Our artists in residence Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway have been working on a new development of their work 'Black Shoals; Dark Matter' and the work is now on view at Somerset House as part of the exhibition 'Big Bang Data' until 28 February 2016.
It is twelve years since they last showed this work and this is a rare opportunity to see it.
Black Shoals; Dark Matter, is a planetarium and a real-time representation of the financial markets, driven by huge quantities of live trading data from global stock exchanges. Companies are represented as stars that flicker and glow as shares are traded around the world - the brightness and duration of the glow indicating the volume of the trading activity taking place. The stars slowly drift in response to the complex currents of the market, clustering and dividing into slowly changing nebulae, galaxies and constellations. Feeding on the light of the stars is an ecology of artificial life creatures. Starting from first principles, initially unable even to move, they must learn to survive in an environment composed entirely of money.
Watch a video of Lise Autogena & Joshua Portway introducing 'Black Shoals' from their studio at North West Cambridge Development.
Read Oliver Wainwright's review of the work in theguardian
The project is supported by Thomson Reuters, The Danish Arts Foundation and FullDome.pro