Black and white photography of mountains and waterfalls.

Yang Yongliang. The Night of Perpetual Day, 2014. Courtesy the artist and CFCCA.

Exhibition Launch: Digital Matters: The Earth Behind the Screen

Venue: Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), Manchester, M4 1EU
Launch: Thursday 2 November 2017, 6 – 8pm
Admission: Free

Artists: Lin Ke, MAP Office, Ellen Pau, Dani Ploeger, Unknown Fields, Yang Yongliang.

Whilst the world is increasingly dependent on digital technologies, the physical impact of the electronics we use daily is often ignored. The complex internal structures of a mobile phone or a PC require not only the extraction of natural resources but also thousands of unique parts to be manufactured and disposed of in a cycle of production that enables us to engage in the digital realm. However, as the scale and potentially harmful impact of these processes becomes greater we must ask ourselves what is the social and environmental cost of our consumer desires?

Digital Matters: The Earth Behind the Screen is a group exhibition exploring the relationship between the natural and the technological through artworks produced in Hong Kong and China. The participating artists attempt to interrogate the material foundations of our contemporary digital universe and its related socio-political and environmental concerns.

Curated by Marianna Tsionki, Research Curator, CFCCA and University of Salford.

On Friday 3 November there will be a Digital Matters Symposium held in conjunction with the exhibition.