Bob Bicknell-Knight
Bob Bicknell-Knight is an artist, curator and writer based in London. He is interested in ideas surrounding automation, utopian ideologies and surveillance capitalism.
1. The Left Hand Of Darkness, a 1969 novel by Ursula K. Le Guin
I have always been a huge fan of the science fiction genre, consuming anything written by Philip K. Dick as a teenager. Unfortunately I only recently started reading Le Guin, whose revolutionary ideas surrounding gender and politics continue to inspire. In The Left Hand Of Darkness Le Guin questions and answers what it would be like if we lived in a genderless society.
2. Symptom Machine, a solo exhibition of work by Kate Cooper at Hayward Gallery, London
As the majority of Kate Cooper’s work isn’t accessible over the internet, her solo exhibition at Hayward Gallery earlier this year was a rare chance to see a number of her beautifully crafted CGI video works, produced from 2014-019. Within the work a series of female avatars, in various states of degradation, move and interact with different environments, enacting a number of pre-fabricated movements and activities. The videos are a critique and comment on the idealised images that dominate today’s visual culture, exploring ideas of gender, technology and the politics of labour.
3. Tuca & Bertie, an animated TV show
Tuca & Bertie debuted on Netflix in May 2019 and is a wonderfully depressing animated TV show created by Lisa Hanawalt, whose also the producer and production designer for BoJack Horseman, another animated TV show from Netflix. Focused on “two 30-year old bird women who live in the same apartment building”, the show has a lovingly crafted art style, full of tiny details and references, with plot lines concerning sexual harassment in the work place, friendship, alcoholism and death, featuring Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong voicing the main characters.