Space and Satellites Artists in Residence
We are delighted to announce our first five artists in residence for Inspace, who will be focussing on the theme of Space and Satellites data. These residencies will create a space for exploration and aim to create genuine collaborations between science and creative practice.
Selected Artists:
VICTORIA EVANS
Victoria Evans is a contemporary artist and practice-based PhD researcher within the School of Design at Edinburgh College of Art. She graduated with a master’s degree in fine art practice from Glasgow School of Art in 2015, and in 2019 was awarded a UK Arts and Humanities Research Council studentship by the Scottish Graduate School. Her work has been exhibited widely in Glasgow and Edinburgh and she has attended international residencies in Scotland and abroad.
Victoria works across a shifting combination of moving image, sound, sculpture and installation. Her PhD studies explore how the theories of agential realism and distributed cognition can be employed to expand the field of creative research, within the practice of moving image installation. One of the strands of this research involves the sonification of data to create novel audience experiences relating to man-made and environmental cycles. https://victoriaevans.space
Project Summary:
Deep Space Call and Response is a proposal for an audio work that asks: ‘‘What might a collective conversation across the solar system sound like?’
Using a process of data sonification (the use of audio to perceptualise information) I will work with data from the European Space Agency’s network of nine ground stations and twelve space missions (ESTRACK) to create an atmospheric, multi-layered sound piece. May aim for the work is that it will allow audiences to approach, in a poetic sense, an embodied understanding of how these complex global networks allow for the extension of human perception into the far reaches of the solar system.
Deep Space Call and Response will be a sonic meditation on the desire to reach out over distance and the importance of cooperative networks for human survival.
ELAINE FORD
Elaine Ford has produced multidisciplinary artwork using glass sculpture, installation, and painting. With a BSc in Biology with Ecology (integrating MSc Tropical Biodiversity), and a BA in Fine Art with Digital Crafting in Glass from Edinburgh College of Art. Elaine is exploring the interplay between science, technological innovation, biodiversity conservation and adventure. Her work focuses on the creation of immersive experiences that transport the viewer to remote locations, to engage with wild landscapes, diverse cultures and rare species. In collaboration with Wild Immersion, she has exhibited immersive content in Paris, Los Angeles, at Burning Man and at home in Edinburgh. These film and photographic techniques are developing her practice in time-based art. Elaine is currently developing a long-term project exploring the application of 360 film-making techniques in the Okavango Delta, to help diverse communities around the world experience wildlife up-close and engage with the latest conservation issues. https://planetrewild.com
Project Summary:
STACEY HUNTER & BEN HYMERS
Dr Stacey Hunter curates, writes and produces within a design context; her collaborative exhibitions and projects are known and appreciated for their unconventional approach and broad appeal. She is committed to the development of contemporary design culture in Scotland and enlivening design and craft discourses. In 2015 she founded Local Heroes to present the work of outstanding designers working in Scotland. She collaborates with a diverse range of organisations from airports and art hubs to hotels, hospitals and business associations. In 2017 V&A Dundee named her one of their Design Champions; in 2018 she won Creative Edinburgh’s Leadership Award and in 2019 she was selected by Cove Park to visit Japan for 2 months as design curator in residence at Arts Initiative Tokyo and Creative Residency Arita. Her PhD was awarded by The University of Edinburgh’s Architecture School in 2015. http://www.staceyhunter.com
Ben Hymers is a Weaver and Rug Tufter who has worked on several high-profile projects, designs and exhibitions for Dovecot. He holds an MA (Hons) History of Art degree from the University of Edinburgh, studied Classical Painting Techniques at the Michelangelo Institute in Florence, and time-travelled in Channel 4’s BAFTA nominated 1940s House. Interested in the classical and the magical, Ben is also a Close-up Magician and his work champions the importance of traditional arts and crafts practices in an increasingly digital and distant society. See more in this Video where Ben describes the ideas behind his first piece Penelope.
Everyone: Making data tangible through material cultures
This project sits at the intersection of craft, science and the decorative arts. As the global and local events precipitated by Covid19 override our familiar routines and preoccupations, it seems timely to use this opportunity to consider the rich stories and insights that data from space and satellites has to offer.
Everyone begins in Edinburgh, examining data sets derived from NASA Worldview and the Sentinel EO Browser, to elaborate on the impact made by the Covid19 pandemic over a 50 day period. We will translate this into a large scale woven tapestry design that tracks and maps changes in atmospheric gases, air quality, and air traffic congestion.
