For 2020 the Screening Room showcased a collaborative film and new media initiatives, curated by Pryle Behrman. The Screening Room premiered, Playtime, focusing on the all-encompassing impact of technology under capitalism and some of the ways in which it blurs the boundaries between work and play.
The Screening Room presented a collaboration between video artist David Theobald and design studio, Studio Hyte.
PLAYTIME
Fry: “Well sure, but not in our dreams! Only on TV and radio… and in magazines… and movies… and at ball games … and on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts and bananas and written in the sky. But not in dreams. No, sirree!”
‘Playtime’ in the Art Projects Screening Room explored how the increasing commodification of our society now includes many aspects of our leisure time as well, often unexpectedly. Strategies to boost productivity have seeped into all aspects of our lives, including our private spaces, as highlighted in the looped animations of David Theobald. Our domestic appliances are complicit in increasing the rapidity of our purchasing behaviour – as explored in Theobald’s The Internet of Things (IoT) – and even play has become another part of the production line, as symbolised by a robotic arm juggling party balloons in Workers’ Playtim
‘Playtime’ is curated by Pryle Behrman and ran throughout London Art Fair in the Art Projects Screening Room on Gallery Level 1.