Youth Culture

The sculpture shows a strong hooded youth through which collected data and information flows. A towering beautiful hooded sculpture; Youth Culture visualises visitor data it receives on mini screens and light illumination built into the sculpture. The tall figure,who’s hoodie challenges our assumptions about social alienation – captivating its audience and challenging visitors perceptions around anti-social behaviour and our collective ability to create safe public spaces for all. This Hooded Youth is presented as a symbol of belonging, rather than something to be feared. Digitally interactive, the artwork embraces public participation and encourages engagement with its technological system, which feeds in intelligence so that Youth Culture becomes a symbolic memory bank of place and experience. The lights respond to data from Manchester which includes the bus positions via gps, rail times, river flows and pollution levels which all respond and illuminate the sculpture, with LEDs behaviours changing as a generative system inspired by the city. Once the data is processed and ‘read’ it’s portrayed as illuminated streams, coursing through the wire works with graffiti and poetics.