http://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/culturalinstitute/showcase/current/whatson/exhibitions/apocalypse.aspx
Friday 7 November – Friday 19 December 2014
Inigo Rooms, Somerset House East Wing, Strand Campus
Open Tue – Sun, 12.00 – 18.00
Free Admission
The November Computer Arts Society lecture, “De/coding the Apocalypse”, will be given by Michael Takeo Macgruder at the British Computer Arts Society London office at 5 Southampton St., London, WC2E, at 7pm on Tuesday 18th November.
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De/coding the Apocalypse is an exhibition investigating our enduring fascination with the Book of Revelation, updating and interrogating both its positive and negative aspects. The word ‘apocalypse’ originally indicated an ‘unveiling’, and the Book itself not only documents the destruction of the current world, but also maps out the creation of a new, better one. Using the latest in technology, from 3D printing to virtual reality, the show brings various elements to life in ways that are as playful as they are challenging.
The exhibition is an interdisciplinary collaboration supported by the Cultural Institute that blends arts practice and academic research and follows a one-year artist residency by Michael Takeo Magruder in the Department of Theology & Religious Studies at King’s College London in partnership with contemporary art centre, MOSTYN. By aligning contemporary art and theological study, the collaboration aims to create new ways of looking at an ancient text and make it relevant for modern audiences. The exhibition is an opportunity for the public to think differently about theology and to gain unique behind the scenes access to the work of leading King’s academics.
Five digital media installations will be constructed using a range of digital technologies (such as computers, mobile devices, code systems, live data and user interactivity) and physical materials associated with traditional installation, painting, print and sculpture. This blending of new and old promises to deliver an update and expansion of the concepts and contexts that have surrounded the Book of Revelation throughout its history.
Presented by the Cultural Institute at King’s College London in partnership with contemporary art centre MOSTYN and the Department of Theology & Religious Studies at King’s. 3D Printer and materials generously supplied by PrintME 3D.
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Michael Takeo Magruder (b.1974, US/UK) is an internationally recognised visual artist and researcher based in the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London who works with digital and new media including real-time data, immersive environments, mobile devices and virtual worlds. His practice explores concepts ranging from media criticism and aesthetic journalism to digital formalism and computational aesthetics, deploying Information Age technologies and systems to examine our networked, media-rich world.
Michael is currently a Leverhulme Trust artist-in-residence collaborating with Professor Ben Quash (Theology, KCL) and Alfredo Cramerotti (Director, Mostyn) to research and develop a new body of new media artwork – entitled Real-time Histories of Conquest, War, Famine & Death, based on The Book of Revelation. In addition, Michael has recently published a new monograph, entitled (re)mediations 2000-2010, (2012, Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, UK), that outlines the last decade of his work within the areas of news media, mobile devices and virtual worlds.