Feats of digital dexterity

Rock The Future, Fact, Liverpool

Charlotte Cripps
Monday 15 August 2005 00:00 BST
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Rock the Future showcases the latest Japanese digital art. In one room, painted bright blue, a printer spews out white till receipts from the ceiling like snow. But rather than printing numbers, it prints snippets of news, taken from the internet.

It is a new work by Ryota Kuwakubo, known for his toys and games, such as HeavenSeed (2003), a ball that emits vocal exclamations when thrown. Five Japanese artists, along with Kuwakubo, will exhibit their work,including the artist collective ressentiment and exonemo (Kensuke Sembo and Yae Akaiwa).

Ceri Hand, FACT's director of exhibitions, went to Japan earlier this year, looking for artists to shed some light on the ever-evolving digital art world. "What stood out in several artists' work was wit, playfulness and a retro-futuristic take on combing hi and low technologies," says Hand.

In one gallery, painted in huge black-and-white stripes, is exonemo's interactive installation. The artists' approachembraces software, installations and their own devices. In Shikakunomukou (On the Other Side of Vision), their new work, the visitor draws a picture in the dark using a touch pad while an electronic soundscape aids creativity. The drawings are then relayed to video screens on a rota programmed by the artists.

ressentiment, who often use film and military footage in their work to assail the viewers senses, have come up with Ikiyson 15 for - a new video that is shot, edited and screened in real time.

"We asked the people of Liverpool to send in personal objects that meant something to them," says Hand. "The artists will make a selection from these objects and arrange them like a mini landscape in the gallery. Two cameras will roam around the gallery filming these objects to make a mini movie that is then projected on to a huge screen."

26 August to 30 October (0151-707 4450; www.fact.co.uk)

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