Digital Zoo

The exhibition launches at Trinity Leeds shopping centre this week, and will examine ‘the way the Internet and social media have changed our culture’, according to Furtherfield, which partnered with producers The CultureCode Initiative and Land Securities, owners of Trinity Leeds, to stage the show.

The ‘zoo’ of the title was inspired by the way social media makes our lives visible for all to gawp at, and as such, much of the work in the exhibition draws on things like tweets and Facebook statuses as materials.

Six works will feature in the Trinity Leeds exhibition, including experimental software, videos, installations and mobile media.

Arts collective Transnational Temps has created a new piece for the show entitled Mall of the Mind – an app game that challenges users to scour Trinity Leeds for ‘wildlife’. Representations of animals can be found around the centre, and having successfully hunted them down, users can share their ‘documentary photos’ via social media.

Other works include the Animacules animation by Genetic Moo, inspired by  the19th century sea life illustrations of Ernst Haeckel and the work of the 17th century Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.

Li Sterry’s installation Kay’s Blog explores the phenomena of people opening up about often very personal things online.

As well as showcasing the artworks, Digital Zoo will also host a series of workshops for children around Andy Deck’s Crow_Sourcing installation, based around animal noises and social media.

Digital Zoo takes place from 14 – 23 February at Trinity Leeds, Albion St, Leeds, Yorkshire LS1 before touring to Lewisham, London; Sunderland; London’s Shepherd’s Bush and White Rose, Leeds. For information on dates visit http://furtherfield.org/projects/digital-zoo