Click through HERE for the programme.
Drawing together the worlds of art and engineering, the ultra-modern and the techno-historical, Robert Henke’s new work uses five Commodore computers first released in 1980 and reanimates the now prehistoric-seeming visuals that were cutting-edge four decades ago: blocky polygons, scrolling waves and screeds of glowing green-on-black text. While these visuals, and the computers’ processing power, seem relics of a bygone age to us, Henke gleefully works within and against these enforced technical limitations, coaxing forth new forms on giant screens to showcase these machines’ startlingly dynamic capabilities. From clunky programming languages emerge endlessly varied visuals, while Henke’s bristling live soundtrack likewise brings together the analogue and the digital, collapsing forty-plus years of technological innovation into one mind-expanding audiovisual display.
Kindly supported by the Goethe Institut, Glasgow.
