SEPTEMBER 2019 | PERFORMANCE | CYBORG CADAVERS
I’m honoured to have been invited by Graeme ‘Hallidonto’ Halliday to write a piece of fiction/ organised thoughts in response to his magnificent collection of new pencil drawing works, ‘Cyborg Cadavers’. I’ll be joined by 6 other artists / writers/ academics from a variety of illustrious backgrounds: Dr. Trudy Barber; science fiction author Stephen Oram; poet Daniel Sainty; Katt Petersen, David McAllister and Dr David Roden. We’ll all be responding to themes of the artificially sentient, the ascent of the cyborg, posthumanism, anthro futures and the body.
JUNE 2019 | TALKS | RADICAL ECOLOGY
I’m very excited to have been asked to be a speaker on a panel themed Radical Ecology: Sustainable Media Art presented by FLUX, curated by Aphra Shemza and hosted at Ugly Duck. I’ll be sitting alongs side some wonderful speakers and also exhibiting a few pieces from Fieldnotes.
From the press release: “This year has seen global demonstrations about the ecological climate crisis. Our generation is said to be the last that has the power to prevent catastrophic global warming, yet what can we do to make a difference? Our June event will look to art as a forum where future possibilities can be explored and provide a discursive setting to explore these subjects in a media art context. If we think of art as a tool with which artists are able to explore and raise questions about our human existence, the lives we lead and the society we inhabit, then media artists are right at the forefront of this discourse.”
MAY 2019 | EXHIBITION | RIFT
My MA Art and Science degree show is here! After two long years of research and development, I’ll be exhibiting Fieldnotes from a Technobiocology RIFT brings together 17 artists deriving from varied scientific disciplines including bio-design, parasitology, astronomy, anatomy, neuroscience and more. I’ll be presenting, Fieldnotes from a Technobiocology a body of research and installation situated in an imaginary, post-human future where biology and technology have converged to create new life forms, new ‘lively’ forms and new self-sustaining ecosystems free from human intervention. What kinds of being may emerge from the debris of DNA editing experiments? At the meeting point of nourishing earth and electrical waste? Where digital code meets biologic hardware?
MAY 2019 | BIODESIGN WEEKEND, ASCUS Lab Edinburgh
I was invited to take part in the ASCUS Lab Edinburgh’s Bioinnovation weekend as one of 20 participants (10 designers/artists, 10 scientists). Following a series of mini-masterclasses and a ‘speed dating’ session, I paired up with Evolutionary Biologist Dr. Louise Reynolds to prototype ideas for the ‘Biota-Bot’, a bio-technological robot with the ability to travel in a diverse number of environments, including those with extreme conditions (including extraterrestrial environments) and detect the presence different biological matter. The skin would detect and react via pigmentation - bacteria, fungi, antibiotics. Supported by some kind of recording device that would chart its location - acting as a useful ‘survey’ of biodiversity in the area.This was my first introduction to a lab environment and working with living materials - I hope it’s the start of my next stage of project development.
JANUARY 2019 | FIELD TRIP | CERN
This January I joined a group of over 20 MA Art and Science students on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, world renowned for its discovery of the Higgs Boson particle, the invention of the World Wide Web, and home to the Large Hadron Collider. Students enjoyed a four-day immersion into the complex science currently being undertaken at an institution focusing on the provocations, ‘where did we come from?’, ‘what are we made of?’ and ‘where are we going?’. Among many activities, students were privileged to visit the Anti-Matter Factory and the colossal CMS experiment, participate in a cloud-chamber workshop and enjoy lectures from scientists exploring the applications of particle physics on the medical industry and physicists turning data into heavy metal music….
Reflections and exhibition news coming soon. For now here are some reflections from my compadres:
DECEMBER 2018 | RESEARCH | NETHERLANDS BIOSAFARI!
