We are excited to collaborate for the second time on a beer with our good friends at TATE MODERN, to help launch one of their most ambitious exhibitions to date, Electric Dreams, centred around “Art and Technology Before the Internet”.
Things didn’t always look this good. Back in the days of joysticks and tape-loading games, we spent the majority of our screen time limited to blocky tones of green (when we finally upgraded to 8-bit colour my mind was blown.) Jump forward to now and "low-resolution" is as much an aesthetic choice as it is a way to define an era, but the idea that something greater can be built from fundamental building blocks and processes really chimed with us. Every recipe relies on it, in fact, and Electric Dreams inspired us to explore how these themes cross over into our world.
For our collab brew REZ, we were interested in repurposing the idea of pixels (picture elements) and using them to project something innate about the brew. In the spirit of exploring the intersection of art and science, we wanted to encode the beer’s DNA into something visual, so the design became a representation of our recipe where each block represents 1kg of Hops. Each hop used is coded with 2 colours, a warm tone for the hot side and a cool tone for the cold. The result is playfully abstract, but carrying deeper layers of meaning..
REZ is a full and fantastic 5.2% Pale Ale, brewed with a wonderful lot of Riwaka hops plays a supporting role to the fruit-filled pungency of Citra and Mosaic.
From the birth of op art to the dawn of the internet age, artists found new ways to engage the senses and play with our perception. Electric Dreams, one of Tate Modern's most ambitious exhibitions to date, celebrates the early innovators of optical, kinetic, programmed, and digital art, who pioneered a new era of immersive sensory installations and automatically generated works.
The exhibition brings together groundbreaking works by a wide range of international artists who engaged with science, technology and material innovation. Visitors will psychedelic environments they created in the 1950s and 60s, built using mathematical principles, motorised components and new industrial processes. See how radical artists embraced the birth of digital technology in the 1970s and 1980s, experimenting with machine-made art and early home computing systems.
Andrew Downs (Commercial Director at TATE) says:
"We're excited to team up with Verdant Brewing Co. again for "Electric Dreams", Art and Technology Before the Internet at Tate Modern. With "REZ," we're crafting something that goes beyond just a great beer—it's a creative collaboration that reflects the shared values and energy we love about working together. Like last summer's epic Mondrian inspired pale ale "First Note", this brew is a blend of art and craft, inspired by the low-resolution look of pre-internet electronica. It's a beer born out of fun, and the love of collaboration. I can't wait to crack one open and celebrate the exhibition launch with everyone!"
About the exhibition:
Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet
28 November 2024 – 1 June 2025
Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Open daily 10.00–18.00
Tickets available at tate.org.uk
Free for Members.
Follow @Tate // #ElectricDreams