TOWARDS THE MEAN
Sampling Britishness Today

The Barbican, London
16 March – 19 June 2016


Towards the Mean is an interactive installation, designed to explore how national identity is experienced, determined and defined.

The installation draws on Victorian Explorer and Anthropologist Francis Galton's 19th Century 'Composite Portraits' in which photographs of different subjects were sampled and averaged to reveal common recognizable characteristics or 'types'. By inviting visitors to add their image (photo-booth) and voice (telephone) to a continually sampled and evolving 'average portrait' of what contemporary Britain may look and sound like today, the installation hopes to bring into play questions about current desires to define a national identity in a multi-cultural and globalised society.

In addition, visitors were asked to provide their own responses to what and how identity is constructed and defined next to three different versions of the Oxford Dictionary - each defining 'Identity' differently.

More than 10.000 people participated.

Towards the Mean is designed by Marianne Holm Hansen with sound elements developed in association with electronic musicians from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama + Seth Scott and software development by Marinos Koutsomichalis. It is curated by Orlagh Woods, Visual and Cross Arts Curator, The Barbican, and commissioned for Barbican's prominently situated Foyer Art Projects to respond to the exhibition 'Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers', curated by Martin Parr.



Accompanying events

Towards the Mean – A discussion on the impact of defining identities
Tuesday 14 June 2016 | 7pm
The Barbican, Frobisher Auditorium 2
Co-curated with Orlagh Woods (The Barbican) to expand on some of the questions raised by the installation "Towards the Mean" — with presentations by reporter and writer Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, psychoanalyst Kannan Navaratnem, and Reader in International Politics Claudia Aradau.

Young Arts Academy Curates
Tuesday 10 May 2016 | 7pm
The Barbican, Fountain Room
An evening of spoken word, music, talks and debates curated by members of the Young Arts Academy, exploring the theme of identity and what it means to young people.

Towards the Mean Live
Tuesday 19 April 2016 | 7pm
The Barbican, Fountain Room
A night of live electronic music featuring Seth Scott and musicians from the Guildhall School working with John Burton (aka Leafcutter John).