Asset Dump

All welcome Invitation : UNFOLDING WORLDS Lab Showcase Preview + Artist Talk by john gerrard

Thu 16 Oct 6pm – 8:30pm

The Glassworks, Mill Bay, Folkestone, CT20 1JG

Please join us for a special evening celebrating the culmination of the Screen South Unfolding Worlds Lab. I am sharing a virtual world in progress Asset Dump a virtual landfill with soundtrack from myself and Peter Coyte.

Asset Dump –  This is not a new Giza 

Learning how the Unreal Engine works has been eye opening experience. This is a sketch for a future educational interactive landfill site; to take you to places you would never want to go and learn about specific issues, like how fires are caused.

During the lab I discovered the world of virtual assets, individual items found in games and VR, sold in huge digital stores like Epic, a vast digital junkyard, where real-world items are painstaking produced for sale to those developing games and, in our case, virtual worlds. Anything can be purchased for a price some assets are free, most are not aesthetically pleasing and somethings  I wanted to do were not possible in the time frame.

The experience reminded me of sci-fi writer Philip K Dick’s Perky Pat game; he predicted a future where colonists on Mars live horrible lives trapped in caves and took a drug called Can-D to allow them to experience virtual layouts of homes and communities back on earth.

The digital junk you can see here is the tip of an iceberg really; I discovered it is slow, painful and time-consuming work to place unique items separately on the landfill  – so with very limited time and no budget, it was about getting a feeling, this is why you are seeing similar waste items.

It also got me thinking about the low paid workers in third world countries who make assets and programme virtual worlds, and the digital waste we don’t see and my teenage son who spends his all his days in a dark room which is quite cave like, making assets on blender under the light of his PC. 

Huge thanks to Gavin and Tom and everyone at Screen South. 

Soundtrack Magz Hall, Peter Coyte https://www.petercoyte.com/ and Hélène Williams 

The evening will begin with a public talk by artist john gerrard, whose Triennial commission Ghost Feed can be experienced at Folkestone Viaduct until Sun 19 Oct. Following the talk there will be an opportunity to preview new works developed by a cohort of artists during the Lab and a drinks reception. Unfolding Worlds was inspired by john gerrard’s ground-breaking use of games engine software in his fine art installation work. The three-month Lab ran from the Screen South Digital Hub, with tutoring and guidance on UNREAL Engine from Luke Anderton, co-founder of Tinkr Academy.

6pm : Artist Talk – john gerrard, Screen South Studio, The Glassworks

7pm-8:30pm : Showcase Preview + Drinks Reception, Lower Atrium, The Glassworks

Booking for the Artist Talk is via the Creative Folkestone website : Artist Talk: john gerrard – Creative Folkestone his work in photo.

Presented by Screen South as part of Folkestone Fringe. Supported by Arts Council England and UK Government.