Why Go Outside When You’ve Got NEoN?
Are you stuck at home with nothing to do except browse the Internet? Stressed out about the global pandemic? Did you know that NEoN digital arts festival has commissioned a fair few online exhibitions and web-based art pieces over the years? While away the hours with these works of art. If you get lost go back to our homepage and click the ‘online’ section on our menu tab to see the selected pieces and others.
We Need Us (2014-Ongoing) – Need something relaxing to have on in the background? We Need Us by Julie Freeman, is an abstract visualisation of data about data. There’s Invader ID, which tracks changes in coastal environments, translated into red squares with yellow dividing lines. Or the rotating blue squares and rectangles of Variable Star Zoo – which is attempting to map the central part of the Milky Way. Each project comes with its own sound effects. The information comes from the Zooniverse project, a research platform that utilises the time and brainpower of hundreds of thousands of volunteers to analyse data and recognise patterns and anomalies. Who knows, exploring We Need Us might lead you to a project you want to dedicate a little of your quarantined day to.
The Endless Forest (2018) – Sadly only available to those with Windows, The Endless Forest by Tale of Tales is an online multiplayer game and ‘social screensaver’ where you play as a deer in a forest. In The Endless Forest there is no ‘chat’ function, instead your deer communicates through magic and movement – creating a happy and peaceful atmosphere.
NEoN Haiku Bot (2015) – Although currently inactive, this bot by Albert Elwin managed to last for several years on a steady diet of local news stories. There’s thousands of tweets to scroll through, and the account provides an insight into the concerns of local news. From the tragic to the incredibly mundane there are occasional gems, and although many are not strictly haikus they can still elicit a chuckle.
The Gathering Cloud (2017) – This hypertextual work by J. R. Carpenter explores the ecological impact of so-called ‘cloud’ computing, questioning the idea that cloud storage is infinite, free, and resource-light. An educational and thoughtful piece of work, with an interactive and intuitive design.
Finally, we want to draw your attention to “Sous Le Web, La Plage” (2019) – our online exhibition from last year’s NEoN digital arts festival, curated by Martin Zeilinger. With six projects to view there is A LOT to look at. We recommend taking an entire afternoon, or ideally a day, and exploring it properly.
And those are some of the online projects we’ve been involved in creating, commissioning, and exhibiting. We hope they keep you entertained and distracted during this time of crisis.
NEoN
