4th August to 4th September 2011, Wed-Sun, 12-8pm
Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

Ryota Kuwakubo creates devices that spark the imagination. There are simple, elegant and explore the relationships between user and machine, analog and digital, and how we manipulate data as it's transmitted and received. His breakthrough project was 'Bitman' (1998-99).

Here he presents 'Nikodama' (2010), mass produced sets of synchronised blinking eyes that can turn an inanimate object into a friendly face. They continue our ongoing research at Inspace into the anthropomorphisation of the non-human which began with 'Cybraphon' (2009).

4th August to 4th September 2011, Wed-Sun, 12-8pm
Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

Developed in collaboration with Yamaha, the Tenori-on is a musical instrument consisting of a 16x16 grid of illuminated push button switches that can be activated in different ways to create an ever evolving soundscape.

Toshio Iwai's work is focused on the relationship between sound and image. As an artist he has led the creation of a number of commercialy successful video games, Elektroplankton for the Nintendo DS being a key example.

His work is intricate yet simple. It beguiles and absorbs. He takes the technology to hand from flip books to grand pianos to games consoles and creates something magical through a cocktail of media, machines and you.

4th August to 4th September 2011, Wed-Sun, 12-8pm
Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

Ferrofluids are liquids which becomes strongly magnetised in the presence of a magnetic field. This 'normal-field instability' is shown in the formation of regular patterns of peaks and valleys making the liquid seemingly solid.

The dynamic movement of ferrofluids is central to the work of artist Sachiko Kodama. The elegant result is a high-tech version of 'Hakoniwa' or boxes containing small replicas of objects and landscapes taken from the real world.

This mimicking of natural phenomena is known in Japan as 'mitate' but this work mimics an other worldliness that helps us understand the occurrence of the alien in natural shapes such as sea urchins and tornados.

4th August to 4th September 2011, Wed-Sun, 12-8pm
Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

The practice of circuit bending is when the circuits inside electronic devices are customised to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators. In this instance the artist Kaseo has created a theremin from a child's toy.

Not just any toy however, this is the one and only Pikachu from the Pokémon media franchise of computer games, trading cards and animations. Pikachu stores up electricity in its cheeks for release as lightening attacks in battle.

Kaseo has created an army of circuit-bent Pikachus for his live performances. Here he has added a potentiometer, sound modulator and a photo-electric sensor in the guise of a tongue piercing to transform our former mascot.

4th August to 4th September 2011, Wed-Sun, 12-8pm
Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

Fu Yu and Jiang Haiqing comprise the husband and wife team that are 8gg. At the forefront of China's emerging new media art scene, their work centres on improvisation and collaboration using their own custom systems.

Recent developments of this system enable the control of a given installation or performance to be shared between the artists and the participants, 'V.I.P room' is an example of this using giant computer keyboard seats.

The acronym in the title of the work stands for 'Visual I Play'. No velvet ropes in existence here. 8gg have a clean, fresh approach to their work which aims to be playful, accessible and fun. Their VJ sets are the stuff of legend.

4th August to 4th September 2011, Wed-Sun, 12-8pm
Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

Six electronic massage chairs are arranged in a circle, facing inwards, as if for a meeting of a high council. Each chair represents a key ‘public’ service or industry: Health, Railways, Gas, Electricity,Telecoms and Post.

Illuminating the scene is a neon-style display, methodically scrolling through the dates from 1900 to the present, over the course of 15 minutes. The colour of the neon changes depending on which political party is in power at that time.

During these 15 minutes the massage chairs switch on at the dates in which their corresponding service or industry was taken into public ownership and switch off again at the date when/if they were privatised. Take a seat... and relax.

4th August to 4th September 2011, Wed-Sun, 12-8pm
Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

The presentation of media art and some forms of visual art is often reliant on the use of audio, visual or some form of electronics to display the content. With device art, this hardware is the content. The technology is celebrated and interfaces permit interaction, joy and response.

Left To My Own Devices focuses on the emergence of device art as seen through an exchange of ideas between creators and technologists in China, Japan and Scotland.

8gg, FOUND, Ellie Harrison, Toshio Iwai, Kaseo
Sachiko Kodama, Ryota Kuwakubo, David McAllister

The key here is that technology should not be feared. The works presented may have entertainment value, but they can still be read positively with the same value systems applied to traditional Western art practice.

In the Far East these boundaries between forms of practice and appreciation do not exist, it’s a superflat world after all. The device is not separate from the artistic experience.

4th August to 4th September 2011, Wed-Sun, 12-8pm
Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

Picture a cross between an Ewok and and oracle and you get a teddy-bear-like hunter-gatherer who can find the answer to any question, that's an Eworical. Behind it's jewel like eyes lies a computer powered belly that envisions how sculpture may communicate in the future.

The three Eworicals together will use Skype and RSS feeds to power their search engine and call centre installation distributing their own particular blend of Star Wars and new age philosophy whilst they question the very fabric of the internet as a gateway to knowledge.

www.eworical.com

4th August to 4th September 2011, Wed-Sun, 12-8pm
Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB

Inspired by early 19th century mechanical bands such as the nickekodeon, Cybraphon is an interactive version of a mechanical band in a box. We're delighted to welcome it's BAFTA winning divatastic self back to the lab, with new tunes and new speaking voice courtesy of Aidan Moffat.

Consisting of a series of robotic instruments housed in a large display case, Cybraphon behaves like a real band. Image conscious and emotional, the band’s performance is affected by online community opinion as it searches the web for reviews and comments about itself 24 hours a day.

facebook.com/cybra.phon