A live-streamed exploration of online spaces with the artist Conor McGarrigle
Conor McGarrigle will look at the relationships between algorithms, data and images through the lens of two of his internet projects the BitTorrent Trilogy and 24hour Social, which were separated by a timespan of a decade. The BitTorrent Trilogy consists of a series of three videos made from episodes of popular TV shows incompletely downloaded from the internet via the mostly illegal file-sharing platform BitTorrent. The resulting videos show the glitches and digital errors characteristic of this process. Ten years later, for 24hour Social, the artist downloaded a full day of videos, with one video for every second, thus a total of 84 600 videos, from the now defunct video sharing social platform Vine. On the one hand it’s a celebration of individual creativity, shared memes and the weird internet, on the other hand the project shows how data underpins everything, as social media platforms use the generation and circulation of images to surveil and track their users.
This Screen Walk is a collaboration with PhotoIreland 2020. The 11th edition of PhotoIreland Festival – Ireland’s international festival of photography and image culture –, entitled ON/OFF, combines a programme of online and offline activities and exhibitions.
In Screen Walks, a series of live-streamed explorations of digital spaces, selected artists and researchers investigate artistic strategies taking place online. The project gives an insight into practices using the screen as a medium. From re-contextualising pictures found on online marketplaces and uncovering data brokers’ invisible circulation of images to analysing in-game photography and the social, political and economic implications of games – Screen Walks examines various approaches, offers a behind-the-scenes look at artists’ work and uncovers new, current and forgotten digital spaces. Screen Walks is a collaboration between The Photographers’ Gallery in London and Fotomuseum Winterthur.
Biography: Conor McGarrigle is an artist and researcher working primarily with digital media. His practice is characterised by urban interventions mediated through digital technologies and data-driven explorations of networked social practices. He is a lecturer in Fine Art New Media at the TU Dublin School of Creative Arts.
Kindly supported by: Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council
From Zurich to Winterthur: S 12, IC Zurich-St. Gallen and IR Zurich-Schaffhausen (20–25 min).
From Zurich Airport: IC and IR trains (15 min).
From St. Gallen: IC and IR trains (40–45 min).
From Schaffhausen: IC and IR trains (35 min).
Bus
From Winterthur train station: Bus no. 2 (direction Seen), 3 stops till “Fotozentrum”.
Car
Motorway from Zurich: exit Winterthur-Töss, direction “Zentrum” (City Centre), then follow the sign “Fotomuseum”.Motorway from St. Gallen: exit Oberwinterthur, direction “Zentrum” (City Centre), then follow the sign “Fotomuseum”.Parking facilities near the museum.
