24/7: a Wake-up Call for our Non-Stop World
- Submitting institution
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University of Glasgow
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32-11967
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- London, UK
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- -
- Year of first exhibition
- 2019
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This MCO involving two exhibitions and a book, was developed over five years, and equates to a longer-form output. It variously involved curating, analysis and commissioning of a large body of art (including 55 artworks for 24/7), plus selection and editing of texts; new artist interviews; and commissioned essays. 24/7 book integrates different perspectives (from a novelist, art critic, essayist, architecture/media theorist, and philosopher of technology) with artist voices. Collectively, all three components involved a complex, extended, multi-layered process of creative investigation in depth, in which, as curator, Cook worked closely with Somerset House Director Reekie, and the V2_gallery, Netherlands.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This output used practice-based research (contemporary art curation) to investigate the pervasive effects of technology on our daily working and social lives, sleep patterns, and relationships to the natural world and one another. It consists of a major curated contemporary art exhibition and related publication (24/7, Somerset House, London, 2019), and two related curatorial projects: The Gig Is Up! (2016, V2_ , Netherlands), that forms underpinning research into the online gig economy and ‘cloud’ labour; and Sleep Mode, planned for Glasgow International but converted to online format for Somerset House, 2020, and reflecting pandemic/lockdown changes to work/life balance. Supporting evidence consists of interpretative texts, installation shots, podcasts, and examples of other online and marketing material.
24/7 was curated by Cook by invitation from Somerset House, and drew on the work of theorist Jonathan Crary (24/7: Late Capitalism and the ends of Sleep). Its 55 artworks included a giant billboard by Douglas Coupland; 10 new commissions; and loaned artworks and technological artefacts from UCL, Tate and Science Museum. Cook conceptualised the exhibition’s curatorial narrative in five sections, ranging from distraction/attentiveness to surveillance. Her practice research entailed selecting the works, researching and developing the new commissions, writing the exhibition texts and label texts, and working with the exhibition and print designers on all layout and marketing materials. She used experimental methods e.g. creating sensory punctuating moments in the journey of the visitor, via immersive and participatory audio and video works; and working with renowned theatre lighting designer Lucy Carter on an innovative lighting scheme across 1000sqm, evoking a 24-hour cycle of moonlight, office light, and sunlight. 40,000 people visited, with feedback indicating changed perception of their own work/life balance. Cook also edited the accompanying book, wrote its introduction, selected/commissioned its essays, and she contributed to public programmes and series of original podcasts.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -