Recommended to us by former SOTA guest, Carla Gannis, SOTA is very excited to speak with conceptual artist, Rachel Ara, about her immersive installation, Transubstantiation of Knowledge. The holographic, mixed-reality journey, Transubstantiation of Knowledge, opened at the Victoria & Albert Museum in September 2018 installed in the V&A’s Medieval and Renaissance Galleries. The piece takes the form of an audio guide and uses a Hololens allowing visitors to interact with and hear the stories of Franciscan nuns occupying the galleries. The piece is an example of Rachel's art-making approach which selects the medium and material based on the message she wishes to convey. In this episode, Rachel explains her use of tech in Transubstantiation of Knowledge, the inspiration behind the work as well as another piece,This Much I'm Worth, her dedicated trajectory into the art world, and her thoughts on the accessibility of the arts and what it is to be an artist.
-About Rachel Ara-
Conceptual and Data artist Rachel Ara graduated with a Fine Art BA from Goldsmiths College where she won the prestigious Burston award. In 2016 she won the International Aesthetica Art Prize for This Much I’m Worth [the self-evaluating artwork]. Pulling on her experiences as a computer system designer, the digital sculpture draws on data and complex algorithms to calculate its own value in real time.
Her work is nonconformist with a socio-political edge that often incorporates humour and irony with feminist & queer concerns.
Rachel is a Near Now Fellow, awarded to pioneering artists working in technology. She is also artist in residence at the V&A in London.
Learn more here
Tweet her @rachelara
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-About Transubstantiation of Knowledge-
Informed by her research into the museum’s systems and data, Ara is creating a site specific mixed reality work investigating systems of knowledge and power by interweaving stories from Franciscan nuns, computer code and contemporary technologies.
Within the chapel the installation takes the form of an audio guide with a hololens. Using the Hololens the viewer will be able to see and interact with holographic nuns in the chapel. Behind the church are cases with "false" objects mixed into the real V&A collections that substantiate the story and add more intrigue. In the whispering galleries is a soundscape formed out of the voices of the women at the V&A which interact with a giant chestnut and fibre optic loom behind the Eucharist.
-About This Much I'm Worth-
This much I’m worth [The self-evaluating Artwork] is a digital art piece that continually displays its sale value through a series of complex algorithms called "the endorsers". It is constructed with materials that have a history loaded with association. Implicated in the history of neon is its use in the sex trade, its cultural significance today is more commonly a trope of contemporary art. It is both a functional object and spectacle seeking to question values, worth and algorithmic bias.
