Bruntwood unveils digital art plans at Neo

Artist Brendan Dawes has been commissioned to create the first installation for the digital art space at Bruntwood’s Neo building, launching in early 2017.

Bruntwood has invested £250,000 into the media wall on the ground floor of Neo, its £8m collaborative workspace redevelopment of 15-storey Bank House in Portland Street and Charlotte Street in Manchester.

The wall will be made up of 30 55-inch screens and will feature a series of regularly changing exhibitions from established and emerging artists. The display will be open to the public during office hours.

Brendan Dawes’ installation, entitled Fermata, will consume real-time digital data including social media feeds, weather reports and feeds from sensors within the building itself and translate them into abstract digital artwork. Every week, Fermata creates an image representing one week’s worth of activity.

Dawes’ artwork has been on display this year in Singapore, Peru and Chile as part of Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona’s Big Bang Data exhibition, and his 2004 piece Cinema Redux has been at New York’s Museum of Modern Art since 2008.

There is currently an open call for exhibition submissions across moving and static images, sound, live or data streams and virtual reality.