About
The Interact Gallery started with my search for a space in which to exhibit the new artworks produced during my PhD research at De Montfort University. I have long felt that most galleries are not well suited to digital work due to lack of internal infrastructure and general inflexibility in accommodating technology and hadn't had much luck in finding a space that was both right for my work and available for an extended period of time.
Adam Kirk at Fabrika recognised the nature of my problem and suggested that he could modify his upstairs gallery according to my needs to become a new 'digital' gallery. Clearly, it would good to to consider using such a space for more than one exhibition and hence The Interact Gallery was born.
We saw gallery as having an initial one year lifespan, running from August 2011 through to July 2012. However, we are now committed to a second year - meaning that we will run the space at least until July 2013.
Our curatorial policy favours local – East Midlands – artists who create interactive artwork. However, we also like to include some work from artists further afield and are willing to be flexible on the interpretation of the word 'interactive'.
The gallery has been designed to have eight main locations for artworks. Each location has mains, networking, USB and audio/video cabling and the use of false walls throughout means that all of these wires can be well hidden if required.
For me there is also an opportunity to use the gallery as a base for my ongoing research in to the nature of interactivity in digital art. Even after my own exhibition has finished I will be looking for opportunities to talk to audiences about their experiences of the work on display.
Another goal of The Interact Gallery is to stimulate a discussion as to what it means to curate digital and interactive artwork. I would like to think that our experience of doing this locally could be passed on to other venues and would-be curators and that the network we establish will be of use to digital artists across the region.
Sean Clark
www.seanclark.me.uk
seanc@cuttlefish.com
May 2012
