#0000FF is the new #000000 - Conceptual and site-specific mixed reality media art exhibition project

0000FF is the #000000 – A conceptual and site-specific mixed reality media art exhibition – was held in Jangva Gallery in Helsinki, Finland February-March 2013. This written thesis is a documentation of the working process, and an evaluation and theoretical contemplation of the project. I will go through the process of producing the exhibition from idea to execution, and I will justify my technical solutions in a practical- theoretical framework. I explain my presumptions of the constructed experience and examine how well they were read. The installation at the exhibition consisted of two parallel exhibition spaces: a virtual exhibition of kinetic sculptures, displayed on TV screens, and an immersive electric blue space in the physical gallery. The exhibition was discussing the ways of looking at art in today’s digitalised societies, as well as the aesthetic and spatial dimensions that new media technology creates, in a relation to the normative gallery environment. In today’s digitalised culture the real and the virtual can no longer be completely separated, they have become layers on top of each other. I wanted to investigate the relationship of the ”real” and the ”virtual” in an exhibition environment to understand the feeling of disorientation with our digital extensions. In this written part, I look at art as a kind of virtual reality itself; I investigate the spectators position in today’s technology centred culture and look at the differences of experiencing art in digital and physical environments. I limit the discussion to this exhibition and I use this particular installation as a case study for exploring the subject. Apart from defining my position in the art field in a relation to existing similar art works, I examine this process as a part of the continuity from my previous art works. This thesis combines my backgrounds in fine arts and new media studies, it is an attempt to illustrate how Media Lab and my previous education in arts have affected my mind- set