Melanie Gilligan: The Common Sense

Technologies change us—our attitudes, our behaviour and our bodies. The Common Sense is a sci-fi mini-series by artist Melanie Gilligan which tells a story of technological change and economic imperatives as well as the political implications of both. The video work is an experimental narrative drama that revolves around a technology called “the Patch,” a device which makes it possible to experience the physical sensations and feelings of another person.

Presented in a TV series format on 15 screens and installed mounted on a network of metal tubing, The Common Sense is a rich, intelligent and thought provoking musing on the effects of digital communication technologies and commercial exploitation on our collective interaction and individual psyches. Co-produced by Casco, de Appel and De Hallen in the Netherlands, The Common Sense is a non-linear and branching narrative that is being shown here for the first time in its entirety.

Melanie Gilligan works in a number of different media, including video, performance and installation. She holds a BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in London and was a Fellow with the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Programme 2004–05. Earlier film projects include Crisis in the Credit System (2008), commissioned by Artangel, as well as Self-Capital (2009) and Popular Unrest (2010) commissioned by the ICA and Chisenhale gallery respectively. In 2010, Gilligan was the recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists. Recent exhibitions include The Little Things Could Be Dearer at MoMA PS1, New York; Inhuman at Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany; and Nervous Systems at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. Melanie Gilligan lives and works in New York and is currently a PhD Candidate at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm.