– Simon Ingram
– Richard Killeen
– Sean Kerr
– Jeena Shin
– John F. Simon Jr.
– Martin Thompson

Curated by Simon Bowerbank

// Opening Wednesday 24 October, 6pm

// Show runs from 25 October until 10 November 2012

The changing methods of artistic practice during the twentieth century and the simultaneous inception and development of computerised technology represent an intriguing historical parallel. In 1961, the first industrial robot began working at a General Motors factory in New Jersey. Named UNIMATE, this robot sequenced and stacked hot pieces of die-cast metal with its 4,000-pound arm, by following a series of instructions stored on a magnetic drum. In the same year, George Brecht composed numerous “event scores,” that is, step-by-step instructions dictating the actions of performers. One such event score, Three Telephone Events (1961), reads “When the telephone rings, it is allowed to continue ringing until it stops / When the telephone rings, the receiver is lifted, then replaced / When the telephone rings, it is answered.”

Presenting either a system or something made according to the dictates of a system, Simon Ingram, Richard Killeen, Sean Kerr, Jeena Shin, John F. Simon Jr. and Martin Thompson explore the highly structured and analytical relationship between artist and artwork evoked by such comparisons between technology and art. These structured relationships, whether formally unexpressed or articulated using language, are mediated in each instance by the artist’s use of instructions, steps or algorithms. As a result, each work presented as part of Procedure was, is or will be created under conditions in which the role of the artist shifts towards that of a programmer, draftsperson, composer or logician.