Beta_space is a collaboration
between The Powerhouse Museum and Creativity and Cognition
Studios (CCS) at the University
of Technology, Sydney.
Beta_space is located within the Cyberworlds: computers and connections exhibition
Beta_space
Art – technology - experiment - discovery
The Powerhouse Museum and Creativity and Cognition Studios (CCS), University of Technology, Sydney collaborate to create Beta_space, an experimental environment where the public can engage with the latest research in art and technology.
Beta_space shows interactive artworks in development by CCS researchers and collaborators. These works are at different stages, from early prototype to end product. In all cases engagement with the public can provide critical information for further iterations of the art work or of the research. The name 'beta' refers to a new piece of software or hardware that needs testing and feedback from its users to help the project team to eliminate design and engineering errors.
Beta_space provides visitors to the Powerhouse Museum the chance to experience collaboration between art and technology, while information displays contextualise the role of CCS and Beta_space in this international field.
Beta_space is a working environment, a laboratory which yields valuable research outcomes. It allows the public the opportunity to be creatively involved in the development of new forms of artistic expression, while providing insight into the creative process of artists, technologists, and the experience of audiences.
Snow Crash
Artist: Harriet Birks
10 October - 6 November 2009
Free with Entry to the Museum
'Snow Crash' is a virtual landscape that recalls early flight simulators and low-fi computer graphics.
It is a finite world of reduced planes akin to sci-fi concepts of virtual worlds such as the 'meta-vers' in Neil Stephenson's 'Snow Crash' or the 'auto-verse' in Greg Egan's 'Permutation City'... a parallel universe to Google Earth, World of Warcraft and Second Life.
The audio track crackles with static interference suggesting possible radio transmissions from unseen origins. Pulsing black spheres float eerily in the sky. Clusters of quartz grow from mysterious ruins, resembling the 'Crystal World' of J.G. Ballard.
In a simultaneous glance back at the past and to post-apocalyptic narratives of the future it provokes questions about our current direction and our changing technological landscape. 'Snow Crash' is a place of mysterious energy, a world that is self-organised from the chaos of white noise into a drifting static dream.