Carnegie Library to host immersive VR experience Silicon Synapse
Artist's Alan James Burns' VR exhibition to be experienced in the Carnegie Library.
In collaboration with Fingal County Council’s Arts Office and the European Commission’s SciArt an immersive VR experience, Silicon Synapse will run in the historic Carnegie Library, Swords from November 12 until December 15.
Created by artist Alan James Burns, in collaboration with writer Sue Rainsford, artist Jason Dunne and composer Michael Riordan, Silicon Synapse is an immersive Virtual Reality and psycho-acoustic experience that will take you on a simulated journey into the personified mind of ‘Technology’.
The artwork is jointly commissioned by Fingal County Council Arts Office and the European Commission’s SciArt and is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland Open Call Award.
Mayor of Fingal, Cllr Eoghan O’Brien, said: “Fingal prides itself on creating opportunities for the public to experience the potential of cutting-edge technologies which allow us to see where we live in new and exciting ways, an artist like Alan James Burns is expertly placed to do this.”
Caroline Cowley Fingal County Council’s Public Art Co-ordinator explains: “Silicon Synapse coincides with Fingal County Council’s Arts Office Public Art Programme, and its intention to activate new audiences for engagement with contemporary art as Swords plans for its future cultural quarter project. The existing historical spaces in Swords historical quarter offer huge inspiration for artists and incite curiosity in the potential visitor.”
This sensory artwork is experienced alone, one person at a time, listening to the inner dialogue of ‘Technology’s’ mind as it replays both sides of a lovers’ quarrel. ‘Technology’ and its life partner ‘Nature’ argue about the sustainability of their relationship and their future as a couple.
‘Silicon Synapse’ explores evolution, genetic engineering and transhumanism. Each viewer is engulfed by a conscious dream-like realm, at they travel through intense listening and visual experiences.
Silicon Synapse is installed within the repurposed historic setting of the Carnegie Library, Swords. This library was once a place of knowledge and learning, shaping the minds and synapses of thousands of people. The audience will now enter through the remnant doors of the library and into the imagined mind of the silicon technology that has largely replaced it.
The work will be available to the public daily from November 12 to December 15, the experience must be booked through the project's website which is available at http://siliconsynapse.net/.
