Amplified Intimacies / Coefficients d'intimité

Amplified Intimacies
an exhibition by Interstices

[img]http://www.oboro.net/archive/exhib0809/interstices/images/big\_interstices.jpg[/img]

September 13 - October 18, 2008

OBORO
http://www.oboro.net
4001, rue Berri, local 301
Montréal (Québec) Canada

Curators
Lynn Hughes and Jean Dubois

Artists
Matthew Biederman, Jean Dubois and Chloé Lefebvre, Karmen Franinovic, Ying Gao, Adad Hannah and Niklas Roy, Lynn Hughes and Heather Kelley with Geoffrey Jones, James Partaik, François Quévillon.

The communication networks that have developed over the last decade or so introduce a particular type of public space where social relations are amplified through the instant globalization of exchanges. Strangely, these exchanges are often filtered through anonymity. The broad use of pseudonyms, avatars or even fake identities suggests that electronic promiscuity across the networks needs to be counterbalanced by some form of privacy protection. Networked communication is, often, perceived as an opportunity for free expression with anybody and without any real physical exposure. Does this just imply some new form of psychological bubble, or are we looking at a whole new scale of human relationship?

E.T. Hall developped the notion of proxemy to describe the physical distance we maintain during interpersonal interaction. This is the space required by any living being in order to maintain a balanced relationship with its environment and with other living beings. Hall’s ideas can also be applied to notions of private and public space that, for example, architects routinely work with. And there is no doubt that the culture developing around the use of contemporary communication devices and simulation technologies has created a new proxemic. Do these technologies stretch or shrink the spaces between us?

In order to explore the poetic and sensual potential of the emerging proxemics between bodies, places and machine, the exhibition Amplified Intimacies looks closely at the interpersonal spaces that are increasingly sculpted by digital technologies. The exhibition brings together a range of different kinds of work, from site specific installations to interactive pieces with physical interfaces—taken from such varied fields as media arts, experimental architecture, fashion design, and interactive game design.

[size=10]Interstices is an interuniversity research-creation group that was founded in 2001 by Lynn Hughes (Concordia University) and Jean Dubois (Université du Québec à Montréal). The group focuses on the aesthetic and poetic potential of tangible interfaces and interactive environments. It provides a environment for the conception, production, critical analysis, and dissemination of experimental projects by professors and graduate students.

Works explicitly produced for Interstices have been presented throughout Quebec (Elektra, Daïmon, Optica, Dare-Dare, Groupe Molior) and internationally (ISEA-Japan, File-São Paulo, Millenium Museum-Beijing, Wood Street Galleries-Pittsburgh…) and individual members of the group exhibit widely. The next round of projects by Interstices will explore the artistic convergence of media, architectural and urban spaces.[/size]

Links
http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/interstc
http://www.mbiederman.com
http://www.zero-th.org/ProjectsKarmen.html
http://cavaaller.blogspot.com
http://internationaldanceparty.com
http://www3.sympatico.ca/jamespartaik
http://francois-quevillon.com