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boredomresearch

Southampton, UK

Installation, Mixed media, Sculpture, Video • Born in UK • Studied at Southampton, UK

Published  05/09/2016   |   Updated  26/10/2020

Filling Untraversable Voids

boredomresearch is a collaboration between British artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith, whose art benefits from a long lasting fascination in the mechanics of the natural world, explored using contemporary technology. Transcending boundaries between art, science and society, previous projects explore topics including: our cultural obsession with speed, the frontiers of disease modeling and the intricate biological signatures of neural activity....

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boredomresearch is a collaboration between British artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith, whose art benefits from a long lasting fascination in the mechanics of the natural world, explored using contemporary technology. Transcending boundaries between art, science and society, previous projects explore topics including: our cultural obsession with speed, the frontiers of disease modeling and the intricate biological signatures of neural activity. Through these and other works they opens channels for valuable dialogue and engagement between public and scientific domains.

As visual artists working with digital media, boredomresearch give form to unseen aspects of the natural world. Their fascination with digital tools as a means to explore, experiment and interpret the mechanics that escape immediate perception creates a strong synergy with the scientific disciplines. Free from limiting research frameworks, that impose false bounds to human inquiry, boredomresearch are able to think creatively about questions of scale, time and behaviour. As such, they unite disparate worlds, filling untraversable voids between the conceptual anchor points of contemporary knowledge. Their use of computer modeling binds their highly poetic work to current challenges of culture, nature and technology. In ‘Dreams of Mice: Ron, 19 October 2014 at 2:48am’ they reanimate a recording of a mouse’s dream to show both the unique biological fluttering while considering the encroachment of invasive technologies and in ‘AfterGlow’ they extend the bounds of epidemiology to show an infection transmission scenario that reveals the shocking beauty and complexity of a dangerous new form of malaria spilling into the human population.

Described by Susanne Jaschko as 'disarmingly approachable', their seminal project 'Real Snail Mail' challenges the most enduring social economic paradigms of speed and efficiency by providing a snail powered slow alternative to lightning fast email and revealing the folly of our destructive obsession with speed.

Underpinning all of boredomresearch’s practice is a strong feeling that we need to better understand the current interplay between science, technology, nature and society. “Now, more than ever before, we need to think differently. We need to ask big questions and not be afraid to challenge the forces and thought process that have brought instability into a world that has nurtured human culture for millennia.” (boredomresearch, 2016)

boredomresearch (Isley & Smith)
AfterGlow, 2016. Custom built software, size variable.

AfterGlow, 2016. Custom built software, size variable.

boredomresearch studio, 2016.

boredomresearch studio, 2016.

Dreams of Mice: Ron, 19 October 2014 at 2:48am (2015). Software, computer, HD display.

Dreams of Mice: Ron, 19 October 2014 at 2:48am (2015). Software, computer, HD display.

Brilliant Clouds, 2010/11, wall installation (object), C-print and custom made frame, variable size.

Brilliant Clouds, 2010/11, wall installation (object), C-print and custom made frame, variable size.

Lost Calls of Cloud Mountain Whirligigs, 2010. Software, computer, TFT screen.

Lost Calls of Cloud Mountain Whirligigs, 2010. Software, computer, TFT screen.

Real Snail Mail in Soft Control:Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious, Slovenia, 2012.

Real Snail Mail in Soft Control:Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious, Slovenia, 2012.

Real Snail Mail installation in Soft Control:Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious, Slovenia, 2012.

Real Snail Mail installation in Soft Control:Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious, Slovenia, 2012.

Real Snail Mail in Soft Control:Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious, Slovenia, 2012.

Real Snail Mail in Soft Control:Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious, Slovenia, 2012.

Fragments, Solo Exhibition, DAM Gallery, Berlin (April-June 2013).

Fragments, Solo Exhibition, DAM Gallery, Berlin (April-June 2013).

Lost Flight Fragment #D925BB83 (detail), 2013, C-print on aluminum, 137 x 76 cm.

Lost Flight Fragment #D925BB83 (detail), 2013, C-print on aluminum, 137 x 76 cm.

Lost Flight Plume C#DFA481D1 (detail), 2013, C-print on aluminum, 112 x 112 cm.

Lost Flight Plume C#DFA481D1 (detail), 2013, C-print on aluminum, 112 x 112 cm.

AfterGlow (Susceptible, Exposed, Infected, ‘Recovered’)

A film by boredomresearch, in collaboration with Dr Paddy Brock, University of Glasgow
An Animate Projects commission, supported by the Wellcome Trust silentsignal.org/Collaborations/afterglow/

AfterGlow (Susceptible, Exposed, Infected, 'Recovered') is a film made using sequences from a real-time digital artwork; informed by models of disease transmission, on a Malaysian island. Locked in perpetual twilight (prime mosquito blood-feeding time), the film presents a terrain progressively illuminated by glowing trails, evocative of mosquito flight paths. These spiralling forms represent packets of blood, carried by mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium knowlesi, a malaria parasite recently found to jump the species barrier from monkey to human.

The film captures the infection left in the wake of wandering macaques as they search the island for food and reveals the intimate relationship between disease and its environment. Here we see how the island’s empty dark mountains are quickly engulfed with glowing forms. The viewer journeys through the different stages of infection. Starting with delicately spiralling cells of colour that form clusters and then becoming turbulent when infectious. Where the infection is most dense, we see a blizzard of disease, vividly expressing the complexity of this dangerous scenario.

In exhibition, AfterGlow is presented as a generative artwork.

What is it about your studio space that inspires you?

Its close to the seafront and the New Forest so if we need some inspiration away from the screen we go for a long walk.

What is your favourite material to work with? How has your use of it evolved throughout your practice?

Open source software, we use Processing and Blender which both have great communities and libraries. Its great to not be tied into expensive licenses and we can use the software in our workshops for participants to learn about the mechanics of our work.

What themes do you pursue?

Diversity, natural environment, immersion, poetics.

If you weren´t an artist, what would you be doing?

being creative in another profession

What are your favourite places besides your studio?

The forest and walking in the mountains.


EXHIBITIONS

SOLO

2021

In Search of Chemozoa, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth UK

2020

Restless Balance, ASU Art Museum, Arizona

2017

Paisley Pearls, Paisley Museum, Paisley Scotland

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GROUP

2019

Shenzhen New Media Arts Festival, Cultural Complex of Pingshan New District, Shenzhen

FLAME Festival, Hong Kong

Event 2, Royal College of Art, London

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WORKS IN COLLECTIONS

Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul

British Council Collection

ComputerFineArts.com

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GALLERIES

DAM GALLERY, Berlin | http://www.dam-gallery.de/

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