Second Salon features work by 11 artists who are part of an informal art collective The Salon based at Bournemouth & Poole but including artists working & living in other parts of the South of England, many of them exploring traditional & new media.

This is the second show by the members of the group at the gallery (first show took place in 2008 when the space was still called The Study Gallery). Second Salon brings together finished works of art as well as works in progress. Some of the artists will be working in the space during exhibition and developing their work further. The range of open to the public events will include physical computing workshops, performances, talks, as well as critical session using a great debate tool - Open Space Technology. Many artworks that are going to be shown rely on or encourage audiences’ involvement.

30th September – 24th October
Private View: 30th September, 5pm - 8pm
FREE ENTRY

MAPPING / TRACKING / INTERACTING:

Stephen Bell will be showing his work in progress Mapping Behaviour: “The work that I make reflects a fascination with the complex dynamic patterns of the social behaviour of humans, other animals and plants. By developing computer programs it has been possible for me to explore the aesthetics of the shapes we might see if the kind of choices made and paths followed every time we make a decision were represented graphically. In this way I seek to celebrate the complexity and simplicity, the messiness, ugliness and beauty of the way that we try to make sense of our existence. Mapping Behaviour refers to both the behaviour of making maps and the process of making maps of behaviour.” Visitors will be able to interact with Bell’s programs to explore his abstract representations of some of the behavioural phenomena that make up our world. The progress of the work will be documented on line at www.mappingbehaviour.com.

Jeannie Driver + Mike Blackman will make the WHIM device available to members of the audience to wear as they walk around the exhibition. The purpose of this device is twofold, firstly to map how people move around a space, and secondly to collect data about the boundaries they may encounter. The data may then be represented in relation to the space. The device will help to map audiences' experiences of exhibitions. An interactive element will be added to WHIM, for the audience to identify if they have a positive, ambivalent or negative reaction to the work. The data will be blue toothed to a base station where it will be interpreted and represented, both as an individuals experience and as a cumulative effect. WHIM is part of Distributed South, an Arts Council England funded initiative managed by SCAN and Space Media aimed at raising awareness of Digital Arts in the South of England

Joe Flintham will show work from "Hauntology" – a physical computing project which explores interactive media in novel ways, ‘haunting’ old objects of the analogue world with digital sounds and images.  Joe combines everyday things – furniture, knick-knacks, antiques – with sensors and microchips, and creates alternative ways to interface with computers.  “Haunted story” is a ghost story.  A picture frame, containing an old photograph of a young military man, lies on a small chest of draws.  The objects are ‘brought to life’ when you touch and interact with them, triggering and generating an interactive audio narrative.

Mark Shufflebottom will present Tracier - a motion tracking ambient artwork. Responding to movement through a camera, Tracier takes the image, samples colour and erodes a tracing of the image. This eroded visual is then added to the display. Tracier makes decisions to pause capture when satisfied that there is sufficient interest on the screen. The image gradually fades before new traces are taken. Tracier is intended to provide interesting live visuals to any public place.

Olu Taiwo will show ‘Avatars of Being…’ - an installation consisting of 4 exhibits. Each exhibit links together through a simple colour code. I have 3 main conceptions of an Avatar that will feature in this piece; 1- A divine principle made flesh revealed through divine behaviour; embodied. 2- An on-line/in game artistic representation and identity of a user, facilitating real time agency; mask. 3- The embodiment of a fictitious character’s persona; play. The installation, Avatars of Being... attempts to explore the interaction between these 3 concepts from a post-choreographic perspective using the moebius strip as a metaphor to illustrate the single plain that exists between the virtual; in-here and the embodied; out-there.

INTERFACE / LIVE VISUALS / MOVING IMAGE

Poor Photographer investigates Bournemouth Gothic.

Peter Hardie’s work is based on the visual study of natural phenomena and landscape, exploring the sensations generated by the light, movement and forms of the natural world. The latest works consist of a series of computer animated sequences and prints, based on the visual study of willow trees in the wind. The intention is making images, still and moving, which creates specific optical, sensation based experiences.

Sarah Thompson will exhibit "The Changing World of Aurora Lovelock", work made in 1995, and a sequence of paintings made recently in 2009.  She is interested in the concept of ‘interface environments’, where the interface is fully a part of the work. The environment aspect refers to the spatiality which is a part of working with computers, both in the sense of a database, which can be spatially reconfigured, and in the use of virtual space in terms of the images generated using a graphics system. “I was interested in how the same 3-D model looked from different angles, and how this could express different emotions, or responses in the viewer. Interacting with the piece is simple, as the user simply selects from the database where in the sequence they wish to look”. The paintings address memory and language, and are essentially ‘mixes’ inspired by different artists.

Looking Glass is conceived by Lizzie Sykes, film artist and Cathy Seago, choreographer, who share a curiosity regarding the interaction between performance and the moving image.   In this live work they are interrupting the relationship between looking and ‘doing’ and thinking about sight and seeing, perception and participation.  Central to this project is the ability to view a connected world, yet be separated from it by the glass layers of a viewfinder, lens, window or the conceptual fourth wall.

In Residence:

Stephen Bell
30th Sept – 2nd October

Jeannie Driver & Mike Blackman
6th October TBC, 22nd October

Joe Flintham
6th – 9th October

Peter Hardie
12th – 15th October

Mark Shufflebottom
14th – 16th October

Lizzie Sykes + Cathy Seago
21st – 26th Sepetmber

Olu Taiwo
19th – 23rd October