Stanza Unveils An Interactive Sculpture Installation Incorporating 3D Self-Portraiture

Stanza

Stanza the London based British artist has unveiled his latest work, The Reader.  Stanza works with new technology to create installations that engage audiences in contemporary debate around surveillance, privacy, and big data Over the last thirty years he has made a series of modular artworks that express the possibilities for our data-mediated future. These artistic outputs include online interfaces and online visualisations, as well as data driven dynamic artworks in the form of installations, and sculptural objects. Stanza new sculpture The Reader was commissioned for Milton Keynes Libraries and was funded by Arts Council England as part of The Digitalis Programme a unique series of digital art events. 

The Reader has been installed and stands at the heart Of Milton Keynes Central Libraries. The Reader is a large six foot data sculpture of the artist Stanza wearing a hoodie reading a book. The artwork is a metaphor for the engagement of reading in the digital age. The sculpture acts as a focal point for community and public engagement and has taken over one year to make and design. The artwork is a manipulation of data, that ‘powers’ all the ‘events’ ‘actions’ and ‘processes’ that you see in the sculpture. As data sources becomes more accessible to artists, it opens up for use as a raw material. As Stanza says; “Data Is The Medium Of The Age.” 

The Reader is turned into am interactive system and is based on a 3d scan of the artists body. It is made of transparent perspex with one hundred custom made electronic text displays and custom made electronic systems. The artwork reads texts from all the books published since 1952 using an open source data set that allow millions of lines of text to be read and consumed inside the system of The Reader. 

After scanning the artists body the file was modelled into the shapes that are cut. From perspex the whole construction is then assembled like a jig saw. As well as the one hundred micro display screens a separate sensor system uses bright blue wires to give the effect of blood pulsing through the veins of the body. Made by Stanza an internationally recognised British artist, who has been exhibiting worldwide since 1984. Recurring themes throughout his career include the urban landscape, surveillance culture, privacy and alienation in the city. www.stanza.co.uk

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