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Artist residency programme

Inviting six early career UK-based digital artists and creators to participate in an innovative, collaborative artist development programme

Immersive Assembly Vol 4: ‘Dreams & Echoes’ is the fourth annual talent development programme from Mediale. It is a multi-disciplinary residency focusing on learning, peer critique and developing new ideas and collaborations in and around immersive art and technology. 

The residency took place between May – November 2024 and supported six UK-based artists/studios to collaborate and develop proposals for immersive experiences. The cohort developed projects which invite us to explore the potential of immersive media in interrogating consciousness and enabling new interpretations of ‘reality’. 

In the context of new technologies, as our understanding of consciousness evolves beyond human thinking, IA4 will provide participants with the opportunity to explore neuroscience, mental health, access and medical science research expertise, as well as cutting edge AI and ethics research, and globally leading immersive art.

Drawing on the world-leading research of academics at the University of Oxford, we invited the artists to consider the role that immersive experiences can play in the exploration of what consciousness means now, and what it could mean in the future.

IA4 is supported by the Cultural Programme at The Schwarzman Centre, University of Oxford, the Cheng Kar Shun Digital Hub at Jesus College Oxford, and Mediale’s talent development focus supported by Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation funding.

Hear from the cohort, project partners and contributors here. 

Contributors

Contributors

With a specialty in networked urban environments, interactive architecture & community activation, Usman Haque has designed & built all sorts of things: spaces, structures, systems, platforms, companies.
Volume 4: ‘Dreams & Echoes’ — York Mediale
Studio Above&Below is a London-based art and technology practice founded by Daria Jelonek and Perry-James Sugden Their work combines digital art, Mixed Realities experiences (XR), and data in order to grow potential connections between humans, machines and the environment – working towards preferred future interactions with our surroundings.
Volume 4: ‘Dreams & Echoes’ — York Mediale
Dian Joy & Lucy Wheeler are alumni of Immersive Assembly Vol 3. As a duo, Dian Joy and Lucy Wheeler are concerned with social realities in the era of post-truth and artificial intelligence. Through their research, nurtured through the IA3 residency, they deliberate on the potential for human agency under systems of exponential control.
Volume 4: ‘Dreams & Echoes’ — York Mediale
Robert Yang is an academic, artist, and indie video game developer, whose work often explores gay subculture and the boundary between video games and art. Robert’s work addresses the politics of video game worlds, asking: who do these worlds represent and who do they exclude?
Volume 4: ‘Dreams & Echoes’ — York Mediale
Lex Fefegha is a creative coder making games and software toys that merge playful interaction with the exploration of popular culture, society, and emerging technology. Lex is currently exploring AI creative's potential via a number of experiments working with the likes of Google, Mercedes Benz, University of Edinburgh and others.
Volume 4: ‘Dreams & Echoes’ — York Mediale
Ceri Hand originally trained as an artist and has extensive experience of working in the arts and culture sector. She has worked closely with emerging and established artists throughout her career, commissioning, producing, programming, exhibiting and selling new interdisciplinary, intergenerational work, including large scale live events, performances, public realm works, touring exhibitions and public engagement, participation and education programmes.
Volume 4: ‘Dreams & Echoes’ — York Mediale
Rachel Briscoe trained as a playwright and theatre director, and is the CEO/ Lead Artist at Fast Familiar. Fast Familiar make artworks that are participatory, playful and political. The audience is at the heart of what is happening - making decisions, solving problems, working together in different ways.
Volume 4: ‘Dreams & Echoes’ — York Mediale

Cohort

ArtJC-29

Alysha Nelson

London
Alysha Nelson is a multidisciplinary artist specialising in immersive performance and live art, exploring themes of cultural heritage, climate resilience, post-colonialism, and perception.
Launch
ArtJC-30

Chipo Mapondera

Margate
Chipo Mapondera is a Creative Technologist who explores alternative realities rooted in Zimbabwean traditional cultures.
Launch
ArtJC-54

Chris Tegho

London
Chris is a machine learning engineer with a focus on computer vision, language modelling, and generative models.
Launch
ArtJC-52

Jazmin Morris

Leeds
Jazmin Morris is a Creative Computing Artist and Educator. Her practice and research explore representation and inclusivity within technology.
Launch
ArtJC-14

Michelle Collier

Manchester
Michelle Collier is a writer, artist and digital maker, whose work spans spans illustration, print, games, immersive, digital art, XR, video, short fiction, experimental poetry and more.
Launch
Vicky Clarke 2 JPEG 72dpi

Vicky Clarke

Manchester
Vicky Clarke is a sound and electronic media artist from Manchester UK, whose work explores materiality, electrical phenomena and ritual.
Launch

Project Prototypes

ArtJC-19

To Lie Within Another

Vicky Clarke & Michelle Collier
Have you ever felt a dream slip into your day, like a shadow you just can’t shake? Tune into this feeling and push at the fragile borders of consciousness.
Launch
ArtJC-36

Collective Dreamscape

Chipo Mapondera & Alysha Nelson
An immersive dreamscape of sound and vision, convening global indigenous stories that challenge colonial constructs of time, and create a space for imagining multiple futures.
Launch
Screenshot 2024-11-12 at 15.18.26

When T-Rex Dreams of Mangoes and Figs

Jazmin Morris & Chris Tegho
A digital dreamscape that transforms digital application loading time into portals for dreams; where transitions and waiting opens new worlds of imagination.
Launch