Into the Ether: Different Domain at The Royal Standard

For their current exhibition, Liverpool's The Royal Standard present a programme that questions the nature of artworks that inhabit the internet, and looks at how audiences can engage with this rapidly changing culture both online and in real life (IRL). Curated by Amy Jones and James Hedley Harper, the six-week Different Domain occupies The Royal Standard's website, their Twitter account, Google Hangouts and – for two one-day events – the physical space of the gallery, and features the work of an international cast of artists: Laura Buckley, Harry Burke, Jesse Darling, Bill Domonkos, Joe Hamilton, Sara Ludy, Alexandria McCrosky, Sabrina Ratté, Erica Scourti and Molly Soda.

“The way we use, understand and access the internet has changed massively even within the last five years,” writes Jones by email. “It felt necessary to explore the impact of that on the production and exhibition of art works.” The way in which galleries and curators show online art, and in particular the ways in which artists and curators bring online art offline and into real life, is a primary concern for Jones. Compared with commercial galleries – which may have a financial interest in the way online art can be presented IRL for the purpose of being sold – The Royal Standard’s interests lie in asking what conceptual value there is of taking online art out of the realms in which it was created, and into the gallery – and in looking at if, through this change, the context of the work differs.

For the first part of the IRL exhibition, GIFS and Glitter (which took place in December), the physical space of the gallery was stripped of its white cube conventions, with the curators aiming to create a space “that's not the internet but not quite the gallery either.” In it, both the space and the work within it – such as Jesse Darling's reference of a YouTube meme for Marvin’s Room by Drake in her Darling’s Room (Karaoke Version) – referenced internet platforms that have become so engrained into our everyday life. Jones describes the experience of the event as similar to how we encounter a constant flux of imagery online. For her, “it was a real mass of colours and information, which was at times quite overwhelming.” The second event IRL (Holding Space, on 17 January), on the other hand, will consider how physical space is represented and how a sense of place can be created on the internet.

For the online programme, however, it was important for the curators to not try to recreate the physical sense of how you view work in a gallery. “Everything on the internet is so immediate and transient, in a way that the gallery just isn't,” says Jones, “so asking people to stay on your website for an hour to look at an exhibition... it's just not how people use the internet.” Working with their website developer, John Wai, The Royal Standard have built a way to exhibit artworks on their site not only for Different Domain but also for future programming. Each artwork featured in the online programme takes over the front page of the website; as Jones explains: “we really wanted to showcase each individual artist as best we could. We felt that changing the content on the website regularly would encourage people to keep coming back and really engage with the individual works.”

Opening the online programme was Molly Soda – an internet 'sensation' brought to fame through her use of the blogging platform Tumblr. Describing her aesthetic as “when you're getting undressed in front of your window and you're pretty sure the neighbour across the street can see you but you keep your blinds open anyway,” Soda blurs the distinction between URL and IRL in her work. Unlike her other works where she performs alone, often playing multiple characters, for her new video piece, Swimming in Gold, Soda has enlisted others to perform alongside her. “I wanted the video to feel like a bunch of Facebook statuses,” she says, “whatever you post to keep people informed on what party you're going to.”

A barrage of emblems of Internet culture, from the adverts that hog the edge of websites to the self-confessionals of YouTube videos, Swimming in Gold captures the digital spaces that we inhabit on a daily basis and stirs up questions about the communal nature of social platforms. Drawing a sharp commentary on the actually/often/unsocial aspect of Internet platforms, the video is, she says, like “everyone's talking at each other instead of to each other.” Just as Different Domain looks at the distinction between public and private space online, so does Soda within her own practice. “You exist as an avatar [on the Internet] essentially, you never have to reveal your identity,” she says. “I don't really take advantage of anonymity on the Internet, I'm quite the opposite, everything I do is always out there.”

For Soda, using the internet as a medium brings up questions of ownership. Reflecting on the curatorial elements of Different Domain, she says, “I like the idea that ownership doesn’t really exist over the internet... once you throw your ‘work’ into cyberspace you’re essentially giving it up.” The collective and social nature of the internet allows Soda to push her own practice, she says: “Everyone is collaborating and doing cool shit together that you can’t do in real life because of distance.”

That concentration on collaboration is continued on 4-5 January, when poet and curator Harry Burke – tipped by super-curator Hans Ulrich Obrist as one to watch – will be taking over The Royal Standard's Twitter account. Burke's poetry takes a sharp look at contemporary youth culture and uses the internet not only contextually but also as a source of creation and publication. For Burke, “the biggest challenge for artists and curators at the moment is to try and interrogate and undermine this process of commodity making, and understand that this process includes all technologies.”

Alongside his takeover, Burke will be broadcasting a poem via Google Hangouts. “We chose Google Hangouts to broadcast live works for Different Domain as it was the one social broadcasting tool that we felt reflected the themes of the exhibition,” states Hedley Harper, placing emphasis on the ability of the audience to interact: “They can see and hear the performer, while also being able to respond verbally and visually,” he says.

Whether through online performance, audio-visual landscape or internet poetry, the works from this selection of international artists show the broad ways in which the internet can be used as a platform for making and disseminating art. When asked whether viewing an exhibition on a computer screen could be seen as a private, isolated endeavour, however, Jones insists that it's not a case of logging in and zoning out. On the contrary, “it's a more solitary experience to walk around a quiet gallery contemplating the work than it is online with Facebook chat open and your Twitter feed silently humming in the background.”