I recently curated a short research trip to the Netherlands to support my ongoing studies into the future of nature, biotechnologies and materials innovation. I kicked off by delving into the world of the invisible at the Micropia Museum Amsterdam, followed by an insider look at the Hybrid Forms laboratory at Vrije Universiteit courtesy Dr. Raoul Frese and finished the day at the Amsterdam Science Fiction Book Club. Day 2 included a visit to the incredible Bio Art and Design Awards show at the MU in Eindhoven and a visit to the Waag Society Textile and Biofab labs. I had a wonderful artist exchange with Margarita Soldari at Mediamatic before being mind blown at Foam Gallery by Persijn Broersen and Margit Lukác with Point Cloud, Old Growth. I caught up with the team at Next Nature before heading to Extended Matter at Pakt and finally the A World Without Us exhibition in Utrecht….among other things. I am busting with inspiration, the effects of which will be shared in forthcoming project pages.
DECEMBER 2018 | EXHIBITION | EMBRYONICA
Last exhibition of the year - I will be exhibiting some work-in-progress sculptural assemblies and moving image at EmbryonicA, the MA Art and Science Open Studio exhibition at Elthone Studios. Over 40 interdisciplinary practitioner will be presenting artworks and experiments for one night only. Register your interest here:
NOVEMBER 2018 | EXHIBITION | SHORT FILM FESTIVAL COLOGNE
My piece ‘Machine Meditation #2’, selected for this year’s Athens Digital Art Festival was also selected by the curators for a special programme of short film screenings at KFFK (Kurz Film Festival Köln) 2018. It was screened as part of the ‘Digital Aesthetics through post-cursor interactions’ theme and featured among a series of fellow artist works moving in the borderline field of digital expression.
NOVEMBER 2018 | PERFORMANCE | TECHNOLOGIES OF ROMANCE, SCIENCE MUSEUM
And now for something completely different…I will be participating in a performative lecture at the Technologies of Romance Symposium, Science Museum London! Along with three fellow MA Art and Science colleagues, we will be performing poetry and prose discussing the hopes, dreams, failures and fantasies of scientific progress via the medium of the moon. I will be embodying the ‘ontological’ voice of the moon whilst others explore culture, capitalism and historical. Tickets to the symposium are free:
NOVEMBER 2018 | EXHIBITION | METAPHONICA
November 1st I will be exhibiting at Metaphonica IV: The House of Beyond Sound, a night of musical experimentation, noise, performance, sound and silence, the exhibition/event/intervention is a collaboration between Central Saint Martins and Mercury KX – the new record label resident in King's Cross. I will be exhibiting a piece of experimental moving image / sound for the exhibition. Now in its fourth year, Metaphonica is set to be bigger than ever before, bringing together a host of emerging talents and established artists whose practices blur and disrupt disciplines, exploring new territories between contemporary art and music culture.
NOVEMBER 2018 | PROGRAMMING / LONDON LASER LABS: RE:THINKING SPACE
This is the third and final instalment of London LASER Labs - a series of events co-programmed by myself and fellow artist Lois Bentley exploring themes at the intersection of art and science through interactivity, talks and discussion. Re:Thinking Space is a response to our current incredible and challenging space age. How can we harness the information, collected in silo, from the fields of cosmology and quantum physics to conceive of a more unified vision of how the universe (and us) are put together? Within science and culture - what new models of thought could we foster? How do creativity and consciousness fit into this emerging paradigm? How can we rethink our practices to swerve the impasse some are labelling a new 'Dark Age'?...
OCTOBER 2018 | PROGRAMMING | ELASTIC NATURE
I have recently set up “Elastic Nature”, an art research club bringing together interdisciplinary researchers, practitioners and thinkers around the broad subject of ‘the future nature’ via artificial life, sympathetic synthetics, sensory realities, materiality and speculative bodies. Through interactive workshops, seminars, breakfast salons and screenings we’ll stimulate conversation, ideas and the imagination around the changing shape of nature. For the third session of Elastic Nature, held on All Hallows Eve, we will be exploring the legacy of Frankenstein - a 200-years-young piece of literature that grows all the more relevant as science and technology pro/digresses. All the details of this and previous events can be found here:
SEPTEMBER 2018 | COLLABORATION | CREATIVE LAB AT ARCADE EAST
This September I’ll be taking part in Creative Lab at Arcade East, an off-shoot project of London College of Fashion / Fashion Space Gallery fostering collaboration across disciplines. Creative Technologists + Fashion Designers + East London Dance Company + me (ever the anomaly!). Through a week-long immersion, I’m hoping to bring to life some of my nascent thoughts around the speculative body and artificial life forms. I hope that means sensors, Kinect interaction, connectivity and other physical computing practices. You can see what happened at last year’s programme here:
AUGUST 2018 | RESIDENCY | LUMEN, ATINA, ITALY
I am currently in a tiny village 3 hours from Rome where, alongside 20 other artists I’ll be researching and creating work over the next two weeks. Set in the mountains with wonderful dark skies, I’ll be developing a body of work centred around the ‘stuff’ of life. What are the relationships between the matter that makes ‘us’ and the environment that surrounds us - the atmosphere, the night sky, geology, living things? I’ll be exploring moving image, (simple!) animation, visual experimentation and sound…hopefully. The work will result in an exhibition in Atina on the 16th August, an exhibition in January 2018 and a zine. More info coming soon!
