Dear all I am very pleased to announce our next gallery project at Watermans; a residency, lab and exhibition by Paul Granjon, who will spend the next seven weeks in the gallery working in collaboration with a group of participants, exploring technological anxieties and joys!I hope you can join us in the gallery in the next few weeks to find out more about the project and see the work developed. During the project, The Biting Machine and Autonomous Robotic Gun by Paul Granjon will be also displayed in the gallery.
The Biting Machine is a simple automaton built partly with parts from a recycled VCR and electric scooter. At regular intervals the cartoonish machine rushes forward, its oversized pointy teeth biting frantically into anything in their way. The Autonomous Robotic Gun is inspired from recent military robotics, specifically from robotic sentries that can be deployed in sensitive zones and shoot at intruders, possibly without direct human supervision. Paul Granjon built his own version of a robotic sentry using off the shelf components and a paintball gun. Both works, as other typical Granjon objects, are mixing humour and an uncomfortable, dangerous aspect, raising questions about our relation to machines and possible developments of technology. All the bestIrini -- Irini Papadimitriou Head of New Media Arts Development Watermans 40 High Street Brentford TW8 0DS Direct line: +44 (0)20 8232 1012 Admin: +44 (0)20 8232 1020 www.watermans.org.uk Is technology eating my brain? Technological anxieties and joys A residency project and exhibition by Paul Granjon with a group of participants 31st March – 3rd June 2014, Watermans Lab workshop sessions: every Tuesday from 1 April - 13 May, 1pm to 4pm The work of artist Paul Granjon repeatedly raises questions about our relation to technology or, in his own words, about the co-evolution of humans and machines. He makes robots and other electro-mechanical-digital devices; the machines are presented in performances, installations, or participative events where visitors are invited to contribute, learn, make and share. Granjon's current interests are in creative technology approaches to low-impact living, electronic-waste upcycling, social dynamics for alternative futures and artificial creatures. Taking place within London's Anxiety Arts Festival*, Is technology eating my brain? is a platform for reflection, dialogue and construction. Granjon's seven weeks residency/exhibition at Watermans will combine regular sessions with a group of local participants and an ongoing deployment of new work in the gallery space. The participants will bring personal stories about their technological anxieties and joys and will be given the opportunity to creatively deconstruct a selection of obsolete technological items. Stories and machine parts will be the starting point for artworks and other creative responses to the theme of technological anxieties and joys. The collective work will be presented as part of the Paul Granjon exhibition at the Watermans Gallery. Granjon will create onsite new work that will tap into creative upcycling, automated environments, cyber-botanic symbiosis, artificial creatures and a general sense of science fiction happening. _______________________________ About Paul Granjon: Born in Lyon, France, in 1965, BA Fine-art in Marseille, France in 1990. He teaches part-time in Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff, UK. He directed several short films between 1990 and 1999, moved to the UK in 1995 where his focus gradually shifted to performance and robotics. Since 1999 he developed and showed internationally live performances and exhibitions with hand-made robots and songs as well as workshops, collaborations and other projects. He was awarded a Nesta (National endowment for science technology and the arts) Fellowship (2004-2007) and was one of the artists representing Wales in the Venice Biennale 2005, where he exhibited a Robotarium. Recent work often includes home-manufacturing technologies, recycling and participation. Exhibitions and performances since 2009 include Winzavod Arts Centre (Moscow, Russia), AD and A gallery (Osaka Japan), Chelsea Theatre (London, UK), DePlayer (Rotterdam, Holland), Brut Theatre (Vienna, Austria), MUDAM Luxemburg, Oriel Davies (Newtown, UK), Campbelltown Arts Centre (NSW, Australia), International Symposium for Electronic Arts (ISEA, Sydney Australia), Haus für elektronische Künste (Basel, Switzerland). His work features in the collections of the Arts Council of England and MUDAM Luxemburg. More info about Paul Granjon's work at www.zprod.org _____________________________ *Anxiety Arts Festival London, June 2014 Anxiety 2014 is a new London-wide arts festival, curated by the Mental Health Foundation and taking place in June 2014. It explores anxiety through the arts, looking at its causes, how it affects all of our lives, and how it can act as an exciting, motivating force.For further information, please visit: http://anxiety2014.org
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