Past Exhibitions

Digital Revolution explores and celebrates the transformation of the arts through digital technology since the 1970s. For the first time, the exhibition brings together a range of artists, filmmakers, architects, designers, musicians and game developers, all of whom are using digital media to push the boundaries of their field.

The show also looks to the future and considers the impact of creative coding, DIY and maker-culture, digital communities and the creative possibilities offered by augmented reality, artificial intelligence, wearable technologies and 3D printing.

Digital Revolution presents a number of new installations. Umbrellium, best known for its large-scale and mass-participatory outdoor events, presents its first work within a theatre setting - an immersive installation that fills the space with a series of interactive laser sculptures. Universal Everything, one of the UK's leading media art studios, presents a piece allowing visitors to submit a hand-drawn animated artwork that features within the gallery.

The exhibition also includes new commissions from global music artist and entrepreneur will.i.am, Yuri Suzuki, Pasha Shapiro and Ernst Weber. It also features new work from a range of artists and performers including Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Chris Milk, Aaron Koblin, Björk, Amon Tobin, CuteCircuit, together with work by Oscar®-winning visual effects (VFX) supervisor Paul Franklin and his team at Double Negative for Christopher Nolan’s ground-breaking film Inception (2010).

DevArt, a collaboration between the Barbican and Google, presents four new gallery commissions by Karsten Schmidt, Zach Lieberman, Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet, all of which push the boundaries of coding as a creative art form.