JUNE 2018 | RESIDENCY | THE EXTENDED MIND - PRIVATE VIEW
As part of my Residency at THECUBE Shoreditch, I have participated in an ongoing exhibition entitled ‘The Extended Mind’.
Is our experience of nature a production of the senses, mediated in the mind? This was the provocation and starting point of SENSING NATURE <> SENSED NATURE, a series of relief prints exploring the concept of nature forming via the mind. Using screen printing as the lead technique, I have allowed the natural variations, ‘happy accidents’ and imperfections of the medium to guide the creative process and serve as a visual metaphor for the variances, interpretations and infinite realities of one subject matter. The subject matter in question is an imagined landscape - itself an in/fallible entity - and appears in multiple variations across the studies.
MAY 2018 | EXHIBITION | THE SINGULARITY NOW
This May, I was delighted to be selected to exhibit in the annual Athens Digital Art Festival, this year themed The Singularity. I was selected in the moving image category and exhibited “Machine Meditation Study #2” one of a series of ongoing studies exploring - What might a ‘meditative’ experience look like for future mixed-matter organisms? Check out the Video Art Programme on the website below and find out more about the piece on my Projects page.
MAY 2018 | EXHIBITION | LIFE AT THE EDGES, SCIENCE GALLERY DUBLIN
Biologically-enhanced florals are evolved to adapt to the toxically-tinged atmosphere. Industrious and hungry bacteria catalyse plastic from the soil to return it to its earthly state. Sulphuric lava pools are a happy home to hardy species of extremophile organisms. This is truly life at the edges. Venture into the future, where such life systems exists. Through your nose, you’ll sample scented artefacts from an imagined excavation. And what will you detect? What kind of environment is it from? Is Earth revived and refreshed? Or is it contending with the after-effects of climate change? Is this a planet you would be happy to inhabit? FRAGRANT / FUTURES was commissioned by The Science Gallery Dublin for their blockbuster exhibition Life At The Edges which has been visited by 33,000 visitors and counting. Hear more about the project in my radio interview with Ireland’s Radio RTE’s Culture File. Find out more about the exhibition below:
JUNE 2018 | RESEARCH | JOYA: ART + ECOLOGIA, SPAIN
This summer, I took part in an MA Art and Science experiment, a week long research residency at Joya Arte + Ecologia, an international residency for artists and writers. For seven days 10 of us inhabited a stunning converted farmhouse in the middle of nowhere in Almeria, southern Spain.
We all submitted proposals for the residency within the realms of ecology, natural systems, astronomy, sustainable living. As with all residencies, you sign up with an intent, but the sited experience will often direct you elsewhere. I had anticipated some kind of sensory survey of the landscape, but got swept away with…..walking as a creative practice. A blog is scheduled for publishing on the MA Art and Science website soon, and our initial findings will form an exhibition in early 2019. For now, check out JOYA here:
JUNE 2018 | PROGRAMMING | LONDON LASER LABS: LIMINAL BODIES
London LASER returns for the second instalment of London LASER Labs. The second of three sessions, LL25 Lab #2 delves into ‘Liminal Bodies’ exploring the intersection of the body and technology, ideas of the cyborg and speculative future narratives. Throughout the course of the evening we’ll traverse Body as Im/material, Body as Interface, Body as Conceptual Space, Body as Place.
