This installation surrounds and immerses the gallery visitor. Words move around the darkened exhibition space as if a perpetual mobile. In Living Rooms Sandison uses symbolic language to visualise the complexities and simplicities of human communication, behaviour and social structures. A database of words is generated by computer software written and built by the artist. His use of text, a deliberate reversal of what is normally expected from computer graphics (in the games industry and multimedia formats), undervalues the raw processing power of the modern computer, allowing the visitor to concentrate on looking for patterns and structures in the swirling ether of words. From a distance the words are perceived as moving objects, on closer inspection they are recognisable as text and the viewer becomes completely immersed in the installation and therefore the dataset itself. “I guess I was born a writer in an artist’s body! I used text as a deliberate negation of what is normally expected from moving computer generated graphics…Words can operate on a very dynamic level. When two people look at a photograph of a black dog, the dog image becomes fixed in their minds, the black dog photograph can only ever be that particular dog. Whereas, when a dog is described in writing there is a fantastic array of variations in the mind of the reader. I love that space”. Charles Sandison lives and works in Tampere, Finland. Originally from Scotland, He studied at the Glasgow School of Art, graduating in 1993. After moving to Finland ten years ago Sandison has worked mainly with computer generated video projections that combine language, form, architecture, and movement. He is currently Professor at Le Fresnoy National Studio of Arts, Lille in France. He is represented by Lisson Gallery, London. Living Rooms is part of the Kiasma Museum, Helsinki, permanent collection. http://www.torrisdalebay.com/ Picture Credit: Charles Sandison, Living Rooms, 2001