9th March – 22nd April 2006

HTTP Gallery is pleased to present Open Vice/Virtue: The Online Art Context a solo show by American artist Andy Deck, as part of NODE.London season. For this, his first exhibition in London UK, Deck uses the Internet, the gallery and public space to challenge corporate control over communication, tools and software, and by extension the social imagination.

‘The giantism of media corporations and the ongoing deregulation of media consolidation (Ahrens), underscore the critical need for independent media sources. If it were just a matter of which cola to drink, it would not be of much concern, but media corporations control content. In this hyper-mediated age, content — whether produced by artists or journalists — crucially affects what people think about and how they understand the world. Content is not impervious to the software, protocols, and chicanery that surround its delivery. It is about time that people interested in independent voices stop believing that laissez-faire capitalism is building a better media infrastructure.’ Andy Deck

Glyphiti is an online collaborative drawing project resented uniquely at HTTP. A large-scale projection forms an evolving graffiti wall and visitors to the space are invited to edit and add graphical units or ‘glyphs’, which compose the image, in real-time. The marks made by each person, combine with others and are shown as a time-lapse image stream. Hanging fabrics being shown here for the first time provide a tactile document of recent years’ of Glyphiti. Unlike most image software available on the Internet, Glyphiti functions through most corporate firewalls by using standard Web server requests. For the artist, penetrating firewalls acts as a metaphor for graffiti making: both activities necessitate the appropriation of privatised space for visual play.

Imprimatur consists of an online ‘groupware’ for poster illustration and layout accessible through a computer workstation installed in the gallery space. Visitors can use the software to create their own posters in collaboration with their online counterparts. This piece provides a framework for visitors/participants to launch a personal poster campaign based on their own social and political concerns. This DIY approach revives the tradition of poster-making as a medium of mass communication and persuasion developed during the 20th century. The posters will by displayed as part of the exhibition and will circulate freely beyond the gallery walls, appearing in surrounding streets, schools, libraries, kitchens and bedrooms.

Panel Junction combines the graphic novel with forms of shared authorship that have been made possible by the Internet. Here the artist selects a few stories emailed to him by visitors from all around the world. Each of the stories is chosen as a sequel to the most recent one and is transformed into a graphic novel by the artist. Hard copies will be available at the HTTP space for visitors.

Andy Deck presents his works at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre.
On Wednesday March 8 Andy Deck will be presenting his work at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre. The evening will be split into two parts: 17.30 -18.30 Screenings of key interactive works that you can get involved within real-time, and an informal opportunity to meet the artist with the HTTP Curators, Marc Garret and Ruth Catlow. 19.00 – 20.30 presentation by the artist of his work. Both events will be free and will be in the Dana Centre cafe bar. For details of this event www.danacentre.org.uk

“Leading American artist Andy Deck and HTTP Gallery are important independent voices in the new cultural communication space we call ‘the Internet’.” – Hannah Redler, Head of Arts Programme, Science Museum.

About Andy Deck
Andy Deck makes public art for the Internet that resists generic categorisation: collaborative drawing spaces, game-like search engines, problematic interfaces, informative art. Deck has made art software since 1990, initially using it to produce short films. Since 1994, he has worked with the Web using the sites www.artcontext.com and www.andyland.net

In addition to online commissions from New Radio and Performing Arts, Rhizome.org, the Whitney Artport and the Tate, Deck has shown his work in a variety of exhibitions in places like the Machida City Museum (Tokyo); the ZKM (Karlsruhe); PS1 (NYC); the MACBA (Barcelona); the Moving Image Gallery (NYC); Postmaster’s Gallery (NYC); the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Ars Electronica Center (Linz). Andy studied for a Post-diplôme, at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; and received his MFA in Computer Art at the School of Visual Arts (SVA), NYC. He has taught at the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo, Sarah Lawrence College, and New York University, the School of Visual Arts, and most recently the iEU Faculty of Fine Art and Design in Izmir, Turkey.

Notes for editors:
Title: Open Vice/Virtue: The Online Art Context
Artist: Andy Deck
Dates: Exhibition and associated events at HTTP 9th March – 22nd April 2006
Screening and presentation of works at Science Museum’s Dana Centre 8th March 5.30-8-30pm
Exibition opening hours: Friday to Sunday 12noon-5pm
Gallery details: Unit A2, Arena Business Centre, 71 Ashfield Rd, London N4 1NY
Tel: + 44 (0)20 8802 2827
e-mail: info@http.uk.net
Web: www.http.uk.net
Tube: Manor House Buses: 341, 141 Train: Haringey Green Lanes
For more about NODE.L, please visit http://nodel.org