Projects
Lost Communications: Underwater
Lost Communications: Underwater
This project will explore the potential of creating multi-sensory digital landscapes that are designed to reveal the hidden – and sometimes mysterious – elements of natural ecosystems.
This research will test ways of merging extended reality and spatial audio technologies into their existing artworks.
Their artistic practice is highly experimental, blending science and visual arts to metamorphose natural landscapes and thereby draw awareness to the role that humans perform in driving environmental change (both positive and negative). My project aims to investigate hybrid, immersive techniques that can capture an audience’s imagination by opening dynamic multi-sensory portals into future ecologies.
The funding will be used to access vital training and equipment that will allow the artist to integrate striking visual effects into their evolving digital landscapes. Firstly, exploring the potential of using 3D animation, digital visual effects and motion graphics in order to merge abstract scientific imagery into real landscapes. Secondly, researching ways of creating immersive and interactive virtual reality environments where users can explore surreal landscapes and access additional content (e.g., microscope imagery and sound data). Thirdly, making field recordings of non-human sounds (e.g., water, plants and soils) and synthesising the MIDI data to create an environmental soundscape with a sense of space and distance. Digital art can be adapted to fit numerous scenarios and spaces thereby repeatedly engaging new audiences. It is this inherent mutability that the artist hopes to embrace by incorporating more immersive digital elements into their creative practice.
Experiment
£20,000
Aims of the Project
I’m hoping to merge more creative digital technologies into my tactile photographic practice; effectively blending digital and physical spaces to unearth more-than-human worlds. This approach would allow me to develop increasingly sophisticated, multidisciplinary artworks designed to promote sustainable digital futures.
In the short-term, I plan to learn about virtual reality landscapes and spatial soundscapes via a combination of stereoscopic image capture, field sound recording, MIDI data processing, computer software instruction and mixed reality experiences. Longer-term, I’m keen to use my expanding ‘immersive arts’ knowledge in numerous flexible ways. For example, by developing augmented reality, outdoor arts trails or by generating a haptic art installation that responds to real-time audience input.
Meet the artists
An-Ting
Lead artist
An-Ting 安婷 is a versatile artist who thrives in piano, electronic compositions, and various other forms of artistic expression. Her works have been presented at and commissioned by renowned arts institutions, including the Barbican, V&A, LSO St Luke’s, Southbank Centre, National Theater Taiwan, and Shanghai International Pingpong Festival.
Between 2018 and 2023, she led the National Portfolio Organisation Kakilang, placing emphasis on establishing an artist-led structure, generating new narratives by Southeast and East Asian artists, and encouraging cross-artform collaborations. Her background presents a unique fusion of science and art, holding a degree in Chemistry from National Taiwan University, alongside a MMus and PhD in performance from the Royal Academy of Music.
Ian Gallagher
Lead artist
Ian Gallagher studied Theoretical Physics at Edinburgh before completing a PhD in Complex Systems at Manchester University. He helped found a digital agency – OH Digital – before moving to London and becoming an independent app developer and entrepreneur. He has helped to create high-profile apps for Christie’s, Formula One and the Olympics among many others, and co-founded a startup, Myriada, focused on the harnessing of collective intelligence. He has a keen interest in the exploration of consciousness and the emergence of collective thought and behaviour.
More recently he has had great success in bringing digital technology to live performance, online and in the Barbican. His creative technology works have won Arts Council England’s Digital Culture Award (Storytelling) and have been nominated for the UK Theatre Awards (Digital Innovation). More recently his work has been presented at the East Kowloon Cultural Centre, Hong Kong’s flagship Arts-Tech venue and he has become a core contributor and researcher to the generative AI open source arts community.
