Title: Pylon update - new exhibitions by Jen Southern
Two new exhibitions by Jen Southern using GPS to explore local topography.
Both new installation works translate abstract location specific data gathered via gps into physical and tactile installed works, giving participants’ local knowledge priority over cartographers’ generalisations.
‘Surface Patterns: Audio Tours’ is a new installation work commissioned jointly by The Media Centre, Huddersfield and Blink.
Exhibition runs at the Media Centre, Huddersfield: 10 July - 24 Sept 2004, Mon - Fri, 10am - 5:30pm
The project has been produced during the past 6 months with the help of 10 people who have at some time lived in Huddersfield, recalling memories that range from the last Sex Pistols gig to architectural history (both public and domestic) and personal freedoms of walking in urban space.
Further information about the project can be found at:
The SMS project ‘Surface Patterns’ by Blink is also running concurrently. www.surfacepatterns.co.uk <http://www.surfacepatterns.co.uk/>
‘Distance Made Good: Folly’ is a new installation made in collaboration with Canadian Artist Jen Hamilton for Folly Gallery in Lancaster (www.folly.co.uk).
26 castle park, lancaster, la1 1yq t: 01524 388550 e: info@folly.co.uk Preview Thursday 16th September.
Jen Hamilton and Jen Southern work with GPS (global positioning system) as both a research and creative tool. A GPS device can identify where we are on the earth in terms of latitude, longitude and altitude, however a sense of place is much more than a set of co-ordinates and there is a particular physical character to a place that can only be experienced through bodily proximity. Whilst the official maps of a location specify where famous landmarks are, street names and where to find the centre of town, how we actually use the urban landscape is a different matter. GPS drawings of real journeys reveal hidden locations and unexpected vantage points, and produce a collective mapping of local places. Southern and Hamilton will use GPS to make drawings of walks taken with members of the public and use the drawings to create a new physical installation.
If you would like more information about either exhibition please contact Jen Southern: Jen@theportable.tv
Jen Southern’s process based practice investigates everyday journeys between virtual and physical spaces, using socially embedded technologies such as video games and mobile phones. Working collaboratively is integral to a practice that is rooted in social processes and a relationship to local environment. Her work has been exhibited internationally in public spaces, galleries and festivals including: The Gallery, Stratford-upon-Avon; Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Magna, Rotherham; The Photographers Gallery, London; Digital Summer, Manchester, UK; Kunstraum Innsbruck, Austria; Arte Alameda, Mexico City; NPC, Bulgaria; DEAF, Rotterdam, Netherlands.