Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating exhibition at Somerset House looking at the effects of the current explosion in data and the effects it is having on society, culture and politics. I will admit I thought this would be quite dry but I’d seen good reviews and was intrigued partly because my work involves data and how you can get different data to work together. The show presented complex ideas in a really imaginative way, for example there was a section on the cloud explaining what it was and pointing out it isn’t as ethereal as it sounds. It showed the data centres involved as postcards of the buildings hanging over a map of the world. I was fascinating by the section that talked about how the internet has given us the tools to record the minutia of our lives which made me realise how much I record online, this blog just being one example! I found myself fighting the urge to look up some of the interesting apps it mentioned as part of the point was that this isn’t necessarily a good thing. ...

Thought provoking show at the Royal Festival Hall looking at the history of recent migrations to Britain, looking at the stories of different communities that have come here and made Britain their home. The show had a number of interactive section and began with offering you different cards to fill in with your own story depending if you were a migrant, if a grandparent was, if a parents was or if no-one back that far was. I fell into the latter category and the attached photos is my card! Many people like me seemed a bit apologetic about it, adding comments like “but I’ve travelled a lot” or “my best friend is a migrant”! The objects and stories in the show were accompanied by a number of interesting photograph projects many from the Migration Museum’s project to gather 100 images of migration. I loved the first section which looked at why various groups came and there were some great objects from Transport for London looking at the recruitment of workers in the Caribbean...