Superprojects + ANNEX at Galway International Arts Festival
Superprojects is pleased to be invited by the arts and architecture collective Annex to create a series of workshops taking place as part of the exhibition of their audio-visual and sculptural installation ‘Entanglement’. First shown at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021, ‘Entanglement’ will be on display for the first time in Ireland as part of the Galway International Arts Festival, from 11th - 24th July 2022.
Responding to the themes in the artwork, Superprojects has created a programme of workshops for people aged 12 - 18 and their parents called ‘Stuff You can Kick’. Led by four artists and one arts collective – Paul O’Neill, Jessica Foley, Katie Whyte and Lucida Collective, this series of four workshops will look at digital data as material, or ‘stuff’, and how it physically impacts ourselves and our environment.
Can you imagine a world without the internet? We are depending more and more on data whether it be through streaming services, WhatsApp, social media, and other online methods we all use to communicate and to express ourselves. The title for the workshop series ‘Stuff you can kick’ is borrowed from a 2015 essay by Lisa Parks. It is an everyday term that engineers’ use to describe the physical infrastructure existing in our cities and our landscapes for the distribution of services like water, electricity and audio-visual signals. This means electrical pylons, signal boxes, broadband cables…when was the last time you really paid attention to this kind of stuff?
Workshop 1: Jessica Foley – Cloud Illusions: Sonnets for Sustainability
Wednesday 13th July at 11am
Artist Jessica Foley will guide young people and their parents to create constraint-based writing outcomes such as Sonnets, songs and other lyric forms.
‘Cloud Illusions’ will explore the theme of a ‘cloud-based lifestyle’ proposed by the ANNEX exhibition ‘Entanglement’, which looks at the physical embodiment of data and its environmental impact on our landscape. Through Foley’s Engineering Fictions process, the workshop will consider how our use of ‘networked information gathering devices’ shape our sense of ourselves and our environment. The writing results will be included in a zine publication at the end of the programme. Age group: 12 – 18 and parents. Location: Exhibition of ‘Entanglement’.
Bookings here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/cloud-illusions-sonnets-for-sustainability-with-jessica-foley-tickets-377768223927
Workshop 2: Katie Whyte - Data Moshing/Glitch Art
Saturday 16th July at 3pm
Discover Data Moshing and Glitch Art with Artist Katie Whyte.
Katie Whyte is an artist who uses data insertion to create glitches in digital photography and video (Glitch Art or Data Moshing). Gathering images and texts created in the previous workshop (Cloud Illusions with Jessica Foley), Katie will guide a group of participants through the process of how to glitch images and footage. Participants should bring their own laptops if possible. Age group: 12 – 18 and parents. Location: Fairgreen Gallery.
Bookings here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/data-moshingglitch-art-with-katie-whyte-tickets-377814452197
Workshop 3: Paul O’Neill - Tour of Internet data infrastructure in Galway
Wednesday 20th July at 2pm
Artist Paul O’Neill will take participants on an exploration of our data as it flows through different hidden infrastructures that surround us.
On this workshop/psycho-geographical tour, participants will explore Galway city, gathering a series of photographs on their smartphones, which will be used to contribute to later workshops and the final ‘zine project. Age group: 16 - 18 (under 16s with parental consent). Location: Fairgreen Gallery.
Bookings here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/tour-of-internet-data-infrastructure-in-galway-with-paul-oneill-tickets-380362092257
Workshop 4: Lucida Collective - ‘zine making workshop
Thursday 21st July at 2pm
Join the Lucida Collective for a ‘zine making workshop about ‘Stuff You Can Tear’.
In this workshop, Lucida Collective will guide participants to materialise the digital ‘stuff’ created in the previous three workshops - images, text/writing in word documents and glitched images, through printing, drawing and handwriting. This will result in a home-made collaborative ‘zine publication documenting the whole process of the ‘Stuff you can Kick’ programme. Age group: 12 – 18 (can be participants of previous workshops and/or new participants). Location: Fairgreen Gallery.
Bookings here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/zine-making-workshop-with-lucida-collective-tickets-380475270777
Artists Biographies
Paul O’ Neill is an artist and researcher based in Dublin, Ireland. His practice and research are concerned with the implications of our collective dependency on networked technologies and infrastructures. He has presented and exhibited his work at various cultural institutions and events including Science Gallery (Dublin), Ars Electronica festival (Linz) and Inspace (Edinburgh) and has recently completed a PhD focusing on media art practices that critique and subvert techno-solutionist narratives and histories. www.aswemaysink.com
Jessica Foley is a conceptual writer, teacher and researcher working holistically across the fields of contemporary visual art and conceptual writing, telecommunications engineering and critical data studies. She has a specific interest in the forms and power of fiction and how these shape human and more-than-human relationships over time. Her work is context sensitive, historically aware and process led. She is Asst. Lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire. www.jessicafoleywriting.com
Katie Whyte is a digital media artist working with video and installation. Her work explores Damnatio Memoriae - the condemnation of memory, and her interests lie in representation and re-presentation, reinterpreting existing narratives using new media glitching processes. This presents itself in an exploration and exploitation of social and cultural texts, images, and objects through the medium of glitch. She is a member of Lucida Collective and in 2020 she was awarded the Kildare Emerging Visual Artist Exhibition Bursary Award with Riverbank Arts Centre. www.katiewhytefineart.com
Lucida Collective is a network of lens-based new media artists which emerged from the Clancy-Quay Professional Development Programme during the early Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020. Its members are Sylvia Kostonin, Katie Whyte, Jane Tonra, Lydia Hickey, Rosie Feerick, Eileen Mantel and Michaela Nash. As a collective they are interested in ideas and unfinished drafts, multiplicity and growth over finitude and finished objects. Lucida Collective have recently developed an exhibition project including a podcast series and zine entitled ‘Infinite Becomings’ for the NCAD Gallery. www.lucidacollective.com
ANNEX is a collaboration of artists, architects, and urban researchers born and/or based in Ireland who came together to curate the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021. ANNEX explores the material and cultural implications of large technical systems for the built environment with reference to architecture, art, computer science, and gaming platforms. Members include Sven Anderson, Alan Butler, David Carpener, Donal Lally, Clare Lyster and Fiona McDermott. www.entanglement.annex.ie
Galway International Arts Festival takes place each July in Galway, Ireland and covers a range of art forms. The festival programme includes Irish and international work of the highest quality, featuring theatre, music, visual arts, opera, street spectacle, dance, discussion and comedy. In addition to the celebrated annual festival, GIAF presents a major discussion platform on creativity and innovation, First Thought Talks. www.giaf.ie