Textually Active with Driftingspace

Gabrielle Hoad  - Data roll

Textually Active took place at Karst, Plymouth on 10 April 2014 with contributions from Tabatha Andrews, Sally Hall, Jason Hirons, Gabrielle Hoad, Rosie King, Holly Knowles and Steven Paige. Fifty-five people attended.

For the event, I considered source data from my flight mapping project (generated by glider pilot Rowan Smith and research scientist Dr Steven Portugal) as text. This included transcribing two seconds of pigeon flight data through automated text-to-voice software and presenting it alongside animated archive images of bird flight by E.J. Marey from the early 1890s.

The session focused on seeing, hearing and holding data (printed out as a roll) which allowed us to appreciate the its rhythms, its sheer quantity and density, and also its narrative qualities (it describes a connected series of events). But, despite their precision, numeric co-ordinates are too abstract for ordinary human comprehension when presented this way. They have to be translated and contextualised. 

Common themes emerged from the evening around data, surveillance, linear progression (narratives), digital processes (binary states), rule-based works, and measurement of space and time.  Details of the other artists' work can be found here.

Textually Active provides a critical space for debate and performative practices in Plymouth and the South West of England. Curated and run by Driftingspace, a collaborative art practice, it's an ad hoc, nomadic event running cultural activities that incorporate art, performance, installation, and writing.