Networking the Unseen

Furtherfield Gallery, Finsbury Park, London, U.K.

http://furtherfield.org/programmes/programmes/networking-unseen

June 17 - August 14, 2016

Curated by Gretta Louw

While digital networks manifest physically as tonnes of cabling, and electrical or electronic devices, the social and cultural impacts of the networks remain somehow invisible, eroding clearly felt boundaries of geography, place, culture and language.

Networking the Unseen exhibition and event series, curated by Gretta Louw and presented by Furtherfield, brought together concepts and experiences of remoteness and marginalised cultures, with art-making in contemporary society.

Five culturally and geographically disparate Australian artists – Gretta Louw, Jenny Fraser, Lily Hibberd, Brook Andrew, and Curtis Taylor – and artists, including Neil Jupurrurla Cook, Isaiah Jungarrayi Lewis, and Sharon Nampijinpa Anderson from the Warnayaka Art Centre in Central Australia, present work situated at the intersection between avant garde digital, media, and installation art, the sociological study of digital and networked culture, and activism.

Networking the Unseen Unseen proposed a radical rethinking of widely accepted stereotypes concerning the impact of networks on contemporary global cultures, digital art, the avant garde, and indigenous art-making.

It tackled subjects ranging from digital colonialism and cultural marginalisation — or, conversely, diversity/empowerment) — within an increasingly connected, online world to universal concerns around cultural change as a result of technological migration.

The exhibition extended our focus to the extremities of the global digital network. It subtly proposed ways to claim power back from centralising forces of control to use these tools for positive change; for intercultural exchange and empowerment for marginalised communities.