Bjork Digital

Disappointing exhibition at Somerset House of digital content and videos from Bjorks new album.

I liked the first room which was a split screen music video with a great sound system which meant you could hear difference elements of the music at different points in the room.

However I’d not realised that the most of the show was virtual reality presentations and I quickly realised that I didn’t like them! You were sat on stools so that you could spin round and appreciate the work properly but I felt too high up and I didn’t like the feel of the headset on my face. I was also unsure whether to wear my glasses or not, everything felt out of focus. All in all quite a claustrophobic experience!  Also once I’d decided I didn’t like it there was no way out so I had to stand in a room watching people slowing spinning on stools in the dark.

By the time I’d suffered the virtual reality I’d rather lost my patience and not being a big Bjork fan the show had lost any engagement I might have had. There was a room of ordinary videos on a big screen at the end and some sort of app which I couldn’t be bothered to work out!

I have realised thought that more and more exhibitions are using virtual reality so I have bought a cheap cardboard headset to practice with at home! I don’t want to feel left out but I think I need to try it out in a less pressured environment.

Closes on 23 October 2016.

Reviews
Times
Guardian
Telegraph

 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B was
Read more

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my
Read more

Courtauld summer school day 1

Image
Today has been my first day of this year’s week at the Courtauld Institute’s summer schools. This year I am doing “Painting in Renaissance Venice” which is being led by Michael Douglas-Scott. It was nice to see some familiar faces and there are at least five of us who did Michael’s course last year. Today has been two lectures. Firstly setting out the background of Venice in this period looking at how the city had set up a myth of itself, the role of the Doge. the nature of the Republic and the role of citizens. The second lecture looked at why the nature of Renaissance was different in Venice. There was still a sense of the coming of antiquity and humanism but in Venice it fused with the Gothic and Byzantine rather than replacing it. The day ended with a choice of gallery talks. I went to one on the second floor of the Courtauld on the coming of Modernism. In essence it looked at the Impressionists and discussed what they were reacting against and what themes they portrayed. All in a
Read more