Michael Takeo Magruder at Hannah's, Seale Hayne

If you admire Ben Yates' electronic creations then you will probably want to see Michael Takeo Magruder's digital work - Living Data - on show at Seale Hayne, just outside of Newton Abbot. This is a mixture of digitally created hard copy art and screens which are fed by PCs, linked to the internet.  Here are some photographs which illustrate the work:

 

Each of the displays applies an algorithm to an internet information source to produce unique digital visuals. For example, the second work above draws upon a live market feed from the Dow Jones Index to produce its images, while Data_plex (babel), immediately above, is generated by tapping into the top ten topics trending on Twitter, as explained in the exhibit label below:

This exhibition shows just one aspect of Magruder's work. Copies of his 100+ page book, (re)mediation_s 2000-2010, with many colour photos and interesting essays by academics covering (Derrida's) Deconstruction, (CP Snow's) The Two Cultures, The Art of Remembering, and more are available at the exhibition for ten quid. This is a bargain, particularly as the book can no longer be bought on Amazon.

 

 

The results can be very 2001: A Space Odyssey ... or Doctor Who ...

 

 

The display above draws upon images of flowers showing on Flickr (as in the monitor below) and produces a hybrid form which changes - in sync - as new images are posted.

This is a fascinating exhibition. The works seem to be live - which of course they are, insofar as they are responding to the collective actions of thousands or millions of people using the internet. It is impossible to get a realistic impression of the ever-changing images showing on the monitors from still photographs. You really need to visit the exhibition, which is part of the Digital Invasion season at Seale-Hayne, and runs until September 1st.