Experiment 21
150 MILLISECONDS
RANDOM INTERNATIONAL
April 22, 2016 - July 1, 2016
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150 Milliseconds documents the development of Fifteen Points, the current work in progress of the British contemporary art collective Random International. An entirely new body of work, Fifteen Points emerged out of the artists’ two-year Laboratoire residency. This exhibition reveals distinctive aspects of the studio’s experimental process and explores themes of continual inspiration to Random International, such as behavior, simulation and the perception of the human form. 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 are exhibited to an unprecedented extent.
Arguably Random’s most complex work since their 2012 piece Rain Room, Fifteen Points experiments with the minimal amount of information that is actually necessary for the animated form to be recognized as human and the fundamental impact created by subtle changes within that information. The title of the exhibition, "150 Milliseconds", refers to the maximum amount of time it takes the human brain to decipher the apparent figure.
Since 2014, an extended residency facilitated by Le Laboratoire has seen Random International working within the biomimetic robotics division at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences on the development of Fifteen Points. This exhibition presents a first sculpture from the series and considers its evolution in the context of Random International’s practice. 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 output and offering a glimpse of the first steps for new work.
About Random International
Random International is a collaborative studio for experimental practice within contemporary art. Founded in 2005 by Hannes Koch and Florian Ortkrass, the studio now includes a larger team in London and Berlin. Questioning aspects of identity and autonomy in the post-digital age, Random International’s work invites active participation. Their work Rain Room—a large-scale environment of continual, responsive rainfall—has been exhibited at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2015-16); Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2015); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013); and London's Barbican (2012). The studio’s work formed part of the Lichtsicht Biennale (2015), Ruhrtriennale (2013), and Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2011). Solo presentations of their work have been exhibited at Lunds konsthall, Sweden (2014) and Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Paris (2012). Their work is in the collections of MoMA, LACMA and Victoria & Albert Museum, where their Swarm Study III is on long-term display
This project has been primarily supported by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and VIA Art Fund.
