All images courtesy of the Jamie Cooper

Algorithmic Fissures – Ltd Ink Corporation Gallery

As vastly connected and algorithmically driven virtual spaces swiftly become spaces of mass culture, the phenomenon of our contemporary life can be at times experienced as a viscous and shifting landscape populated by images of the spectacular in a hyperreal environment. The algorithm of late capitalism affects our contemporary lives via tailored social media feeds, advertisements and search engine results. Nike sneakers, Gucci handbags, Peloton bikes and Instagram likes are superficial, image-based objects of fetishistic desire that manifest within this algorithmic reality; a space where we too are reduced to capital. In Algorithmic Fissures, artists Jamie Cooper (UK) and Jaxton Su (SG) create a speculative space in response to the influence of the algorithm on contemporary life and mass culture. Within this space, fissures, glitches, breaches, hacks and flaws in the algorithm have developed over time, presenting opportunities for new algorithmic forms to take root.

Algorithmic Fissures seeks to contemplate our place within the context of deep time* rather than time in motion. Is the algorithm a symbol of the height of a late capitalist civilisation? Or a future relic of a failing one? How do we position one’s intrinsic entity against the environment in an alienated society dominated by capitalism? How do we discern between images and the real and navigate within this increasingly illusory world? Presenting new works by Jaxton and Jamie that represent an exploration of possible algorithmic compositions, the exhibition reflects upon and questions our contemporary phenomena of digital surplus, capitalism and hyperreality.

*Deep time is an analysis of time on a geological scale.

The exhibition is supported by National Arts Council, Singapore; Creative Scotland; Hope Scott Trust; and Ltd ink Corporation.

Exhibition Info:
Opening Reception: 25th Nov 2022, 6-9pm
Exhibition Dates: 26 Nov – 04 Dec 2022 (11-4pm daily)

Address:
Ltd ink Corporation.
The Old Ambulance Depot
77 Brunswick Street
EH7 5HS

About the artists:

Jamie Cooper (United Kingdom)
Jamie is interested in making sculptures that invoke a sense of the uncanny. His current practice has grown to draw on Sci-fi futurism to construct theoretical ‘other places’ where there is the cognitive room to imagine more optimistic futures beyond late capitalist and climate crisis. Jamie Cooper has shown public artworks as part of the British Council interdisciplinary ‘Cityscapers’ project in 2008, toured by British Council to London, Sydney and Singapore. He has also contributed public artwork to Glasgow International in 2010. Several of his video works have been shown in Glasgow and Berlin as part of the Solid State cinema, Youthitude DIY festival and at Mojito Kino. Jamie is the editor of the art and theory publication Zerozine.

Jaxton Su (Singapore)
Jaxton works with painting, installation and video art. He holds a Master of Fine Art from The Glasgow School of Art (UK) and currently lectures at Nanyang Technological University. Notably, he has exhibited at National Gallery Singapore, Clydebank Museum and Art Gallery (UK) and Jangsaengpo Culture Depot (KR), amongst others. Jaxton was accorded the StudyUK Alumni Award in Culture and Creativity by the British Council Singapore in 2022. He delves into notions of gamification and hyperreality and hopes to compose various narratives that reflect upon particular issues in our contemporary society. He is currently interested in exploring the spatial possibilities pertaining to private and virtual realms in our hyperconnected world.