Type Motion at FACT Liverpool features over 200 outstanding examples of text and typography being used alongside the moving image. Currently on display and running until 8 February, the exhibition showcases the creative possibilities of opening up uses of text, extending the medium beyond print and highlighting the importance of writing as an artform in itself.
Produced in conjunction with ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Germany), the presentation has been reimagined for the Liverpool location, and features an archive of clips from over 20 countries, dating as early as 1897 and running right up to the present day. Tracing the history of the moving image through the birth of cinema to television advertising and the creation of the music video through to the digital age, the various works on display explore society’s interaction with writing and moving images, alongside major cultural shifts. Influential movements are referred to, such as expressionism, impressionism, dadaism and fluxus, and many of the films and videos delve into the underground and experimental changes in the art world.
Marcel Duchamp, Eduardo Kac, John Baldessari and Paul Sharits are among the artists to be exhibited, and audiences can expect to see extracts from silent movies, adverts for brands such as Audi and Maxell, works of the computer demo-scene and computer games. These will be presented alongside well-known examples including: title sequences from Psycho, Gone with the Wind, Se7en, Alien and Star Wars and music videos including Muse, Kanye West and Justice.
Type Motion is designed to be an immersive sensory experience. Gallery 1 is presented as a mirrored “infinity space”, surrounding the visitor with moving image. Meanwhile, Gallery 2 features custom-built software and touch screen interfaces so that visitors can literally get hands-on with the archive and curate their own playlists of clips for other gallery users to see.
In conjunction with the main exhibition, FACT launches a Development Lab in the atrium where the public will be invited to experience some of the techniques, technologies and inspiration behind Type Motion. A number of artists and experts are working with the gallery to present workshops and drop-in events to explore projection mapping, virtual reality, coding, data interaction and design. The space will also play host to FACT’s “Tweeting Typewriter”, 3D Printers and a new app which can be used to build your own “Liverpool Alphabet”. Australian artist Lauren Moffatt will be in residence for seven weeks to develop an ambitious new artwork for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.
Type Motion, until 8 February, FACT Liverpool, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ.
Credits
1. David Anderson, Tongue Of The Hidden, courtesy of FACT.
