Digital Art: The Fading Afterglow of Creation
Thu 16 Apr 2015
Ever get tired of receiving endless junk mail?
Ever look out of the window and wish you could be somewhere else?
Ever notice how increasingly reliant we are on machines to navigate our world?
You’re not alone. Our new art exhibition in the Cube Gallery brings together a collection of objects and artefacts that utilise contemporary technologies to imagine different futures. This installation will challenge your ideas of what’s ‘normal’ in our consumerist, technology-driven present.
Cassie Brummitt attended the launch night and the unveiling of the collection.
Leicestershire-based artists Dave Briggs and Jack Squires have brought together a series of experimental pieces that explore the impact of everyday technology on our understanding of the world. The collection’s distinctiveness, I think, lies in the way it plays with sensory experience to investigate notions of postmodern cultural identity and present us with new ways of living.

‘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.
Chris Tyrer, Art Manager at Phoenix, echoed this sentiment. “The ultimate success of this exhibition lies, I think, in how it has transformed the space. The two artists have worked together to create a space that answers to the work.”
The exhibition is interactive and suitable for all ages, and, like all our art installations at Phoenix, it’s completely free. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve never been to the Cube Gallery before or you’re a seasoned veteran: there’ll always be something to get you talking.
Curious? The Cube Gallery is open all day, every day, until the cinema closes. The Fading Afterglow of Creation lasts until Friday 8th May.
You can find more information about the exhibition here.