Projects
Lost Communications: Underwater
Lost Communications: Underwater
This project is exploring the potential of creating multi-sensory digital landscapes that are designed to reveal the hidden – and sometimes mysterious – elements of natural ecosystems.
With this research the artists are testing 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 drawing awareness to the role that humans perform in driving environmental change (both positive and negative).
They are investigating hybrid, immersive techniques that can capture an audience’s imagination by opening dynamic multi-sensory portals into future ecologies.
Experiment
£20,000
Spatial Audio Underwater World
Using their 360-degree hydrophone set, immersive compositions, and Unreal Engine, the duo records sounds from coral reefs, fish, whales and other underwater creatures, integrating them into original 3D compositions and visuals.
Lost Communications: Underwater, supported by Sound UK, Immersive Arts and Norwich University of Arts, is expected to be premiered in 2026.
The funding is being used to access vital training and equipment that allows the artists 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 artists hope to embrace by incorporating more immersive digital elements into their creative practice.
Visit the project website: https://lostcommunications.com
Sound as data and information, sound as music and meaning, sound as language and the true tongue of places and nonhuman peoples. Listening is both a scientific practice and a form of witnessing that acknowledges our presence as guests on this planet and embraces our kinship with other species across the tree of life. - 'The Sounds of Life' by Karen Bakker
360 Performance
Lost Communications: Birds
15 & 16 June 2025 at Immersive Visualisation and Simulation Lab in Norwich as a part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival.
Presented by NN Festival, Collusion & Norwich University of Arts.
HOME X @ The Barbican
Live performance meets cutting edge technology in this live show that combines theatre, music, gaming and VR technology created with artists in London and Hong Kong.
HOME X was co-produced by Kakilang (formerly Chinese Arts Now) and their Hong Kong partner, Don’t Believe in Style and co-commissioned by Cambridge Junction, Oxford Contemporary Music and York Theatre Royal. The work is supported by StoryFutures, The Space and John Ellerman Foundation, originally commissioned by British Council Hong Kong.
Aims of the Project
We’re hoping to merge more creative digital technologies into our tactile photographic practice; effectively blending digital and physical spaces to unearth more-than-human worlds. This approach allows us to develop increasingly sophisticated, multidisciplinary artworks designed to promote sustainable digital futures.
In the short-term, we 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, we’re keen to use our 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.
