Dark Places.

Abstract

Dark Places uncovered sites of secrecy and technology across Britain. Commissioned by The Arts Catalyst, John Hansard Gallery and SCAN, funded by The Arts Council England. the exhibition presented newly commissioned artists’ works that explored spaces and institutions below the radar of common knowledge. As curator I conceived and proposed this exhibition to Arts Catalyst in relation to critical questions of where and how we can articulate the spatial and topological landscape of research in the UK. In particular, our aim was to draw together practitioners from a range of International critical practices whose research was intimately articulated within their artwork and to ask them to respond to the UK context. Artist including Beard and Halford (UK), Da Costa (USA) and Rowell (USA) explored different charged sites as locations or as nodes in contemporary networked experiments or research. Many of these were located through a central database built by the author's own research organisation, Office of Experiments. This database and activities relating to it; including spatio-temporal excursions, or bus tours, further engaged public within the spaces of research itself. Tours include; Spaces of Secrecy and Technology, a tour of 50 people that included a mediated tour of a range of sites including, Porton Down, ISEEE (Dept of Homeland Security UK), Boscombe Down, Chilbolton Observatory. See G Davies, Where do Experiments End?. Geoforum for further information. Reviewed in afterimage - Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism. vol 35 no 2