By contrast, continuous sequences, depicting exterior landscape views taken from within the control rooms, are shown on a small LCD screen incorporated within the control panel. "We wanted to create a tension between the corporate dream and the everyday life of these places. It is an attempt to posit the individual in projects of control and productivity, and the changes involved in the move from the self-conscious grandeur of the control rooms to the functional modesty of the work station."

Background

Gair Dunlop's art focuses upon the relation of identity, place and the body. His artistic inquiry may generate photographs, films or text-based works, which form the basis of internet projects, photographic exhibitions, films, publications, or environmental art projects. Increasingly, "frustrated by the limits of the photographic object", Dunlop is finding dialogue with others central to his artistic practice. A recent project with Scottish National Heritage involved working with children on the islands of Eigg and Oban, in an exchange of ideas about the marine environment. Additionally, his work may draw on the autobiographical; as with his research into New Town experiments, influenced by his childhood in the Scottish town of Cumbernauld.

Dan Norton's art reflects upon the machine, cyberspace and notions of self. His abstract artworks approach cyberspace as "a multidimensional liquid soundscape emitting light." He is currently prototyping, and exhibiting internationally, a fluid manipulable web instrument, which takes the form of an interactive skin for the computer's desktop.

Quote - " The iconic image of the control room, was shaped by countless thriller films: it was commonly the battleground for power struggles between mad professors, maniacal dictators and forces for good and evil."

Biography: (Gair Dunlop / Dan Norton)

Born: Glasgow / Leeds
Lives: Glasgow East / Glasgow West, Scotland.
Studied : Dunlop: Photography, Polytechnic of Central London Electronic Imaging at Duncan of Jordanstone College. Dan: Electronic Imaging at Duncan of Jordanstone College.

Recent exhibitions

Dunlop: 2002, Revisiting the Picturesque, Burford House, Shropshire. 2002, Keep Focus, online writing commission, Proboscis research group.
Norton: 2002, Protoype Cinema, 43rd Thessalniki film festival, Greece. 2002, leccytude, Dialogues, Edinburgh.

Influences

Dunlop: The playful wreckage of the bright future
Norton: the internet, the machine and individualism

Why do you make art? - Dunlop: I make art in order to exist more fully. I can't think of anything else meaningful to do.