Sky Arts and the V&A launch the Memory Bank
Monday 17th June: Sky Arts and the V&A today unveil the Memory Bank - an interactive app and website which will allow everyone to share their favourite memory as part of Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace, an innovative exhibition at the V&A. Both the Memory Bank and the exhibition have been developed and co-commissioned by Sky Arts and the V&A.
The Memory Bank forms the twentieth and final work in the exhibition, which examines the nature of memory and asks us to evaluate what is important to us. Created by graphic designer Johnny Kelly, Nexus Interactive Arts and art director, Evan Boehm, the Memory Bank will seek to capture visitors’ memories. Technology installed within the exhibition allows visitors to bank their favourite memory, either drawn or written. Each week, Johnny Kelly will turn the latest collection of memories into a poster which will be displayed in the exhibition and made available to download from the website for free.
As well as investing £200,000 in the creation of the exhibition, Sky’s additional digital support will enable nationwide participation in the Memory Bank by allowing anyone to contribute their favourite memory online. All memories entered will be added to the continually growing Memory Bank, following which they can be shared publicly through social media platforms. The online Memory Bank will create a legacy for the memories to live on after the exhibition has closed. It can be accessed through www.sky.com/memorypalace from 18th June when the exhibition opens to the public.
The Memory Bank will form the final installation of Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace which will bring an original work of fiction - Memory Palace by author Hari Kunzru - to life through an experiential exhibition and an exclusive accompanying documentary. Twenty international practitioners, including leading graphic designers, typographers and illustrators, have been commissioned to interpret a different passage of Kunzru’s text to transform it into a walk-in story. The multi-dimensional exhibition will explore both the relationship between text and image and the idea of what a book is in the 21st century.
James Hunt, Director, Sky Arts, says “We’re thrilled to have co-commissioned the Memory Bank with the V&A as part of Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace. It’s a hugely exciting project which we’re particularly delighted to make accessible to everyone outside of the exhibition through the website at www.sky.com/memorypalace. I can’t wait to see the results that will represent the public’s favourite memories.”
Johnny Kelly says “Being asked to contribute to this exhibition is an honour, and I'm very excited to see what people will submit. Rather than present my own interpretation of the chapter, I thought it could be more interesting to create a kind of framework instead whereby visitors to the exhibition would each add their own lasting memory. The results are an entirely unknown quantity - which is terrifying and thrilling in equal measures - but no matter what they should be interesting.”
Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace is the second project to be selected as part of Sky Arts Ignition through which Sky Arts partners with leading arts organisations to invest directly in the creation of new, pioneering art works, events and performances. Sky also looks to amplify these projects with additional support through its programming, digital platforms and marketing.
Memory Palace conjures a tale of a dystopian vision of the future, set in London several hundred years after the global information infrastructure has been wiped out by a huge magnetic storm. Much of the world’s technology and knowledge has been lost, climate change is widespread and nature is reclaiming the ruins of the old city. Books and any form of remembering, recording and mark making are banned by the regime in power, eager to force humans to return to a state of unity with nature.
Sky Arts Ignition: Memory Palace opens at the V&A on Tuesday 18th June. An exclusive documentary, presented by Hari Kunzru, will be shown on Sky Arts 1 HD on Wednesday 19th June at 8pm.
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Further information on Sky Arts:
Sarah Aspinall
Acting PR Manager, Sky Arts HD
Sarah.aspinall@bskyb.com / 020 7032 0599
Further information on V&A
Zoë Franklin, 020 7942 2497
About Sky Arts
Sky Arts offers an eclectic mix of the best music, arts, biographies, chat shows, film, drama and comedy. Sky is the only broadcaster in the UK and Ireland with channels dedicated solely to the arts, with 48 hours of the best arts content from around the world across Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2 daily. Sky Arts now reaches more than 6 million viewers every month.
