SCIENCE FICTION: NEW DEATH
People are beginning to look like futuristic cyborgs with Google Glass as well as the astonishing developments in bionic limbs that are able to feel touch. Our lives are becoming more virtual with the release of gadgets such as Oculus Rift virtual reality head gear and the average Brit spending 1 of every 12 minutes each day online. The idea behind Wally Pfister’s new film Transcendence and a scientist becoming all powerful as he uploads his brain and consciousness to the computer appears even more haunting as developments are being made by Germany, Japan and America into mapping the human brain.
Appropriate and increasingly relevant then is the new exhibition at Liverpool’s FACT titled ‘Science Fiction: New Death’. Running from March 27th-June 22nd, the exhibition plans to investigate how technology has blurred the lines between the real world and the virtual one. It features the film work of leaders in the field of art-technology such as Ryan Trecartin, James Bridle and Sascha Pohflepp, many of who are currently residents at renowned centres for technology and the arts including New York’s Eyebeam and London’s The White Building. The exhibition will be fittingly presented as a deconstructed film set and accompanied by a series of short texts, one titled ‘New Death’ by China Miéville, an award-winning sci-fi fiction author of titles such as ‘City and the City’. Adjoining these artworks will be a collection of film clips including homemade submissions which were entered to FACT’s open call. Catch the sci-fi world today at FACT, a leading UK new media arts centre, before it becomes a scary reality tomorrow…