Open File 3

<p>Three separate publications linked in format and style, for three events around the UK.</p> <p>Taking on themes of digital distribtion and virtual cultures, the third series of Open File events took place in three venues across the UK: Grand Union, Birmingham, ICA, London and Spike Island, Bristol.</p> <p><em>Hashfail</em> was the first in a series of three nationwide events investigating the distribution and production of art via virtual and digital platforms through sound, performance and digital media. <em>Hashfail</em> coincided with <em>(On) Accordance</em>, a project by or-bits.com and Grand Union. A Hashfail occurs when ‘seeded’ files have become corrupt and therefore certain ‘bits’ of data cannot be received. Numerous Hashfails lead to the loss of quality and gradual decomposition of a file, shifting it ever-further from its origin, subjecting it to a new type of physicality and texturing.</p> <p><em>Long Live The New Flesh</em> was the second event in the series. Digitalization and the virtualisation of space implies a crucial shift where the human scale of industry and society have disappeared, and therefore social products are no longer manipulated totally materially. The shift from mechanical technology to digital, from hardware to software, obfuscates the workings of technology leaving only the virtually simulated soft interface of touchscreen to be manipulated by human hands.</p> <p>The third and final installment of a series of nationwide events investigating art practices in relation to digital distribution and production, <em>Rickroll</em> took place over an evening at Bristol’s Spike Island. As notions of public space have shifted with the advent of the internet, social codes have been separated from their ‘real worldʼ counterparts. This evening of screenings and performances explored forms of emerging online interaction, memes and virtual socialisation.</p>