Exhibition floor talk | Nexus Postgraduates 2023
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Output Type
Other
Publication Title
Exhibition floor talk | Nexus Postgraduates 2023
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
School
School of Arts and Humanities; ECU Galleries
Description
Exhibition Statement | Each year as the Director and Deputy Director of ECU Galleries we curate an exhibition of the School of Arts & Humanities’, Visual Arts Higher Degree by Research candidates (HDR) work in progress. Nexus Postgraduates| 2023 showcases the creative works of: Amanda ALLERDING, Brenton ROSSOW, Jane WHELAN, Jenni SKINNER, Patricia AMORIM, Steven BAITZ, Xinwei XU, Xue LI + AI artist Brad NISBET.
We curate the exhibition for various professional practice reasons. While many of our HDR have an established arts career, others have less experience. We see this exhibition as a mentoring exercise in real world contexts for exhibition practice. The mechanics behind working galleries are hidden behind a façade, an invisible cloak glosses over the work behind the scenes: marketing (invitations, catalogues, artist’s statements, media statements, social media) installation (artworks: photographing, deliver, unpacking, placement, hanging, technical, lighting, cleaning, documenting), opening night (food, wine, gallery attendants, speakers, cleanup), keeping the gallery doors open (invigilation by artists and volunteers), floor talks, and deinstallation (pack artworks, putty/sand/ paint walls, clean) not to mention the administration (gallery agreements, insurance, Occupational Safety & Health, risk forms, security access, etc.).
This year a HDR candidate from another area of Creative Humanities approached us with an idea for an exhibition. Little did Brad know what he was getting himself into. Brad is a multi-disciplined technologist working with AI, Virtual Production, Real-Time Engines, VR, 3D additive manufacturing, digital twinning, and motion capture. Brad’s practice revolves around facilitating, instructing, and educating artists on the potentials and possibilities that emerging technologies present to enhance their artistry. With a background in the Film and Television industry, Brad is always branching out to collaborate in cross disciplinary work.
The idea of pairing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated artwork with artists work was the seed (the explosion in popularity of GPT-4 was months away, synchronicity!). We immediately thought of the visual arts HDR cohort and have worked with Brad as cocurator and AI artist to develop the exhibition.
Pivotal to the annual exhibition is that we do not make extra work for the HDRs, that is, the artwork needs to be a part of the research they are conducting. The HDR cohort were provided with a table of prompts from which they had to choose (and directly linked to their research):
•Proper prompts consist of at least two parts, the Content (1–4 required) and the Modifier (1–2 required). Content describes the motifs you want to get from the AI model. Modifier drives visual features, character and ‘vibe’ of the image.
• A 3rd section called Medium/Style (0–1 required). These are modifiers that would not play nicely together.
They were also required to supply:
• Images of artwork in process.
• A paragraph using the prompt to explain their work.
Additional Information
Exhibition dates: 17 May–15 June 2023 | Floor talks: 31 May 12:30–1:30pm