All You Need Is Data - The DLD 2012 Conference REDUX

Simon Denny’s artwork reflects one artist’s response to the contemporary problem of being a sculptor within an information-based economy. While stretched inkjet canvases and steel railing are Denny’s chosen materials, the ‘ground’ of Denny’s most ambitious projects is better described as a network of information. The Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich is a European forum for presenting annual advances in technology. In 2012, the symposium’s line-up included Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Chris ‘Moot’ Poole (4chan) and David Karp (Tumblr) amongst other information gurus, politicians and digital prophets. Denny used this forum to create the entire contents of the full artwork, gaining unlimited access to DLD12 conference presentations. His gallery installation ‘recreates’ this 2012 event in app-like interfaces comprising text ‘sound-bites’, portraits of the speakers and novel clipboards.Denny’s 90 canvases and railing created labyrinthine pathways through the gallery space. Not unlike navigating a stanchioned airport check-in lobby, the visitors movements through the work were highly controlled. Denny explains: ‘As a result you get a kind of short visual and textual summary of each of the 89 talks. [While being] a little overwhelmed with the volume of the material, you can also pick and choose your way through the conference – which is a feeling not unlike being there . . .’

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