Catalogue > At random

HAVEN is a critical and poetic reworking of the bizarre story of Sealand, a tiny, unrecognized micronation on an abandoned World War II gun tower in the North Sea. The tower has been occupied since the 1960s by a British family, who claim the artificial territory as their own, independent from state power. Originally intending to use the tower to broadcast pirate radio, the family worked with two cyber-libertarians in the early 2000s to establish the world's first data haven—what they described as "pirate internet." The data haven promised to be a refuge for unregulated data - the only truly safe place in the world to keep information. HAVEN's experimental narrative approach speculates on the rift that occurred between the family and the data haven's founders. It also touches on other failed utopias and neoliberal ventures, such as the libertarian Seasteading project, which aims to build floating communities that they describe as 'start-up countries', and Microsoft's Project Natick, the world's first undersea data center. HAVEN incorporates these references to question the possibility the sea provides for extraterritorial places — spaces beyond the territory of the state — while also critically analyzing the often capitalist and colonialist ideologies behind such ventures.

Born 1981, Hobart. Lives and works Hobart and Lisbon, Portugal. James Newitt has created a body of work that consistently engages with specific social and cultural contexts through personal, observational and performative approaches. Recent work has increasingly embraced speculative forms of storytelling as an extension of the more documentary tendencies he continues to explore. In 2012 Newitt was awarded the prestigious Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship. James has exhibited in galleries, museums and film festivals including: Galeria Boavista (solo), Lisbon, 2023; Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art (solo), Oldenburg, Germany, 2023; Samstag Museum of Art (solo), Adelaide, Australia, 2023; Porto Photography Bienal 2021; Carpintarias de São Lázaro (solo), Lisbon, 2020; Appleton Cultural Association (solo), Lisbon, 2019; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2013 and 2019; Perth Revelation International Film Festival, 2019 and 2020; Contemporary Art Tasmania, 2007 and 2018 (solo); Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 2011 and 2021 (solo); Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, 2018; Ar Sólido, Lisbon, 2016; Carriageworks, Sydney, 2015; Lumiar Cite (solo), Lisbon, 2013; Queensland Art Gallery, 2012; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010; the Gallery of Fine Arts (solo), Split, Croatia, 2010; Rosalux (solo), Berlin, 2009 and 2010; and the Art Gallery of South Australia, 2008.