Le Laboratoire debuts a new exhibition by Random International called 150 Milliseconds.
150 Milliseconds documents the development of British contemporary art collective Random International’s current body of work in progress,Fifteen Points. In so doing, this exhibition reveals distinctive aspects of the studio’s experimental process. Themes of continual inspiration to the artist's—behaviour, simulation and the perception of the human form—are further explored.
Unlike any former exhibition of Random International’s work, 150 Milliseconds surveys the process behind the work as much as the finished object and resulting experience. The research, sketch work, prototyping and production methods at the core of the studio will be exhibited to an unprecedented extent.
Arguably Random’s most complex work since their 2012 piece Rain Room (currently exhibited at LACMA), Fifteen Points experiments with the minimal amount of information that is actually necessary for the animated form to be recognised as human; and the fundamental impact created by subtle changes within that information. The title of the exhibition refers to the maximum amount of time it takes the human brain to decipher the apparent figure.
Random International creates work that invites active participation, taking technology as a medium with which to question aspects of life in the post-digital age. Realised through a process of sustained research,Fifteen Points is the latest manifestation of the studio’s ongoing exploration into the relationship between man and machine, and its implications for life today.
Reduced ways of representing complex information have been a sustained source of inspiration to Random International since the collective’s inception. At the studio’s Behaviour symposium in 2011, cognitive scientist Phillip Barnard introduced Random International to the research of BioMotion Lab—which studies the human ability to perceive motion as natural—stimulating the conceptual foundations Fifteen Points.
The realisation of the piece was then developed through an ongoing artist residency at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, facilitated by Le Laboratoire. Beginning in 2014, this extended residency has seen Random working within the biomimetic robotics division, investigating possibilities of motion, representation and perception. Witnessing the precision of motion common to the output of Harvard’s robotic research, Random International were impelled to translate their own artistic research into the physical form of a sculpture series.
The exhibition documents this journey and presents a first sculpture from the Fifteen Points series; the full body of work will make its debut at Pace Art & Technology this September. 150 Milliseconds further contextualises the evolution of Fifteen Points through the documentation of Random International’s works Audience (2008), Future Self (2012) and Rain Room(2012). New seeds of thought—some of which will be developed through the continuation of the residency at Harvard— will also be revealed, forming overarching questions pertinent to the studio’s current practice and offering a glimpse of the first steps for new work.
Random International is hosting a seminar at Le Lab on Friday, April 22, 2016 at 6:30pm. During this event, the artist at Random will take the audience through their thought process while researching and creating this current body of work. RVSP for FREE here.
When: April 21, 2016 - July 1, 2016
Where: Le Laboratoire, Cambridge
About: Le Laboratoire Cambridge is an interdisciplinary culture lab that invites visitors to explore the experiments and wonders of innovative artists, designers, chefs, and more discovering at the frontiers of science. Founded in Paris in 2007 by inventor, material scientist, and Harvard Professor David Edwards, Le Laboratoire now lives in Cambridge as the flagship of ArtScience Labs, a global organization dedicated to radical idea development.