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Laura Davidson
lauraeldavidson@gmail.com
Works in London United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

BIO
I currently edit a blog: We Are Keeping An Eye On... which can be read from the link on my profile.

I am an artist/writer/researcher based in London. I am also a member of TBC Artists' Collective.

Here is my blurb:

We Are Keeping An Eye On… is an online space dedicated to considering not only contemporary visual culture but, also emergent themes within online and digital life. My responses range from written reviews, critical & creative writing, visual essays, short PDF publications and ‘curated’ posts.

The impact of the web and computer / digital culture is highly evidenced in Documenta13. The importance Documenta has placed on these academic theories and their subsequent relationships with the art world gives me confidence in managing an editorial discussing these themes.

However, some of what is posted on here may not link entirely with this manifesto so, these particular posts should serve as useful reference points for readers who wish to consider interesting exhibitions, films, books or cultural phenomenon.

The Cross References project is a series of simple ‘curated’ blog posts, pulling together the work of two or more artists, writers, thinkers, poets etc who I believe share a commonality. The aim of this is to provide further thought for readers whilst not placing too much of an obvious theoretical context upon the work itself. The relationships should be tangible without much of a narrative voice, hence my decision to call them ‘curated’. An online space such as a blog, is a creative and flexible platform to bring these relationships to a wider audience, without having to rent spaces or ship art works. I am very open to collaborating and expanding this practice, so please contact me if you are interested.

I have also worked on:

In 2011 a commission for Slice, a cross-continental project between artists in London, UK and Lahore, Pakistan and a contribution to TBC’s long term research project A Message To… in which myself and other members of the collective created and installed new works in Houston, Texas.

Last year I produced writing for Visible Tracks, an Arts Admin project documenting the exhibition Wake Archipelago at Dilston Grove, London. My writing on performance was also published in COPY // unfold. Additionally I edited and designed the Altered States issue of 12-Pages Online Project Space. This year (2012) I am working on editing the Terror issue of 12-Pages as well as pursuing independent research practice.


Scenes from the London 3D Printshow


Matthew Plummer-Fernandez, Digital Natives (2012)

“The internet changed the world in the 1990s, the world is about to change again,” read much of the promotional literature for the recent 3D Printshow in London. The commercial exhibitors might have benefited from a far more modest tag line, but the art work exhibited, separate from the main trade section of the show, gave much new to think about regarding the the relationship between technology and craft.

 Frederik de Wilde, M1ne IIII (2012)

I was immediately intrigued by the two sculptural objects on display by Frederik de Wilde. The cobalt chrome models had been printed from data gathered from Belgian coal mines. They presented themselves as futuristic objects with a link to Europe's industrial heritage. The representations of the coal mines came to the 3D Printshow as seemingly abstract objects but, were actually formed by a much more political process. It had been a laborious process for de Wilde to get access to the data. He remarked that being granted permission to use a data source as an artist is almost an art form in itself. The Belgian government are protective over the information as the mines contain elements of interest to multinationals and other nations. De Wilde was not permitted in the work to reveal the location of the mines and had to abstract the forms so that interested parties could not gain commercial advantage. The custodians of the data had a large say in what the outcome of the piece would be. This is an intriguing collaborative process if it can be considered as such. The models of the coal mines had been stacked inside each other to create fragile vessels, that also further abstracted the context of the data. The production values of both objects were also noteworthy. I ...

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Dresses Made from Tweets and Tropical Fish Musical Scales at London Data&Art Hackathon


image via Paul Clarke 

Recently, Digital Sizzle staged a data and art hackathon at Mozilla HQ in London.There were no rules – the only expectation was to share ideas and skills. The hackathon began with a handful of participants pitching ideas. The weekend’s aim was to make art but, its context also showcased developers as creative practitioners who are just as engaged in the process of making as artists are. In the end, two themes of opposing approaches defined the weekend: generating data vs. using data sets and material outcomes vs. screen based outcomes. Tonight a selection of the projects will be shown at Whitechapel Gallery...