[spectre] Suspending Disbelief - an exhibition at Lighthouse, Brighton, 28 August - 5 September

[Honor Harger]

Dear Spectres,

Please find below the announcement about a new exhibition of 
contemporary art and design at Lighthouse: 
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/whatson/dConstruct2010.htm

Suspending Disbelief is a group show, which explores the emerging 
field of "design fiction". It is part of Brighton's major digital 
design conference, dConstruct.

Suspending Disbelief explores the links between digital design and 
artistic practice, presenting new and recent work by internationally 
renowned digital artists, such as Julian Oliver (NZ/DE), and 
important emerging practitioners, such as Andrew Friend (UK), a 
recent graduate from the RCA's Design Interactions programme. It also 
includes the UK premiere of the much-discussed work "A Tool to 
Deceive and Slaughter" by Caleb Larsen (US), a sculpture which 
perpetually auctions itself on eBay.

I hope some of you can make it along to see it.

Best,

Honor Harger

Director
Lighthouse
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk


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Suspending Disbelief
An exhibition by Lighthouse featuring work by Julian Oliver, Caleb 
Larsen, Andrew Friend and Becca Gill & Jay Kerry

Preview: 		1800, Friday 27 August
Dates: 		28 August - 5 September 2010
Opening Times: 	1100 - 1800
Venue:		Lighthouse, 28 Kensington St, Brighton BN1 4AJ
dConstruct: 	Friday 3 September
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/whatson/dConstruct2010.htm
http://2010.dconstruct.org/#dconstruct-exhibition

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* Overview

Suspending Disbelief is programmed to coincide with the international 
digital design conference, dConstruct. It draws together works of 
contemporary art and design, which exist in the interstices between 
the real and the fictional. The artists participating in the 
exhibition, materialise speculative ideas, near-futures, or illusory 
realities, in a series of verisimilar devices, sculptures, 
interactive objects, photographic scenarios and installations which 
challenge our perception of what is plausible.
All the works in Suspending Disbelief are being shown in Brighton for 
the first time.


* Context

The exhibition is part of Brighton's major digital design conference, 
dConstruct (http://2010.dconstruct.org), which each year brings 
leading names in design and user interaction to the UK.   It is 
organised by the design agency, Clearleft and takes place at Brighton 
Dome on 3 September 2010, featuring speakers such as Brendan Dawes 
(magneticNorth) and David McCandless (Information is Beautiful).  The 
theme of this year's conference is "design thinking", a 
problem-solving methodology that combines empathy, creativity and 
rationality.

The exhibition extends the notion of design thinking into the 
physical realm, taking place across two sites:
At Lighthouse, the work of Caleb Larsen, Julian Oliver and Andrew 
Friend will be on display from 28 August - 5 September.
At the Brighton Dome, Becca Gill & Jay Kerry will be showing their 
work for the audiences of dConstruct on 3 September, accompanied by a 
film documenting the other works in the exhibition, made by Toby 
Amies.

Suspending Disbelief is a pilot project, developed in partnership 
with Arts Council England and Clearleft, which looks at the 
relationship between art and digital creative industries. In 2011, we 
will extend this pilot by delivering a programme of work that further 
explores digital culture, and the interplay between artists, 
audiences, makers, and designers.


* About the Exhibition

"Maybe there's something beckoning over the horizon that's not design 
and not futurism but just something we might call speculative 
culture."
Bruce Sterling

Suspending Disbelief draws from the emerging discourse of "design 
fiction". The critic and designer, Julian Bleecker describes design 
fictions as "imaginative conversations about possible future worlds". 
For him, examples of design fiction are "part story, part material, 
part idea-articulating prop, part functional software. Design 
fictions are component parts for different kinds of near future 
worlds. They are like artifacts brought back from those worlds in 
order to be examined, studied over. They are puzzles of a sort."

The works in Suspending Disbelief go beyond being mere puzzles: they 
are reality hacks, conceptual conundrums and physicalised 
thought-experiments which call into question everyday logic and its 
interaction rules and rituals.   They include a physical sculpture 
made by American artist, Caleb Larsen, that is perpetually attempting 
to auction itself on eBay; a series of uncannily real, yet seemingly 
impossible, devices created by London-based designer, Andrew Friend; 
a 3D spatial memory game made by Berlin-based artist Julian Oliver, 
that takes the form of a digital Echeresque-world; and an 
installation by Bristol-based Becca Gill & Jay Kerry where the 
trickery and illusion of 19th century magic is materialised through 
pervasive media.


* Works

- Caleb Larsen: A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter, 2009
http://www.caleblarsen.com/projects/a-tool-to-deceive-and-slaughter

- Andrew Friend: Fantastic Series, 2010
Device for Experiencing Lightning Strike, Device for Experiencing the 
Invisible, Device for Disappearing (at Sea)
http://www.andrewfriend.co.uk/andrewfriendfant.html

- Julian Oliver: levelHead, 2008
http://julianoliver.com/levelhead

- Becca Gill & Jay Kerry: Magician's Desk, 2010
http://www.mercurialwrestler.com/magicians_desk.html


* About Us

Lighthouse is a leading arts agency in South East England supporting, 
commissioning and showcasing new work by artists and filmmakers. As 
well as being a vibrant venue for events in Brighton, Lighthouse 
produces professional development and mentoring programmes, 
exhibitions, and events for digital artists and filmmakers.

Suspending Disbelief is supported by Arts Council England and created 
in partnership with Clearleft.
Andrew Friend's work is supported by Spectrum, Ilford and Maison d'Ailleurs.

Lighthouse
Address: 28 Kensington Street, Brighton, BN1 4AJ, UK
Tel: +44 1273 647197
email: info at lighthouse.org.uk

Web: http://www.lighthouse.org.uk
Find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LighthouseArts 
Join our mailing list: http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/about/signup.html

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