THE ABILITY TO DESTROY A PLANET IS INSIGNIFICANT NEXT TO THE POWER OF THE FORCE Sculpture

Thomas Webb (b.1991) is a London based new media artist that investigates unexplored applications of technologies as a method for visualising digital artwork in a physical space. Webb works with video game engines, custom-written physics applications and 3D rendering software to recreate themes inside the computer; Hand-building various electronic machines and inventions to re-interpret these virtual artworks into hyper-realistic four-dimensional artworks. Webb challenges the barrier between the viewer and technology used to display computer-generated artwork to create a seemingly technology-free consummation. Webb invented the digital infinity mirror; an innovation of the infinity mirror using high power commercial LED displays, custom-built computer hardware and architectural dielectric glass. This combination of materials realises his vision of a digital medium that shifts in 4-dimensions as a function of each viewers perspective. Inside his artworks, he questions the real-life scenarios and consequences created through our newly acquired, daily use of technology. Harnessing real-time data feeds from mortality statistics, stock market prices and social media feeds to juxtapose a reflection on ultimate contemporary life. He is often touching on themes of mental health, addiction, big data and control as a guinea pig of the internet revolution and asking questions about the various implications of its application on modern society. In 2019 he contributed to the group-show ‘link in bio’ at the Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig, curated by Anika Meier. He showed a real-time emotion recognition neural net that recreates the viewers facial expression in emojis. He presented a similar body of work for a larger installation in the atrium of Scope international contempiorary art show in Miami Beach during Art Basel. He has contributed to a solo-show, “STRANGERS” (2018) which harnessed real-time data depicting mortality rates and mental health on social media. He is a long-standing artistic collaborator with fashion brand Valentino; Building multiple installations including a six-story monolith in Seoul, South Korea, a triptych motion tracking digital infinity mirror installation in Munich, an AI recognition installation during Art Basel Switzerland, and hologram installations in Tokyo, Japan and Dubai, UAE.