Genetic Moo travels north again with a Microworld in South Shields.
Our second Microworld this year is at The Word, National Centre for the Written Word in South Shields, a coastal town near Newcastle.
As soon as we arrived at The Word we were impressed. It’s a fabulous building incorporating a Library, Cafe, FabLab, Learning Centre and 200 sqm Temporary Exhibition Space. This large, circular, open plan building contains layers of activity on three floors and was continuously filled with people of all ages; having a chat, or a game of chess, or doing a jigsaw, or crafting, or having a cup of tea, or using the library and other facilities. The one other cultural building in town is the Museum which is down the other end of the high street. It was great to see so many people making use of The Word.
The exhibition space is just inside the entrance on the right. On entering, visitors are greeted with a wall of Microworld signage in bright colours. Really welcoming. The gallery space itself is light and airy and the curve along one side gently pulls people around the 8 interactives which make up this Microworld. We’re showing 5 regulars and have added 3 new works for this show.
The Cockatoo Squid is making its first Microworld appearance. We showed an early version of this in an exhibition in 2012 in Leicester called Symbiosis with fellow artist Sean Clark. This show was an important step for us toward creating large-scale interactive shows. The Cockatoo responds to what it hears. We’ve added a visual aspect with what we call Squid TV, whereby it replaces its chromatophores with webcam pixels. So it sees you and you see yourself reflected in its body. We’ve also add three Sea Angels as backing singers.
The Compound Eye is a mini-interactive we designed in response to the main overhead lighting in The Word which the locals call ‘the chandelier’ and which reminded us of an insect eye. The third new piece is Racing Demons, another mini-interactive based on Cellular Automata techniques used in Computer Science and by generative artists for years.
The exhibition is open daily runs until 5 January 2025
MICROWORLD at The Word
The Word, National Centre for the Written Word, Market Place, South Shields NE33 1JF
Mon-Thur 9:00-19:00, Fri 9:00-17:00, weekend 10:00-16:00
FREE
Thanks to Anne Fountain who organised the exhibition and was a pleasure to work with; to Ian and Matt the who built and installed the show and to the staff of The Word who are looking after the exhibition.
The response already has been really positive and it’s great to see the Sand Dancers* getting stuck in.
* people from South Shields