First year BSc Digital Arts Computing student Lina Sarma writes about BROKEN CODE, the 4-day exhibition students organised in April 2015.
The opening of Broken Code a few weeks ago was the inaugural exhibition of the new Goldsmiths Digital Arts Computing course.
Our punning title referenced the process of experimentation in artists’ work in which the unintentional often yields the most desirable outcomes. It also made comic admittance to our freshness of experience as coders and curators, and anticipated that perhaps one or two of the exhibits may not function as intended at all times. As one of our fellow artists once concluded “great art needs more beeps”.
The pieces themselves covered a variety of practices ranging from 70s-style psychedelic glitch art mash up (Suraya Barnes & Grace Clinton) to the exploration of sound as a form of broken interaction (Qian Lim).
Especially entertaining to the public was Ixtli’s piece, Press Any Key which allowed only single key interaction with a computer. Key presses resulted in seemingly arbitrary outcomes on an old CRT screen, but the interface tempted the viewer with an elusive hard copy of a selfie from a nearby printer.
The exhibition welcomed more people than we could ever have expected, and we received good reviews from people who not only enjoyed the “really entertaining and fantastic pieces,” but also found time to compliment the wine.
For us the artists it was a stressful but also a very exciting and resourceful experience.