Recent highlights include Playhouse Presents… a series of one-off comedies and dramas starring world-renowned talent including Jon Hamm, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Thompson, Sir Tom Jones, Brenda Blethyn, David Tennant and Alison Steadman. The channel was also responsible for resurrecting the much-loved South Bank Show and The South Bank Show Awards. Sky Arts also encourages new formats and methods for accessing the arts, working with the ENO and National Gallery to beam the world’s first live opera and first live opening night of an exhibition in 3D to cinemas across the UK and Ireland.
Sky Arts also seeks to connect with culture on the ground; creating and collaborating with the best of the arts in the UK and Ireland to bring new experiences to life. Sky Arts has collaborated with a number of arts organisations including the English National Ballet and has supported the Hay Festival as broadcast partner since 2006. Sky Arts Ignition launched in 2011 to invest in the arts landscape of the UK. The fund will collaborate with leading arts organisations in the creation of brand new works. Sky Arts Futures Fund annually supports five young artists with a bursary of £30,000 each, enabling Sky Arts to back the creation of new works of art as well as nurture emerging talent.
Follow us on twitter @skyarts. See sky.com/arts
About Hari Kunzru
Hari Kunzru is the author of the novels The Impressionist (2002), Transmission (2004), My Revolutions (2007) and Gods Without Men (2011), as well as a short story collection, Noise (2006). His work has been translated into 21 languages and won him prizes including the Somerset Maugham award, the Betty Trask prize of the Society of Authors, a Pushcart prize and a British Book Award. In 2003 Granta named him one of its twenty best young British novelists. Lire magazine named him one of its 50 "écrivains pour demain". He is Deputy President of English PEN, a patron of the Refugee Council and a member of the editorial board of Mute magazine. His short stories and journalism have appeared in diverse publications including The New York Times, Guardian, New Yorker, Financial Times, Times of India, Wired and New Statesman.
About Memory Palace at the V&A
- The exhibition takes place in the V&A’s Porter Gallery
- Tickets £6 (V&A members go free). For advance bookings visit www.vam.ac.uk or call 020 7907 707.
- The V&A is open daily 10:00 until 17:45 and until 22:00 on Fridays
- The exhibition curators are Laurie Britton Newell and Ligaya Salazar
- The full list of practitioners are: Åbäke, Peter Bil’ak, Alexis Deacon, Oded Ezer, Francesco Franchi, Isabel Greenberg, Hansje van Halem, Jim Kay, Johnny Kelly, Erik Kessels, Na Kim, Stuart Kolakovic, Frank Laws, Le Gun, Luke Pearson, Stefanie Posavec, Némo Tral, Henning Wagenbreth, Mario Wagner and Sam Winston
- The 3D design of the exhibition is by architect C.J. Lim, Studio 8 Architects and 2D design by Sara de Bondt studio, who also designed the exhibition publication
- With thanks to Samsung for supplying five Galaxy Note 10.1s and a 55” ES8000 Series 8 SMART 3D Full HD LED TV screen for the Memory Bank installation.
About Nexus and Nexus Interactive Arts
Founded in 1997 Nexus is an independent production company and animation studio based in London with a worldwide reputation for creative storytelling across a range of media.
Nexus are dedicated to the development of unique voices in filmmaking, with a roster of directing talent working with multi-disciplinary skills in animation, live-action and for the past 5 years with Nexus Interactive Arts as it’s digital division. The studio’s production, animation, digital, post-production staff and facilities support them, with Nexus being a home for both the people and the technology to create some of the most innovative work in entertainment and branded content.
Nexus brings together artists and technical talent to work in a collaborative atmosphere to make exciting, talked about creative content. Nexus have won awards for various works. Nexus’ work includes an Oscar nominated short, Grammy nominated and MTV Award winning music videos, and three Cannes Grand Prix, Gold Lions, and Black D&AD pencil winning commercials.
Nexus Interactive Arts is the company’s interactive division, working across any platform that fits the brief, be it installation, web, apps, gaming, and something else. Their work has won numerous Webby’s and FWA’s.
Nexus Interactive Arts creates unique experiences through advanced storytelling, made possible using new technology and a director’s vision to reach an audience. Interactive Arts shares the same high values for storytelling and design through collaboration with the Nexus film and animation division, but brings new technology as an exciting partner.
