Paul Hurley
Image © Oliver Rudkin
'Why? And what does it mean?'
Live art performance exploring ‘mental and digital data’ launches interactive web stream at whosedata.net
Paul Hurley, a Bristol-based performance artist, explored new possibilities of ‘streaming art’ through the web, by delivering a live art performance to a studio and online audience.
The four-hour durational performance was part of hisWhose Data? artist’s residency and consisted of a series of actions, meditations and interactions inspired by the South Bristol estate of Knowle West and Hurley’s time there. The event was documented by a live public audience - photographs and Twitter posts were uploaded instantaneously to the website www.whosedata.net - and those following online will added their comments.
In this project - ‘Why? And what does it mean?’ - Hurley explored the data that we produce, as viewers and witnesses, when we experience performances and events. This includes our physical and emotional responses, the thoughts (or ‘mental data’) that we process, and media content (or ‘digital data’), such as photographs, comments and Twitter updates.
The hypothetical title of the work refers to the questions that a performance might prompt, including: ‘Why – and how – would someone do that?’ and the inevitable ‘What does it mean?’
For more information contact Rachel on 0117 363 4609 or e-mail rachel.clarkeNOSPAM@kwmc.org.uk