Internet-based art exhibition is food for thought
An Internet-based art exhibition inviting the tabling of ideas around young people’s identity, education and belonging will open at Charles Darwin University today.
Created by Sydney-based visiting artist Dr Flossie Peitsch and her son Matthias, “A Difficult Dinner Party” uses Quick Response (QR) codes for participants to access the online-based exhibition’s visual and audio components instantly using their smartphones.
Dr Peitsch said the dinner table, traditionally a place of conversation, social interaction and exchange of ideas, was not used often by modern families to engage with one another, with web spaces taking its place.
“IT is a common language for young Australians, and the exhibition encourages discussions on politics, sex and religion from the perspectives of young people, who are connected through IT far more than with one another, face to face,” Dr Peitsch said.
“‘A Difficult Dinner Party’ is about expressing everyday opinions on everyday topics in an everyday situation.
“Each person comes to a dinner party with a different stance and presents themselves as an individual. In “Dinner”, cutlery and crockery are used as metaphors for individuals and how we align with one another.
“The art is a visual representation of ‘personhood’, which is about what you say, your opinion, how you present yourself, and what you ‘bring to the table’.”
Each day of the exhibition Dr Peitsch will create a new visual alignment of cutlery and crockery. Matthias, based in Shanghai, will reconfigure the images into sound through Internet transfer to represent audible conversation, cultural interaction and exchange of ideas.
Matthias, an IT specialist, web designer and composer, producer and teacher of music, will create a new soundtrack to accompany each day’s visual arrangement.
The exhibition is supported by an Australian Council for the Arts Australian Arts Grant and is a National Association for the Visual Arts initiative.
“A Difficult Dinner Party” will be held in the Nan Giese Gallery at Building 10, Orange Precinct, CDU Casuarina campus, from 17 – 28 June 2013.
Members of the public are invited to attend a “bring-your-own” lunch on Friday 28 June from 12:45 – 1:30pm. RSVP to M: 0457 726 257.