Type Motion is an exhibition featuring over 200 outstanding examples of text and typography being used alongside the moving image.
Co-produced with ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Germany), the exhibition is reimagined for our gallery spaces and features an archive of clips from over twenty countries, dating as early as 1897 and running right up to the present day. Charting the history of the moving image through the birth of cinema to television advertising and the creation of the music video through to the digital age, Type Motion is an exploration through our relationship with writing and moving images, alongside major cultural shifts. Referencing movements such as expressionism, impressionism, dadaism and fluxus, many of the films and videos also explore underground and experimental changes in the art world.
Well-known examples include: title sequences from Psycho, Gone with the Wind, Se7en, Alien and Star Wars and music videos including Muse, Kanye West and Justice.
"It is a show almost unique in its potential to reward multiple visits."
The Double Negative
The exhibition will also focus on artworks by Marcel Duchamp, Eduardo Kac, John Baldessari and Paul Sharits among others, extracts from silent movies, adverts for brands such as Audi and Maxell and works of the computer demo-scene, computer games, and websites will be presented.
In a deliberate contrast to traditional archive displays, Type Motion will be an immersive sensory experience. Gallery 1 will be constructed as a mirrored ‘infinity space’, surrounding the visitor with moving image. Gallery 2 will feature custom-built software and touch screen interfaces so that visitors can literally get hands-on with the archive and curate their own playlists of clips for other gallery users to see.
GALLERY 1
Type Motion, 2014. Installation view at FACT.
Today’s urban environments are flooded with so many examples of type in motion, that we scarcely notice it. Take a walk through the ‘streets’ of Gallery 1 and immerse yourself in the complex relationship between text and the world in which we live.
GALLERY 2
Type Motion, 2014. Installation view at FACT.
Explore the entire film archive your way. Take a seat in our cinema space to watch the selections made by the exhibition curators, or use the interaction stations to learn more about your favourites, discover new ones, and create your own playlist.
DEVELOPMENT LAB
Type Motion, 2014. Installation view at FACT.
Inspired by hacklabs and artist studios, the Development Lab will play host to variety of regular workshops and skill-share socials, as well as providing a space where anyone can work.
THE WALL
Type Motion, 2014. Installation view at FACT.
A collaboration with Grafik – the foremost publication on graphic design and visual culture – this part of the exhibition offers nascent designers, stretching from those in the final stages of their studies to practitioners battling through the first few years of work, a platform to expresses themselves both visually and verbally.
In collaboration with ZKM | Karlsruhe and xm:lab. Supported by Arts Council England, Liverpool City Council, The German Federal Cultural Foundation, Goethe Institut, The Culture Programme of the European Union, Connecting Cities, Grafik and GF Smith.
Interaction, Interface and Exhibition Design by xm:lab (Henrik Elburn, Christopher Kaiser, Nils Pollom, Soenke Zehle, Simon Paehler)
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