About Soda

Soda is a British group of fine artists using digital technology
including computer programming in their work. Work by Soda artists is
currently being exhibited in two UK shows - at the Spacex Gallery where
four members of the group are showing new commissions on the notion of
Networking, and at London's Cubitt St gallery, opening on Friday 7
March. The latter is a collaborative piece that explores the
relationship between the two spaces within the gallery - the office
which looks on to the exhibition space, and the exchanges of information
between them.

More information on Soda is available at http://www.soda.co.uk or via
e-mail to info@soda.co.uk.

'Networking with Soda' at Spacex
15 February- 22 March 1997

Ever since the invention of Mail Art in the 1950s, a growing number of
artists have sought original ways to disseminate work. 'Networking: Art
by Post and Fax' at Spacex exhibits work by international artists
working with fax, mail and digital technology, including David Hockney,
the 'currency forger' Cildo Meireles and 'celebrity stalker' Jessica
Voorsanger. To broaden the show, Spacex Gallery has commissioned Soda
artists to make new work that employs digital media to cross distances.
'Networking with Soda' explores a range of ideas, firmly located in the
realm of contemporary art practice but with a critical appreciation of
the possibilities offered by new technologies of communication.

In Lucy Kimbell's 'Interference' the visitor's path through the space
determines what he or she hears through cordless headphones. Tracking
the visitor's movement in physical and virtual space, the computer
measures the interference created by this movement with what is emitted
by a 'virtual art work' sited in the space. The resulting sounds and
voices allow artist and visitor to articulate the gallery space
physically, psychologically, yet invisibly.

For 'Downloadables' Rob Myers takes Pop Art and Minimalism's concepts of
reproduction and serialization onto the Net. Using Applets - small
programs written in the Web programming language Java, the artist
reproduces ad infinitum the work of currently fashionable artists, the
Applets enabling the images to reconfigure themselves according to the
responses of visitors. 'Downloadables' will be accessible on-line at
http://www.soda.co.uk/spacex.htm.

Fiddian Warman and Julian Saunderson's 'Sonn'et-Se'quence' is an
installation of five robotic towers with rotating 'heads' that lock on
to each other to relay and receive sonnets transmitted in Morse code by
flashing lights. These signals are turned into text by miniature
computers in each tower and relayed to a monitor via a video camera
where visitors can compare the romance and discipline of the original
sonnets with the courtship rituals enacted by the five automatons.

Neal White's 'Homage to Pastoral Tranquility' refers to the traditions
of romantic English pastoral composition. An orchestration of sound
samples taken from Spacex's fax machine, this piece configures the
invisible aural landscape of communication technologies. Varying in
tone, pitch and volume, these sounds are infinitely rearranged by custom
written software - a form of representation that alludes to the
landscape tradition of Turner, Elgar and Constable.

Spacex Gallery, Preston St, Exeter, UK. Open Tues-Sat 10-5. Free. For
more details: curator Alex Farquarson at Spacex Gallery on ++44(0)1392
431786. Soda is delighted to be associted with Virgin Net which has
sponsored 'Networking with Soda'.

Soda invites you to the opening of
Multiple Choice
group show at Cubitt Gallery
preview Thursday 6th March 6-9pm

address: 2-4 Caledonia St. Kings Cross. London N1 9DZ
show open: Friday 7 March - Sunday 6 April
Friday to Sunday 12pm-6pm or by appointment