Microtopias – Dave Griffiths
About the Artwork
Microtopias is an exhibition that re-imagines and re-animates material fragments using archival microfilm. Developed in Manchester and Liverpool by the Victorian inventor J.B. Dancer, microfilm is a cumbersome, near-redundant medium that will last 500 years, and requires a simple light and lens to decompress and scrutinise its contents. Through hands-on interaction with Griffiths’ microfilm works, viewers can browse the minutiae of matter, and gain insight into early-modern processes of observing and recording data and images. Through his work with this medium, Griffiths suggests the potential resurgence of microfilm as a post-digital method to durably archive our proliferating knowledge of the world.
About the Artist
Dave Griffiths is a UK artist and PhD student who draws on scientific expertise through mini-residencies and consultation with experts in various scientific communities. He aims to understand how science and art share storytelling and place-making practices through observing and using matter and data to construct narratives. Recent commissions with Arts Catalyst and Rothschild Foundation have been exhibited at Perpetual Uncertainty – Contemporary Art in the Nuclear Anthropocene (Z33 Hasselt 2017, Bildmuseet Umea 2016); and Finding Treblinka (Treblinka, Poland and Wiener Library London, 2015). Griffiths is associate member of Nuclear Cultures Research Group at Goldsmiths University, London. In 2012 his solo exhibition Babel Fiche at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester was supported by Film and Video Umbrella, and in 2010 he co-curated UnSpooling – Artists and Cinema, at Cornerhouse, Manchester for the festival Abandon Normal Devices. He teaches interdisciplinary and socially engaged art, science and design practice at Manchester School of Art.