STAY HOME SAKOKU EXHIBITION AT WEST SPACE
eugenia_lim_sakoku
Stay Home Sakoku: The Hikikomori Project is an introverted performance/installation exploring the Japanese phenomenon of hikikomori or ‘shut in’ syndrome. Over one week, Lim lived in a bedroom-style installation within West Space. Although physically ‘on view’ to gallery goers, communication between herself and the outside world occured via a web portal or ‘hiki-site’ through which people can chat with her via smartphones or home computers.
Background
Hikikomori confine themselves to their rooms for months and, in extreme cases, years on end. Without physical contact, hikikomori exist in isolation. Yet, many survive on a diet of pop culture and live a networked existence through an online community of forums, games and chatrooms. Increasingly, through our daily engagement with Web 2.0, we are all becoming networked beings. Stay Home is a project for anyone whose life intersects with technology and the Internet.
Project collaborators are Dan West, Yumi Umiumare and David Wolf. Stay Home Sakoku: The Hikikomori Project is part of the Today Your Love program. Eugenia Lim inhabited the room for one week, however the installation will be on display until 14 April. Eugenia and her collaborators are supported by the Australia Council and City of Melbourne.
http://www.stayhomesakoku.com/
Exhibition runs
Fri 30 Mar –Sat 14 April 2012
EUGENIA LIM (SAKOKU HAS LEFT THE BUILDING)
Live-in performance and online conversation
Thur 22 Mar – Thur 29 Mar 2012
Language of Life – Biomimicry in Architecture, Art, Design and Science
What is the song a hummingbird sings? What do graffiti artists and street cats have in common? What formations are shared between a microcosm and the universe? Can buildings be interactive?
Biomimicry seeks to solve human problems using ideas from our biological world. Deeply embedded in nature are formulas that aid in finding solutions in our everyday lives. The exhibition ‘Language of Life’ showcases a shared interest between architects, visual artists, fashion designers and scientists in a collection of works that not only transcribe nature into their own fields, but identify and interpret what is useful to them, opening a conversation between these different fields.
Lucian Gormley and Hugo Raggett challenge the notion of architecture as static with their adaptive constructions of interactive hexagonal cells. Guy Morgan interprets the night sky in his vast paintings and video works that play with the psychology of vision, drawing out the colour that is there, but invisible to us at low light. Nicola Coady, combining two forms of culture, explores microbe colonies as living decorative devices by coating lampshades in yoghurt and allowing nature to take its course.
In contemporary design, architecture and the visual arts, we are increasingly working with material phenomena, interactive behaviour and complex, interdependent, structural relationships that are deeply embedded in nature. These works interrogate the familiar fabric of our existences that deem us human. Between nature and nurture, between artifice and art, they challenge our notion of the human/nature binarism.
Language enables conversation, by initiating communication, and this is what the exhibition aspires to do, opening a platform for interdisciplinary communication. ‘Language of Life’ explores artistic, technological, computational and philosophical trajectories through observations of natural expressions and biomimetic processes. The exhibition collates installations, paintings, animations, experiments and devices developed in different disciplines of the University of Sydney: Sydney College of the Arts; The Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning; Medical Science, and the School of Engineering. Curated by Dr Dagmar Reinhardt, Lecturer of Digital Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, and Greg Shapley, Verge Gallery.
WHAT: Language of Life: Biomimicry in Architecture, Art, Design and Science (art exhibition)
WHO: Artists include: Caitlin Abbott, Eduardo Barata, Iain Blampied, Nicola Coady, Michiru Cohen, Armando Chant, Kate Dunn, Lisa Fathalla, Lucian Gormley, Tyrone Jandey, Flora Mavrommati, Guy Morgan, Luke O’Donnell, Hugo Raggett, Donna Sgro, Ian Stewart, Alexandra Smith, Will Swan, Sara Sweet and Elmar Trefz. Curated by Dagmar Reinhardt and Greg Shapley
WHEN: Opening March 29, 6pm. March 30-April 6 (Monday-Friday 10am-5pm)
WHERE: Verge Gallery, City Road, Jane Foss Russell Plaza, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
CONTACT: Greg Shapley on (02) 9562-6218 or email g.shapley@usu.usyd.edu.au
RSVP by March 23rd
good-return-brekkie-event
Our lives have been transformed by digital and we have never been more connected to one another. Technology is making it possible to reach across borders and connect in more meaningful ways than ever before. Good Return is just one organisation that employs technology to enable better futures for others.
Good Return is hosting an Expert Panel on the morning of 28 March 2012 to discuss how emerging technologies are changing opportunities for women – both in developed countries such as Australia, and in developing countries in the Asia Pacific. You’ll hear from digital innovators on how they view the transformative power of digital and how they have realised their ambitions through their businesses.
Panelists:
Rebekah Campbell: Founder and CEO of social commerce business Posse
Dominique Hind: Managing Director and founder of digital innovation business WiTH Collective
Nedahl Stelio: Journalist, editor, and founder of leading online fashion sales and style blog Cocolee.com.au
When: Wednesday, 28 March at 7:45 am for an 8:00 am start
Where: Clayton Utz, 1 Bligh Street Sydney, check in at ground floor concierge (
map)
What: Hour-long panel discussion with time for questions, breakfast included
RSVP: By
Friday 23 March via our form, or call our office at 02 9114 8111 and ask for Joni