Part 1 Liminal Bodies Playlab: join us for a workshop exploring the technical processes and philosophical implications of the liminal body with Bento Bioworks; Part 2 Liminal Bodies Talks: join us for stimulating talks with Tobias Revel, Silvia Casini and Stephen Oram.
MAY 2018 | RESIDENCY | THE EXTENDED MIND @ THECUBE, LONDON
I am one of 5 MA Art and Science artists-in-residence at THECUBE London, exploring the theme of the extended mind. On Monday 21st May, 7pm - 8.30pm, I am hosting a roundtable discussion exploring: Is our experience of nature a production of the senses, mediated in the mind?.
Does the sensing mind create the environment + does the sensed environment create cognition? Does nature exist as multiple, even infinite realities interpreted by the interlocutor? Or are there pre-determined, absolute forms that exist completely detached from the body?
Together with Ersin Han Ersin (artist and co-creative director at visionary practice Marshmallow Laser Feast); Karl Sainz Martinez (Hack the Senses, PhD researcher at the University of Reading); Nadjib Achaibou (Crossmodalism member, multi-sensory performer and scent experimentalist) and Valerie Mace, (Design for Branded Spaces lecturer and researcher, LCC), this topic will be explored through the lens of our sensory experience. We’ll be investigating how far sensory input goes to computing our world and what roles our varying modalities play. We will explore if our senses can be manipulated to create new interpretations of the environment and ask – if we could sense future environments would it change our attitudes/ behaviours to it now?
MAY 2018 | EXHIBITION | COSMIC PERSPECTIVES
Excited to be co-producing and exhibiting in this brilliant exhibition with Lumen Studios. Cosmic Perspectives explores the fragility and monumental importance of life on Earth from the darkness of Space via 50 interdisciplinary artists. Throughout the weekend programme, Lumen aim to create a new conversation around climate change, and the overall damage and destruction we are causing to our environments. The exhibition will aim to inspire a change of thinking through highlighting the precarious nature of life, the fragility and monumental importance of life on Earth from the darkness of space, how concepts such as the Overview Effect alter collective perception of ecology, and the extraordinary set of circumstances that allow us to exist, in an otherwise, possibly, lifeless universe.
PV Friday 25 May 6pm-9pm, Exhibition 26 - 27 May 11am - 6pm, Ugly Duck 47-49 Tanner Street, London SE1 3PM
APRIL 2018 | PROGRAMMING | LONDON LASER LABS: VIRTUAL IMAGINARIES
I'm privileged to be co-programmer of London LASER Labs, alongside fellow Postgraduate Researcher Lois Bentley, with support from London LASER Chair, Heather Barnett. Throughout 2018 London LASER is operating as London LASER Labs - a three-part student-led takeover, exploring themes at the intersection of art and science through evenings of interactivity, talks and discussion.
Join us Thursday 26th April for London LASER LL24 Lab #1 exploring ‘Virtual Imaginaries’ - an expansive theme exploring the neurological, psychological and social implications of immersive technologies and the creative possibilities for interactive imaginary. Divided into two parts, the Playlab: 5.00pm - 6.30pm invites you to get hands on with ‘virtual’ experiences in broad and surprising forms from Bushra Burge, Olga Suchanova, Mutator VR and Nye Thompson. Between 7.00pm - 9.00pm join us for stimulating talks by interdisciplinary luminaries in the field including Dr Dylan Yamada-Rice, Prof William Latham and Adam Kampf.
MARCH 2018 | EXHIBITION | APPETITE
The first year MA Art and Science students studying at Central Saint Martins publicly exhibited their work for the first time alongside MA Fine Art and MA Photography. ‘Appetite’ brought together the individual talents of the course members which included film, performance, photography, sculpture and paintings. I presented ‘Biogeogenic Object’. Find out more about the project here:
JANUARY 2018 | WORKSHOP | STUDIO REFLEX AT TATE EXCHANGE
I’m looking forward to hosting my first participatory activity / workshop at London’s Tate Modern as part of the Studio Reflect programme. I will be inviting members of the public to think about the future of our environment via their olfactory sense. Find out more here: