWELL

Nevin Howell is a performance-maker, video designer and emerging programmer with particular interests in theatre and installation. With skills in clowning, physical theatre, facilitation, filming and editing, Nevin has developed a multidisciplinary art practice that involves interactive uses of technology and the application of other practices not commonly referred to as art, in artistic contexts.

Nevin is currently working to develop an interactive interface that captures the mystique of pro-wrestling and mixed martial arts. This work deals with themes of violence and investigates identity within the mixed martial arts and professional wrestling communities.

With a view to furthering his artistic practice, Nevin is studying a Master of Interactive Media and is involved in collaborative projects. He currently works for Markwell Presents, Zen Zen Zo, and pursues work independently.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: JULIE PURCELL

Julie Purcell is an artist from Redcliffe on the northside of Brisbane whose practice combines painting, printing and sewing to express suburban spirit and articulate thought about representation norms in game space. Through her examination of the thematic and aesthetic overlaps between art historical visual tropes and those found in video game spaces, Julie seeks to bridge disparate worlds of fantasy and reality using trompe-l’oeil still life painting effects, "plein air" style documentation of real and virtual game space and literal embodiment of concept through fashion design and prop making.  

Julie presents art-making as an alternative self-governed play space that builds cognitive function and expands imaginative capabilities using the mind rather than a console. As both a painter and a gamer, Julie engages with politics of representation and visual tropes within game space to offer specific examples of the way imagination, identity and worldview become delimited subconsciously as we play.

Bringing painting and video games into dialogue stimulates thought about the sociopolitical dimensions of video game design and the role such virtual spaces play in identity formation. 

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: GEORGIA PIERCE

Georgia Pierce is a Brisbane-based dance artist whose work as both a dancer and a choreographer is driven by questioning dance, its conventions and its place in Australian society. Georgia has worked in many different forms of dance including traditional performance, site specific, interactive, film, dance/physical theatre and transdisciplinary installation. Her work is characterised by humour, expressed in awkward and peculiar forms, which stems from her interest in placing contemporary dance in unusual circumstances and contexts to find new ways of moving and new perspectives.

In her current work, Georgia is concerned with the divergence of the recognisable and the unfamiliar. How can recognisable images be used in dance and taken on a journey, via abstraction, to arrive somewhere that is bizarre, grotesque or hilarious? How can this duality co-exist in the dancing body? How can familiarity be shifted and abstracted into discomfort, confusion or amusement? And what is the process for the opposite – from bizarre to mundane? 

Georgia has recently co-founded the three-part contemporary dance collective Flamingo Mignon and continues to develop her emergent practice through collaborations both within and outside of dance.

PARTNER ARTIST: AMY CONLON

Amy Conlon is a multimedia/mixed media artist and photographer who utilises technology (both modern and antiquated) to create a conversation about our future and what problems our evolution could encounter.

Using a range of audio-visual and drawing techniques, Amy creates works that draw attention to concerns about our future that may otherwise go unnoticed. In her work, she aims to incite emotions and visceral responses in audiences, and to stimulate conversations that will leave a lasting effect. Amy’s key concerns include the humanisation of technology and its impacts on personal privacy.

Amy’s qualifications include a Diploma of Interactive Digital Media and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (QCA), for which she was awarded House Conspiracy Partner Artist at her recent graduation.

PARTNER ARTIST: MARTA LARZABAL

Marta Larzabal is a visual artist and Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from Queensland College of Art, whose practice includes illustration, painting, printmaking, collage, bookbinding and photography. In her work, Marta explores themes of transformation and of the connection to self and community through storytelling. 

During her residency at House Conspiracy, Marta will make a large number of little 3D bound books and small drawings and paintings. Through these works, Marta will investigate dystopian futures presented in popular media and challenge the notions of fear that tend to be dominant within these narratives. By creating work in which death, disaster, mania and madness are transformed with humour and joy, Marta presents a metaphor for her own personal development as an artist, having overcome criticism to break through creative blocks.

PARTNER ARTIST: DREW FLAHERTY

Drew Flaherty is an emerging artist and designer working at the intersection of technology and culture. His work examines the implications and possibilities of AI and Machine Learning within the context of visual art and design. Outcomes often reflect a meta-critique of creativity, relying on generative models and other algorithmic processes to augment and explore the meaning and significance of visual representation. The purpose of this is to question assumptions within contemporary cultural narratives while envisioning future consequences.

Drew's current work is an ensemble of images and sound created using various deep learning (a subset of machine learning where artificial neural networks) techniques. Acting as a collaboration between human and machine, the work explores an uncanny discord and disconnection between generative algorithmic processes and the broader contextual and semantic understandings natural to human intelligence. The work seeks beauty in a cacophony of irrational meandering while exploring the interplay of actions or gestures with intention and expressions of self-hood.

PARTNER ARTIST: XANDER KEH (MULAN)

Xander Keh (aka Mulan) is a founding member and executive producer of the fast-rising Cantelopez Collective alongside fellow creatives Pastel Don, Chessie B(oi), & Estaban Blanco.

For Techne, Mulan will be curating the sonic ambience that transports your subconscious into the distorted walls of the House as it transforms into a collage of virtual-hyper realities.

CREDITS:

Click on Names for Profiles

Artist in Residence: Nevin Howell

Artist in Residence: Julie Purcell

Artist in Residence: Georgia Pierce

Partner Artist: Amy Conlon

Partner Artist: Marta Larzabal

Partner Artist: Drew Flaherty

Featured Artist: Xander Keh (aka Mulan)

Showcase Writer: Nathan Sibthorpe

Creative Director: Ellie-Lea Jansson

Documentation Photography: Joseph Lynch

Production team: Angela Timbs