Act 1/Scene 2

Theresa Bruno
The Trees of Life: A Study into the Interconnectedness of Information (From Evolution to the Internet)

Minack Theatre, Porthcurno, Penzance, Cornwall
3rdAugust 2013, 2:27pm, £12

“I have decided to take the next steps towards manifesting a lecture that I initially dreamed up in art school 3 years ago. It has since blossomed inside my head; the collection holds a multitude of small and big ideas and as an entity has grown into a very big incoherent yet interconnected mass of information*. The lecture itself will eventually explore the science behind information. It will question what information is, how we exchange it, experience it and so forth. I will explain what an idea is, the history of knowledge, and how the power behind it has changed with the birth of the internet. The experience of the lecture itself will begin with a very fact based, academic formality, but will end in a nonsensical jumble of information which will represent my current fickle attention span.” -Theresa Bruno

*The process of designing the poster for the talk became interesting due to the fact that I barely create or instigated any of it myself. I commissioned illustrator Jamie Malone to create the poster for me, something which has been interesting in itself as I have never met him. I have also never met Barry Sykes, both relationships exist from online social networking. As I have not made the image myself, I look at the image and ask myself if it is successful, but I am not judging Malone’s work only my ability to communicate what I wanted from him. If I do not make the ‘things’ in my practice myself then I must be able to successfully communicate what I want in order for it to be deemed a success. I created a blog for him http://maloneandbruno.blogspot.co.uk/ and sourced images from various places, after telling him what I wanted I visually created an image in my head of what the poster would be, even though it was completely idealistic, I could conjure up small details but still couldn’t see it in its entirety. When Malone sent me the poster back it looked completely different. Something very interesting happened there and that in itself was an exploration into how information is communicated, translated and used within artistic practices – this exploration into the translation of information is exactly what the lecture itself will be about. It does not depict exactly what I wanted in my head, but he definitely created what I asked for. It is almost as if it the process of what happened has become a ‘thing’ of its own, which in itself is a success but it has not fulfilled my initial intentions. This is the second version of the poster; I have changed the title, the time and the location. The venue was chosen after a recent holiday to St. Ives – the theatre juxtaposes the natural and cultural – this interests me – you can see the theatre on the background as stone, sea and sky. The date is my 25th birthday, I will explore birthdays, zodiacs and years in the lecture and tie it all in. The time comes from the time that my Casio watch rings every day without any purpose of doing so.”


Theresa Bruno is an artist, curator and writer and gained her BA at the Wimbledon College of Art, London (2010). She writes for Jotta, and is currently curating three shows at Hatchspace in Deptford. (2012) She directs ‘The Wallet Gallery’ (2011) Most recent group show, ‘Try outs’ Downstairs gallery, Herefordshire (2012)

*Image courtesy Theresa Bruno.

Share : twitter_icon_footer facebook_icon_footer