Miriam El Abbassi | Arts Editor
Featured Image: A technical reconstruction of the Ice-Cube Neutrino Observatory. | Courtesy of Miriam El Abbassi/Excalibur
The Disruptive Design and Digital Fabrication exhibition spotlights interesting themes concerning society’s relationships and interactions with technology as it stands to be an integral part of everyday life.
The exhibit itself is comprised of smaller technological demonstrations scattered throughout the space, as an extension of the individual artists’ thoughts and ideas. This exhibit features work by Garnet Hertz, Mark-David Hosale, Evan Light, Lorena Salome, Robert Towmey and more.
One of the first exhibits, titled ICECUBE LED Display [ILDm^3], is a reconstruction of the Ice-Cube Neutrino Observatory.
According to the exhibition abstract: “ILDm^3 sits low to the ground on a base of wood that supports 86 acrylic rods, each with 60 vertically arranged full-colour LED’s (5,160 total).”
The LED’s represent a set of sensors that are located in the South Pole, which use sound mapping to spatially pinpoint different movements that may occur. The observers are then able to view these movements as a rainbow of moving bright lights.
Another exhibit in the space is the Snowden Archive-in-a-Box, which is based off of the Snowden Digital Surveillance Archive assembled in 2014. On the surface, this exhibit looks like a plain briefcase of sorts, but it is actually a representation of leaked surveillance documents that observers are able to access from their phones.
“The Snowden Archive-in-a-Box is a RaspberryPi-based WiFi network and web server that allows people to use the Snowden Digital Surveillance Archive offline. When the RaspberryPi is plugged in, users in the vicinity see a SnowdenArchive WiFi hotspot. Connect to it, browse to any website, and you will access the archive.” The briefcase also features a flatscreen panel, which plays back the “digital conversations” of the users.
Other areas of the exhibit showcase and implement different aspects of technology in ways to make the audience question how they may use technology in their own lives.
This exhibit is located in the Gales Gallery, within the Accolade West building, from February 3 to 13, 2020.
