Real Time
Art en temps real
Exposició, Arts Santa Mònica
28.01 – 10.04.2016
Guillem Bayo, Clara Boj i Diego Díaz, Martin John Callanan, Grégory Chatonsky, Thierry Fournier, Varvara Guljajeva i Mar Canet, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Nicolas Maigret, Katie Paterson, Antoine Schmitt, Thomson and Craighead, Addie Wagenknecht, Carlo Zanni
In our accelerated society, time becomes a primary concern as we try to keep abreast of major global events and react to them. We live in a state of permanent connection that leads to the anxiety of being part of a present that is not our own, but rather one described by media and social networks.
The term “real time” refers to the ability to display, communicate, or react to events as they occur. This term, commonly used in computer science, in media, and in all types of narratives, denotes a process that occurs synchronously with the viewer’s or user’s time. This immediacy translates, for example, into the ability to interact with a virtual environment, report on current events, or tell a story that unfolds naturally over time. The individual present connects with an external or shared present, prompting participation in that present or an emitted response. “Real time” is also linked to “being-there” or Dasein in Martin Heidegger’s interpretation, which refers to the relationship between the individual and their environment, indicating that we are all tied to the world we live in and in which we participate. The concept also leads us to question what “real time” is, how we measure time, and how this measure is relative, yet determines our perception of reality.
In the art world, time is a crucial element in a fact often overlooked: the duration of the contemplation of a work of art by the viewer. As indicated by Boris Groys, while in traditional media the necessary time for contemplation is determined by the user, process-based temporal art (new media, video, and performance) transfers this control to the work. Usually, artworks present a specific moment or an action bounded in time, but what happens when a work develops in the “continuous present,” constantly transforming and subject to an endless process?
“Real Time. Art in Real Time” presents a selection of contemporary art in which the concept of “real time” plays a leading role, either by questioning the relativity of time, by using data extracted in real time from the Internet, or by its intention to create a current, “realistic,” and ever-changing vision of the times in which we live. Some of the selected works are nourished by information constantly appearing in the media, while others extract data from various sources, establish a real-time production process, or propose a questioning of our way of measuring time and relating to the present. The technologies we currently use in our daily lives play a major role in these pieces, which brings reflections on time into an area very close to the audience, who in some cases can interact with the work and in others do so unknowingly.
http://artssantamonica.gencat.cat/en/detall/Real-Time.-Art-en-temps-real