Feeding Consciousness by Dominic Harris at the Halcyon Gallery

It was wonderful weather to be in the west end. I was on New Bond Street, a promenade of high-end shops and galleries. People walked with shopping in hand, others queued up to enter and make a purchase from their chosen luxury goods store.

I entered the Halcyon Gallery to experience this architect-turned artist’s installation. Could this high-tech AI based form of art feature more and more in the art scene- I was already confident it would. Would it last though?

I strike up a conversation with the helpful gallery employee. She explains that some of the interactive digital works you could touch and effect what was displayed whilst others were to be done so remotely as they had high-tech cameras to capture your gesture.

I thought to myself as I waved at a fox on the HD screen: what a cool concept. Why just observe art, interactive art is always fun to be part of. The fox growled back so I left it alone to view the other works. 

The piece de resistance was a tall christmas tree shaped sculpture. It was made up of small screens displaying mainly medical and sporting images. Harris was clearly a PSG fan.

I found the dark cabling purposefully visible behind the mass of screens a nice aesthetic touch. The blue back drop in the gallery was not a great choice as it blended with the sculpture far too much.

Harris’ works have been digitally painted by hand, a highly complex process akin to oil painting. He starts off sketching on his iPad before the use of more technological equipment.

Drawing on his background in design and architecture, Harris initiates his study of histories and patterns. I found a lot of the interactive, digital art a bit shallow. They were more like digital interactive billboards to me than anything else. 

However, I really enjoyed the butterfly pieces that I felt had a lot more depth to them as they delicately fluttered. I would soon find out that they represented the elements of earth and in turn our interconnectedness.

The gallery employee struts over to let me know there is more downstairs. Darkly lit this time. There is a cubic room of butterflies that I enjoyed standing in. I snap my fingers at Poseidon who eventually decides to wave me away. What’s with these AI individuals? Mayfair ay…