Virtuality in art

This event revealed how artists are exploring virtuality in their work. From augmenting sculptural form with mapped projection, to the exciting and limitless avenues that the virtual space opens to artists as a platform for expression.

University of Leeds’ leading researchers in virtual and augmented reality and other artists and curators working in this area explored what this could mean for artists both in the present and the future.

This event took place in the Chemistry G.35 Lecture Theatre, accessed via Parkinson Building.

This event is part of the Sculpture in the Round Conversations series organised by University of Leeds and Yorkshire Sculpture International.

Speaker information

Andy Abbott

Andy is an artist, musician, writer and arts organiser who lives in Bradford, UK. He has exhibited and performed internationally as an individual artist and in various collaborations including the art collective Black Dogs. In 2012 he was awarded his practice-led PhD from the University of Leeds with a thesis on ‘art, self-organised cultural activity and the production of post-capitalist subjectivity’. Recent projects include ‘Lutopia’: a video game where players explore an alternate ‘postwork’ reality Luton and in which all the content has been developed through conversations and workshops with real life Lutonians.

Christophe de Bezenac

Christophe is a composer who has performed at world class venues and festivals in the UK and around Europe, and is also a postdoctoral researcher in cognitive neuroscience with a particular interest in the dynamics of social interaction in health and psychosis. After studying contemporary improvised music and composition at the Strasbourg conservatoire, he went to Indonesia to learn West Javanese and Balinese gamelan where he became interested in the perceptual ambiguity of music. Christophe then moved to the UK where he completed a Masters and Doctorate (Improvising Ambiguity: An Ecological Approach to Music-Making) at the University of Leeds. His work examines how delusions of control can put the perceptual boundaries of self into question and account for phenomena (such as trance, out of body experiences, and possession) often experienced during intense engagement in musical activities.

Rhian Cooke

Graduating from Leeds Arts University in only 2017, Rhian Cooke (b. 1995) creates small scale 3d objects in response to site specific spaces. Resulting works often then include 2d video footage and 3d installations. Cooke’s work responds to the history and unique locations of where she is creating and exhibiting her work, bringing together both traditional sculptural techniques and contemporary digital video technology. Cooke recently curated and exhibited at an exhibition at All Souls Church in Leeds for the annual Heritage Open Day in September 2018.

Dave Lynch

Dave is an artist, director and inventor working internationally at the intersection of art, science, business and technology across large scale interactive installation and performance. His work has been broadcast on BBC2 and the BBC World Service, and featured on Wired.co.uk, the New York Times and Vice. As a University of Leeds Cultural Fellow, Dave’s work involves researching real-time data streams in immersive technologies. Most recently, Dave has been busy across the world, doing projection mapping in Egypt, virtual reality at the U.N. in Germany, Art Science Lab research in Spain, his first science presentation at the European Geoscience Union’s general assembly in Austria, fashion week in Paris, particle accelerators in Manchester and large scale text installations in Leeds seen by over a million people.

Steve Manthorp

Steve Manthorp’s company Manthorp ACT Ltd. was established in February 2005. ACT has carried out project management, strategic consultancy and evaluation for clients including Arts Council England, The Baltic Arts Centre, Yorkshire Film Archive, many county and local authorities and many other clients. In 2005 he was awarded a NESTA Research Fellowship to develop new cultural content and concepts for games technologies. He has created computer games for English Heritage, Renaissance Yorkshire and Bradford Museums and Art Galleries. He was a former Chair of Film & Video Umbrella and Lumen. He has spoken at the Museums Association Conference, Art & Architecture Journal Conference on the Moving Image in the Public Environment, Broadcast Asia and the World Investment Conference.