If you weren’t able to attend the Beyond Fringe or missed the Cultural Accelerator showcase, here’s an update on some of the incredible projects these talented artists have been working on:
Vicky Clarke ‘Enter Latent Space’
Vicky’s practice integrates sound sculpture, DIY electronics, and human-machine systems to explore techno-emotional states. Her project, Enter Latent Space, invites audiences to go beyond the black box of AI and step inside a computational space. Using a combination of games engine, VR and spatial sound installations, Vicky creates a dual experience that bridges virtual and physical realms.
Simon Hall ‘Sculptural Snogging’
Simon’s research utilises emerging digital technologies, sculpture, installation and Bio-Art to consider medical ethics and the body in health and disease. His project ‘Sculptural Snogging’ responds to public health research raising concerns regarding lacking healthcare access for trans and non-binary people. It blends emerging digital technologies and physical participatory-making in encounters aiming to raise awareness and connection through storytelling.
Noelle Nurdin ‘OPAL’
Noelle is an immersive sound artist creating a unique blend of immersive vocal based landscapes with cinematic basses and hyperpop beats. Through Cultural Accelerator, she aims to push the boundaries of artistic expression in live electronic performance settings through the use of immersive technologies such as spatial audio, AV and augmented reality. By experimenting with AR being interwoven within visual livesets, she analyses the potential for audience engagement within live performance contexts.
Hathaikan Kongaunruan ‘LAAB’
Hathaikan is a socially engaged creative, working with children, young people and families in co-created ways to highlight the value of overlooked objects and everyday experience. She’s currently experimenting with immersive tech to live-capture energy consumption data, utilising gaming engines to manipulate the game’s performance and usability, and to develop plugins or coding that can help game developers understand and visualise consumption.
Zenon Olenski ‘PhotoSYNTH’
Zenon is an innovative artist and maker of sympathetic synthesizers and wearable instruments. His project plans to release a machine-learning data-set that includes disabled people – filling in the gaps of other models that cannot determine hands with fewer fingers, bodies without arms and faces with limited movement. Working with numerous UK disability charities allows him to use HCI research methodologies to gauge the efficacies of each development and approach.
Natalie Sharp ‘Spume’
With over 15 years of multidisciplinary practice, Natalie seeks to challenge societal norms around physical ability and appearance. As part of her Cultural Accelerator project Natalie will explore immersive tech including Luma Dream Machine/AI Video Generator, dreaming up a way of lying down in a liminal space of possibility with limitless edges. Using Touch Designer for a fully immersive audio and bodily reactive video mapping and Envelop Software for spatialized sonification.
Robin Richards ‘Refractions’
Robin is an award winning composer currently composing a new piece of music for a quintet from Manchester Camerata. Using an immersive sound rig as part of the composition, he’s looking to expand the way we can present classical instrumentation, adopting techniques of sonic manipulation more commonly found in experimental electronic music.
Garth Williams ‘The Ward Round’
Garth is a seasoned director and artist with over 20 years in theatre, outdoor arts, and filmmaking. The Ward Round is an immersive Video Game and Live Show based on an extraordinary true story. Combining live performance and gaming elements to explore mental health through an interactive maze of memories, this innovative project blends storytelling with Garths desire to connect people through gatherings, movement tracking, and immersive technology.
Nye Thompson & Krisstoffer Dunk ‘RED FIELD’
RED FIELD is a collaborative installation by artists Nye and Krisstoffer. examines the ethics of space colonization. With growing international competition to establish bases on the Moon and Mars, this is a pivotal moment in astropolitical history. ‘RED FIELD’ invites the consideration of our own personal stakes in debates about the ownership of space, potential inequalities in future exoplanetary ventures, and the transfer of colonialist practices onto other planets.
Richard Evans ‘Quantum’
Richard’s live productions blend electronic music with data visualisations, laser lighting and video content in an exploration of climate change and have been presented at festivals across the country. His project Quantum explores AI’s impact on human behavior through holographic projections and spatial audio. His immersive approach combines music and narrative, creating a multisensory exploration of artificial intelligence’s evolving role in society.
In January and February, we’ll continue working with artists to connect them with private sector organisations, creating further collaborations and opportunities for growth. These partnerships will drive the development of the artists’ innovative projects into 2025.
Discover more about the Cultural Accelerator programme HERE.