Everyone is a new collaboration between Dr Stacey Hunter, a design curator known for experimental formats of presentation and cultural engagement; Ben Hymers, a Tapestry Weaver interested in how traditional arts and crafts practices can be a data-driven medium; and the University of Edinburgh’s Bayes Centre – an innovation hub for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
JULIA McGHEE, GEOFF ROBBINS & JOHN McGEOCH
Julia is a freelance dance artist who lives and works in Inver, a remote, rural community near Tain in Highland. She creates work in response to her local environment and the people who live in it. She collaborates with other artists to create live performance, dance film and participatory events. Her career as a dance artist spans 12 years working as a performer, choreographer and teacher. As well as her own independent classes, she regularly teaches for arts organisations, community groups and schools. Julia is a member of The Work Room, is a Dance North Regional Artist and in 2017 she was awarded the Janice Parker Projects & Saltire Award. www.juliamcghee.co.uk
John McGeoch has been working in the arts since the early 80`s progressing through street theatre to touring theatre to multimedia. He is currently mostly involved in animation and mapped projections. He ran Arts in Motion and its performance production space for over fifteen years. He particularly enjoys collaborations and work with artists of many disciplines. He also runs a steampunk venue at Belladrum Festival and runs the sets and projections for Inverness Halloween on the Islands. Currently in lockdown he is working on a few small projects with Australian artists and creating an archive of past work. https://vimeo.com/user2338864
Geoff Robbins is the school science lab technician at Tain Royal Academy. He has a background in astrophysics, web development and a broad range of scientific and technical subjects. He builds data bases and provides web development support to a range of artists. His work with data includes a project that searched the first 50 million digits of Pi to find valid ISBN numbers, cross-referencing this with Google Books to find the first three books in Pi. As a coder (Python/Java Script) he will support the team in downloading and interpreting satellite data from EOS Worldview and Sentinel Online.
Project Summary:
In collaboration with Geoff Robbins, science technician at Tain Royal Academy, and John McGeoch, multi-media artist, I plan to follow a line of enquiry to find ways of representing different layers of satellite data through creating movement scores which interpret distinct data sets. Geoff will provide support in using programmes such as NASA EOSDIS Worldview to download and interpret the data. John will lead on presenting the layered movement scores through digital media. This presentation will be through film, animation and projection and part of our enquiry will be in experimenting with different mediums for the output.
We have already begun looking at satellite data by using EOSDIS to zoom in on the North of Scotland. We are all based in Highland and looking at satellite data specific to our local area has highlighted long and short term changes to the area where we live, which we may not have noticed at a local level.
CÉCILE SIMONIS
Cécile Simonis is an illustrator and visual artist who has lived and worked in Edinburgh, Scotland, since 2011. She was born in 1984 and grew up in the countryside in the south of Belgium.
She studied in Liège, Belgium and Perugia, Italy and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in illustration from Ecole Supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc Liège and a Master’s degree in illustration from Ecole Supérieure des Arts de la Ville de Liège (Académie Royale des Beaux Arts). She has taught drawing and illustration in Belgium, Canada and Scotland, including Edinburgh College of Art and the National Museum of Scotland. She makes zines and artists books, drawings, prints, and 3D objects.
Her work has been shown in Scotland, Belgium, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands and has won multiple prizes and awards. https://cecilesimonis.be
Project Summary:
During this residency, Cécile plans to create zines and posters whose visual stories use satellite data as well as the science and processes behind the gathering of the data. She would like to use the data in the context of creative narratives, rather than simply providing a literal translation of a set of facts. She doesn’t aim to create obvious educational objects, or propaganda zines, but the facts would provide the baseline for a narrative, valid in its own right. By referencing the data at the end of the zines, the story or stories would fulfil their role as vessel for the facts. The zines will be printed on recycled paper using the risograph process (an eco-friendly printing process using vegetable-based ink with no plastic content).
The programme launches on the 1st of May and will culminate in an exhibition in July with works in progress events and talks throughout June. Due to the restrictions of Covid19 these events and the exhibition will now take place on-line but it is hoped that a physical exhibition will be able to take place in Inspace later in the year when it is safe to do so.
The project is funded by the DDI (Data-Driven Innovation) programme and supported by Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI).
Thumbnail image is from Ray Interactive who will be supporting the artists through their journey.
Inspace website https://inspace.ed.ac.uk/
