Digital Gateway

Where in the world can you see your "digitised self"?...try...Bradford, England.

Nine months in the brainstorming, development and production plus the connection of 108 inter-linked display modules, 13,824 tiny red lights, 108 microcomputers and infra-red sensors and another year to check it all runs OK and what do you get?...the world's first fully interactive "Digital Gateway".

The internationally renowned National Museum of Photography Film and Television in Bradford recently underwent a major multi-million pound redevelopment and it was during this time that Nigel Johnson, senior lecturer in the school of TV and Imaging was approached by the museum and asked to create an entrance work for a new "Wired Worlds" gallery that has since won the Design Year 2000 Award.

As visitors enter the gallery they pass through the "Digital Gateway" and in the process immediately engage with the interactive artwork. As they move, their shapes, size, position and movements are mimicked and re-interpreted as silhouettes of moving pixelated blocks and points of light until they see themselves as pure "0"s and "1"s...their "digitised" self.

First year celebrations
In just its first year the DCA received three and a half times the initial projected attendance figures with the number of visitors approaching 350,000. With its galleries, cinema, print studio, cafe-bar and shop, visitors can not cease to be captivated by some aspect of the arts centre.

At its heart is the University's Visual Research Centre (VRC) and Centrespace. The VRC, an "art laboratory," equipped with £600,000 worth of technology, enables cutting edge research in fine art, design and television and imaging to evolve in front of visitors' very own eyes. At the core of this is "Centrespace" where the public can observe the creative process in action and talk to the artists about their work.

The latest exhibition to feature was that of design's course director, Tim Proud and photography lecturer Jonathan Robertson with Charcoal-Lattice. First exhibited in Singapore, the display's research-process can be fully appreciated through the opportunity of speaking with one of the artists.

Tim Proud commented "This has all been extremely interesting, Jonathan and I didn't know each other particularly well before we set out on this project but over the months of bringing our work together it's amazing how many correlations can be drawn between my 3D work and Jonathan's 2D photography. The research process is still evolving even now - even through the installation of the work you keep seeing new ideas and concepts."

Since its opening Centrespace has had over 15 different installations covering a vast array of subject matter. An average of 100 people visit the VRC each day, increasing to over 200 on special event days or evenings.

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