New Media Scotland

Left To My Own Devices

4 August – 4 September 2011

8gg

FOUND

Ellie Harrison

Toshio Iwai

Kaseo

Sachiko Kodama

Ryota Kuwakubo

David McAllister

Left To My Own Devices focuses on the emergence of device art as seen through an exchange of ideas between creators and technologists in China, Japan and Scotland. The key here is that technology should not be feared. The works presented may have entertainment value, but they can still be read positively with the same value systems applied to traditional Western art practice. In the Far East these boundaries between forms of practice and appreciation do not exist, it’s a superflat world after all. The device is not separate from the artistic experience.

The presentation of media art and some forms of visual art is often reliant on the use of audio, visual or some form of electronics to display the content. With device art, this hardware is the content. The technology is celebrated and interfaces permit interaction, joy and response. Above all this serves to widen the prospective audience.

Device art is playful, accessible and can operate beyond the confines of the gallery. It also had the ability to be mass produced and commercially viable. This allows for an artist’s concept to form part of everyday lives. The genre was launched in the autumn of 2004 by a group of Japanese artists and researchers who were the first to create, curate and contextualise device art practice. Its reach has now extended far beyond Japan. 

This New Media Scotland exhibition has been supported by The University of Edinburgh to celebrate the intersection between material culture in China, Japan and Scotland.

Wed–Sun, 12–8pm