you did make her happy, but then she changed into someone you couldn't make happy

 

Curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight

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Video by Will Kendrick

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Sounds by Cara Farnan, Clerk 37, Devon Forrester-Jones, Holly Standen, James Choucino, Mel Azevedo, Razvan Anghelache, Rebecca Glover, Roland Wegerer, Roxman Gatt, Will Pardoe, Xindi Zhou

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Background by Anonymous

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Things change, people change, time moves on, we grow older, but a web page left to its own devices will stay the same, eventually being lost to the ether of the internet once the domain name expires. After being abandoned by the owner, the page can’t change, can’t grow, it can only wait, waiting to be re-configured whilst simultaneously counting down the days until its URL becomes obsolete. I’ve been thinking a lot about time recently, especially in relation to isthisit? turning a year old and my own insignificant milestone of a birthday approaching. How have I changed in the past year, what’s happened in the world, what have we gained, what have we lost? The name of the exhibition ‘you did make her happy, but then she changed into someone you couldn't make happy’ is taken from a TV show I recently finished. The line, although clichéd, felt genuine when Tom gave Josh the heartfelt advice, and can obviously be attributed to many in the same position, including myself. The exhibition features several artworks interspersed between a murky background of continually moving particles, simulating the effect that occurs when dust is disturbed in darkened cinemas by animated projectors. There are 14 sound works in total, allowing the user to pick and choose a soundtrack to watch the dust or alternatively indulge in the silent film by Will Kendrick, composed of various appropriated consumerist imagery, from GTA5 to the dancing humanoid persona of Hatsune Miku; A virtual performer who functions as both an online and offline entity, traversing the IRL and URL spheres, sometimes simultaneously. The 14 audio pieces make up the entire collection of sound works submitted to isthisit?, archiving these individuals and their works before a new year begins. What happens now?