MICROSCOPE Gallery is very pleased to present the optimal value for y, the first exhibition by DataSpaceTime, a collaboration between sound & visual artist Ray Sweeten and artist & set designer Lisa Gwilliam opening on November 12. The artworks in the show revolve around the QR Code – the modern incarnation of the bar code – and the data it contains, taking our current obsession with obtaining information on demand through IPads, wifi, and smartphones to the next level, turning everyday objects, in this case portraits and wallpaper prints, into interactive data retrieval centers.    Artworks in the show are made completely from QR codes, containing the results of an internet search embedded in each, which is then retrievable by handheld devices. Portrait images including those of Gaddafi connect to hundreds of YouTube videos. A sound piece is a QR code audio visual remix of Handel’s Triumph of Time and Disillusion (Trionfo Del Tempo e Disinganno) Italian Libretto. And, wallpaper prints are primarily a poetic gesture, using Google’s NGRAM Book Project as the source, the codes retrieve 5-word combinations that have been least used in English literature, including the title of the exhibition.  

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Ray Sweeten is a data artist and programmer, working in the intersection of image, sound and information systems, using a hybrid of digital and analog sound and visual media. Sweeten has performed and screened at The Kitchen, PS1, the New Museum, San Fransisco Electronic Music Festival, Issue Project Room, CinemaTexas, The Stone, Liverpool Biennial, Participant Inc Gallery, Pacific Film Archive, and others. Sweeten studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Richard Povall, Todd Winkler, Gary Nelson and composition with Randolph Coleman.   Lisa Gwilliam is a production designer and painter based in New York City. Her design work can be seen in Italian Vogue, Allure, American Vogue, Interview, Glamour, Rolling Stone, GQ and the New York Times Magazine. She has also worked on special projects for New York Fashion Week including runway presentations for Monique lhuillier, Milly NY and Tadashi Shoji and created installation events for Victor and Rolf and Puma. She is inspired by the affects of light and movement on traditional photographic processes and how that can be approximated through painting.