Opening Saturday 26 August (3-6pm)

Exhibition 26 August - 10 September 2006

The Anti-Flag machine is a computer generated installation that is viewed in the "Elevator Shaft" - the black space at BRIGHTSPACE.

Every few seconds, Anti-Flag Machine composes a unique flag at random, just one in a potentially infinite series. The machine is a composer: of colours, composition and symbols. In just a few more seconds, the composition is gone, perhaps never to be repeated.

Anything can be fed to the machine – sounds, images, words, whatever. It is not selective; it is simply there to create. So is it simply by chance that the machines creations are so often beautiful or poignant?

The most recognised symbol of a culture or nation is their flag. Today, when nations come and go like this season's fashion – in a bland celebration of the ‘globally generic’ - what relevance do these ‘symbols’ have? Nations can now be created and destroyed in an instant using my Anti-Flag Machine. The installation toys with the questions: What happens when you separate symbols and contexts, and then reattach meaning by association? Do we create new meaning or no meaning at all?