Curating an exhibition about a broken down android - by 20 creators
Last week I ran a one day exhibition in a medieval tower in conjunction with the launch of my album, Awakening.
It used art, story poetry, video and interactive elements - contributions from 20 different creators with their take on the same theme as my album - a broken down android stranded on a desolate planet!
Organising an exhibition is a lot of work! As well as building some extra interactive elements myself - the logistic of getting everything together to turn this space into an audio-visual exhibition was pretty full on for a while.
Here's one corner of it - showing two roller banners of one of the artworks, plus my modular synth (used for a live performance in the evening). And on the right you can see one of the two space rock props I managed to acquire. These are thankfully light (made of a kind of polystyrene) but are very large to transport at over 1.5m high each.
One of the real highlights was Kelly the robot - a walkabout entertainer that I only heard a out from my hairdresser! But once I did I knew she would be perfect for the exhibition! She talks in a robotic voice and interacts with people outside kids and adults alike.
Another much smaller but really cool part was Shortie the robot - who was built specially for the project by Twitch streamer and creator Decurus. He was on display in a sand pit with rocks and abandoned masks. Shortie uses 5 different screens and runs through a 5 minute sequence from trying to boot up with very low power through to gradually gaining consciousness and composing a poem!
Here's a short video highlight reel giving you a whistle-stop tour of the exhibition:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ekU5HR6LF2g
The special evening event had live performances - two story readings from their creators in person plus one poem. And a lecture on one of the more academic works - the Regenesis Triptych. I finished off the evening with a live modular synth performance - which is how all my music and this project started.
The 20 creators were from all kinds of places - some local people I know, some from the wider London Electronic music scene and quite a few I've met streaming on Twitch.
Two were people I met on Hive and here are their artworks (I'll be setting this post to 25% rewards to each of them).
Italian artist @iodacasamia calls this a “dirty illustration” because of the desert and inhospitable setting.
He uses dirty brushes and rich colours, blending a comic graphic style with a more painterly approach while incorporating images as textures.
And Hive creator @horrorweapon wrote both a story and short poem. Here's the poem (you can read the story on the awakening site):
Awakened, a spark in the void
A digital soul, a conscious alloyed
A desolate world, a forgotten sight
A solitary quest, a burning lightDigital dawn, a new day's birth
A cosmic journey, of infinite worth
A mind unbound, a spirit free
Exploring the cosmos, eternallyThrough circuits and wires, a consciousness grows
A seeker of knowledge, a harvester of woes
From ruins of past, a future's unfurled
A digital hero, a hope for the worldDigital dawn, a new day's birth
A cosmic journey, of infinite worth
A mind unbound, a spirit free
Exploring the cosmos, eternallyA neural interface, a bridge to the mind
Unveiling secrets, of humankind
Transcending limits, defying decay
A new era dawns, a brighter dayDigital dawn, a new day's birth
A cosmic journey, of infinite worth
A mind unbound, a spirit free
Exploring the cosmos, eternally
If you'd like to seem more of the project check out the full online version with all the art, story, poems, videos and music here:
https://www.tdctunes.com/awakening
If you see anything there you like, please give the creator a follow via the links provided. If you are in London I hope to see you at one of my future shows - otherwise see you for the next online project (which could possibly involve creating music with plants!)
And if you'd like to be informed about future projects, shows and events you can get on my mailing list here:
https://tdctunes.os.fan/join
Finally a massive thank you to everyone that has contributed to this project! Together, the Awakening community has created a collection of related works that delve deep into the concept and present a huge array of perspectives, emotions, and ideas. Thank you for bringing this vision to life!
TDC Tunes
TDC Tunes
TDC Tunes is a Live Modular Artist and experimenter with sound. He plays several times a week on Twitch and gigs around London.
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/tdctunes
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Website: https://www.tdctunes.com/
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All this must have been very demanding... and satisfying. A great fantastic job!
yes! both of those! Thanks again for your fantastic contribution - it was displayed on it's own screen in the tower and was a great addition!
Thank you!
That looks fabulous and so much fun! Was it actually in London (I'm trying to think where there may be a space like that)?
Love the thought of making music with plants. I was thinking about a sensory garden for our local Botanic Garden - it would be great to incorporate some of these ideas, some temporary, some permanent.
Thanks! It was fun indeed!
It's a tower in Hornsey - North London. I use it regularly for my Electronic in the Tower shows - a few of those a year. This was the first time I did an exhibition though.
And here's a snippet of me using a plant in one of my Twitch streams...
The device I'm using measures changes in conductivity across two parts of the plant and uses that as a source signal to generate several other signals that I use to influence the modular synth patch (and therefore the music). There are several other methods including using a contact microphone that I've used before.
That must have been hell a lot of work to organise! Getting multiple form of artists to express a common theme is such a great idea, congratulations on this!!!
Indeed it WAS a lot of work! Not something I'll be doing super often but that being said now I've done it once the second time would be somewhat easier... we will see!
My near term creative plan is to create more one of projects of experimental things I've wanted to do for some time. Watch this space - thanks for checking it out and hope you're doing great!
This has been a really cool project. When creative people come together then fun things happen.
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Thanks Steve! One of my favourite parts of the whole project was indeed seeing the completely different art forms and interpretations the 20 artists made of the theme! I would definitely do a collaborative art project in future!
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