THE ARTIST
The rapid proliferation of computers in schools since the early ‘90s has provided the context for the development of much of Wendy McMurdo’s early work which looked directly at the influence of computers on early years education. Working closely with local schools, she has explored the role of the child within the school, the growth of the Internet and the development of networked play.
In Chat Room she continues with this theme, now exploring the impact of ever-increasing data immersion on young identities. She uses animation, scrolling feeds and text harvested from gaming chat rooms to explore the pervasive nature of online games and the ways in which they shape the way we think, play and learn.
Recent exhibitions and commissions have included Indeterminate Objects (classrooms) curated by Katrina Sluis for The Photographers’ Gallery London’s Media Wall in 2017/18 and Between Worlds at the Kunsthalle Färgfabriken, Stockholm in 2018. Her work is included in the 2021 Yale Press publication Dark Toys – surrealism and the culture of childhood by David Hopkins. Past projects have been shown throughout Europe in exhibitions such as The Anagrammatical Body: The Body and its Photographic Condition at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany; Uncanny at the Fotomuseum in Winterthur in Switzerland. She is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
THE WORK
Chat Room (2019) is the latest iteration of an ongoing body of work exploring the relationship between young people and the digital world. Shot in an Edinburgh Primary School, the camera moves through a series of empty rooms where fragments of multiple conversations begin to inhabit the spaces – disjointed questions, answers, rapidly typed commands and pieces of advice which have been harvested from gaming chat rooms. Above these fragmented and disparate communications, a single female voice – itself the product of an algorithm – rings out, providing a solace of sorts as she tries to help us navigate our way through the constantly shifting terrain.
CREDITS
Director: Wendy McMurdo
Animation: Andrew McKelvey
Sound: Zoe Irvine
The development of Chat Room was supported by Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund
For full detail and info, please visit: wendymcmurdo.com/photography/chat-room-2019