In the future, the internet is a distant memory. Network Archeology stages a post-net, post-apocalyptic scene in which only an isolated node of the network survives. It wrapsa custom virtual assistant AI in black-boxed server hardware. This virtual assistant — in the mould of the neural networks of Siri or Alexa — acts as an interactive relic of our near-future. The viewer becomes speculative archeologist of a contracting, collapsing network civilisation.

A series of wall-based sculptural works act as metaphoric artefacts of contemporary technology. Front-facing is a plate of laser-engraved UV glass. Like the interface of a smartphone, this sleek and frictionless surface presents an immaterial and idealised image. The glass floats over a copper sheet, the rarefied conductive base of circuit boards — the medium of high technology since the 1980s. Framed in stainless steel and steel wire, the works remind us that the heavy-metal materiality of traditional industry still underpins the digital world.

Guy Louden is an artist and curator based in Sydney. From 2014 to 2016, Louden was a director of Moana Project Space. In 2015, he co-founded and managed Success, a largescale art space in Fremantle. He has curated exhibitions for the Perth International Art Festival, Moana, and Success.

Since 2017, he has exhibited his own artwork, notably at Bus Projects (VIC), Firstdraft (NSW), and Polizia (WA). Louden holdsan MA in Art History from the University of Manchester (2013) and a BA from the University of Western Australia (2011). Network Archeology is his first solo exhibition.

www.guylouden.com