Digital Art: The Fading Afterglow of Creation

‘Junk Mailbox 1.0’, for instance, is a physical representation of Dave Briggs’ own junk email folder: as you watch, the letterbox on a front door churns out copies of spam he’s receiving in real-time. (At least one per minute, by my count.)

Another area is taken up by Squires’ work: projections of ethereal designs and imagined sculptures. These are designs that were never made, that have no physical counterparts; they exist only in the virtual ‘hivemind’, raising questions about the process of creation and existence in the digital world.

The most striking aspect, for me, is the ethereal atmosphere that the collection provokes. The accompanying cinematic soundtrack not only nods to its surroundings at Phoenix, but delivers an enveloping sense of the dramatic that’s eerily appropriate alongside objects reminiscent of props from a sci-fi film.

I spoke to some of the exhibition’s first visitors to find out what they thought. One that got a lot of people talking was ‘Jupiter’s Helmet’, an installation that you insert your head into. What you smell depends on tomorrow’s weather forecast: sunny means the smell of a summer’s day, rainy means winter berries and cinnamon.

David Soden, a lecturer from De Montfort University, told me he was a regular visitor to the gallery. “What’s impressed me about this exhibition was the way it used the space. Some galleries can feel like you’re entering a white box, but I like how immersive this is. It tries to give you a different experience.”

I have to agree. The lighting and the decor collaborate to provide a sense of unnerving unreality that renders the room almost unrecognisable from the usual space.