Imagine a race – one team running as fast as they can to capture and organise data; the other running at the same speed to find the data and set it free. This is the race that Simon Denny explores in the brick-vaulted rooms of the Magazine, the former gunpowder store built in 1805 in the heart of Hyde Park in London and now converted to the Serpentine Sackler Gallery. In the early 19th century, power was achieved and maintained by military action; in the 21st century power is achieved and maintained by the collection and manipulation of data, thus Denny’s installation and the building have interesting links, albeit two centuries apart.
Simon Denny (b 1982) is one of the leading artists of the technological age who investigates aesthetic, social, political and technical aspects of the increasing use of technology in our modern world. He represented his home country New Zealand at the Venice Biennale 2015 with his “Secret Power” installation at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana and the arrivals lounge of the Marco Polo Airport and has now taken over the former gunpowder store in London for his installation “Products for Organising”.
Entering the gallery, down one side is a scaffolding structure which the visitor can clamber over, leading to a series of data racks reflecting different themes. “Products for Emergent Organisations” explores activities of computer-hacker communities including the Tech Model Railroad Club founded at MIT an astonishing 60 years ago in 1946 and often considered the birthplace of the hacking culture – then for phones and later for data.
The other side has an architectural and cultural theme, “Products for Formalised Organisations”. Why do technological organisations focus on circular buildings, whether the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the UK, Zappos in Los Vegas or Apple’s new HQ in Cupertino in California? Is this to suggest a particular organisational and societal culture in those organisations, where perhaps all the humans are equal but the data is king?
An installation which reflects on many historical and current technological issues as our world continues to move headlong into new technologies and increased data collection and storage and which complements the “Big Data” exhibition at Somerset House. No-one can hide behind data any more.
[…] Inside, walls are painted with his unique range of colours and are covered with graphics and paintings that strip down the modern world to a few lines and blocks of colour which, in doing so, create their own aesthetic. Everyday items like a computer mouse, a light switch, a mobile phone and a set of scales become large-scale works of art. There is a underlying theme of digital technologies which relates to Simon Denny’s installation in the Serpentine Sackler Gallery. […]