Featuring: Germaine Koh, Nicholas Stedman, Peter Flemming, Norman White and Joe Mckay

8 November - 20 December 2008 
private/press view 7 November

[ space ]

129 - 131 Mare St
London E8 3RH

Schematic is a group exhibition of work featuring the work of five emerging and established Canadian new media artists.
Schematic showcases the extraordinary creativity and technological innovation displayed by artists who incorporate invention and engineering in their practice, in order to explore the role that technologically mediated relationships play in shaping our attitudes towards leisure, work, the environment and each other.

The “Canadian experience” of landscape, weather and the environment is explored through technological innovation in the work of Peter Flemming and Germain Koh. Flemming’s Canoe (2003), contains a mechanized paddle apparatus. Powered by an electric motor and battery, the paddle propels itself the entire length of the water-filled interior of a mock canoe, paddling continuously back and forth. In Koh’s Fair-weather forces (water level) (2008), velvet ropes on stainless steel stanchions move up and down in relation to the water level mediated by an ultrasonic sensor installed in a nearby body of water forming part of a series of works using technology to enable everyday functional architectural features to reflect external environmental conditions.

Artists Norman White, Nicholas Stedman and Joe Mackay use 21st century craftsmanship, juxtaposing the ‘handmade’ with technology producing interactive and playful works. White’s seminal electronic kinetic sculptural piece Helpless Robot, (1988) is a freestanding robot that seeks interaction with spectators. Helpless Robot enlists the help of its human audience for its mobility needs through conversation that adapts to its sense of cooperation or lack thereof. ADB (after Deep Blue) forms part of Stedman’s ongoing effort to construct tactile, physical companions. Mimicking the movement of a snake, ADB contains sensors allowing it respond to the touch of its human handler.
Mckay’s work features awkward robotic simulations of the sleek computer trappings that enhance our lives. The Big Job, (2005) is a mechanical progress bar moved by a stepper motor and connected to a loading webpage. Once completed, The Big Job commences again, offering a tongue in cheek complement to the other robotic works in the show.

8 November - 20 December 2008 
private/press view 7 November

[ space ]

129 - 131 Mare St
London E8 3RH
link to Google Map

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schematic artists

Germain Koh is a conceptual artist working out of Vancouver. Her practice encompasses the use of everyday objects and familiar concepts. She has exhibited widely including the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, the Liverpool Biennial, Art Gallery of Alberta, Frankfurter Kunstverein and Bloomberg SPACE, London.
She is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver

Peter Flemming is an artist who has exhibited widely throughout Canada and the United States. He teaches Electronics for Artists and Electronic Arts Studio at Concordia University in Montreal. In addition, he has worked for several years custom designing and building electronic/mechanical devices and interfaces for artists.

Nicholas Stedman has integrated computers and electronics in his art
practice for more than 10 years. During this time he has made and collaborated on sculptures, installations, and performances which have been shown around Canada and abroad including at ISEA, Future Physical and Ars Electronica.

Norman White is a Canadian new media artist and pioneer of using
electronics and robotics in art. He introduced classes in electronics and robotics for students at the Ontario College of Art & Design from 1978 – 2003, greatly impacting the new media art landscape in Canada He is frequently cited as one of Canada’s most influential new media artists. The Helpless Robot won him a Prix Ars Electronica prize in 1990. Currently, White teaches at Ryerson University in Toronto

Joe Mckay makes work with and about digital culture. He grew up in Ontario and studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, and more recently graduated with an MFA from UC Berkeley. He has shown extensively throughout Canada and the United States Including VertexList, New York. The Berkeley Art Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, the ICA in San Jose, the Pacific Film Archive, and the New Museum; he is currently doing a residency at the Headlands Center For the Arts.