Brie Trenerry will embark on a site-specific exploration during her residency and as part of DATA MINDS (30 November 2024 – 23 February 2025) using generative AI to create moving image works to be presented on screen and in holographic form. Of particular interest to Trenerry is the unique Colonial-era padded cell lined with horsehair and leather. Designed and constructed in 1893, authorities at the time sought more humane ways to protect prisoners from themselves and others. Against the backdrop of today’s political landscape — marked by heightened tensions following post-pandemic lockdowns, and the clash between libertarians and self-proclaimed ‘sovereign citizens’ versus proponents of increased state intervention in personal welfare — Trenerry finds The Lock-Up’s cell block particularly intriguing. Her artistic inquiry will delve into the physical materials defining the padded cell’s design, coupled with a historical examination of the social and political motivations behind its inception in the 1800s. This will form the foundation for the collection of complex datasets to be utilised as AI prompts for the generation of video works.

Brie Trenerry is a Melbourne-based interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, curator and educator with a focus on the moving image and new media who has exhibited extensively both in Australia and internationally. She has worked as the curator of the video space at MARS Gallery since its opening in 2014. Trenerry is completing her PhD, which explores altered states of consciousness and collaboration as generative strategies for an expanded cinema.

Trenerry‘s recent solo exhibition BABBLE ON at MARS Gallery, Melbourne, explored the profound social, cultural and political implications of AI interventions in the mainstream media. She has worked as a lecturer in video, new media and fashion film at Photography Studies College (PSC), Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). Brie has been the recipient of residencies at the Australian Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide 2015, the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens (AAIA) Contemporary Creative Residency via the University of Sydney 2018 and KdMoFA (Kuandu Museum of Fine Art), TNUA (Taiwan National University of the Arts, RMIT:ART:INTERSECT 2019.

https://www.brietrenerry.com/

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