Meet the artists selected to feature at cutting-edge London exhibition launching on International Women's Day in 2024.
Four artists have been chosen by the GLoW3 Artist Programme; responding to the promise and potential of new 'Web 3.0' technologies- such as AI, blockchain, NFTs, the metaverse and other immersive realities.
GLoW3 seeks to interrogate, understand and foreground women, non-binary and trans contributions to the conceptualisation, commercialisation and creative potential of Web 3.0 screen-based media and art and Professor Sarah Atkinson - from the Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries - leads the AHRC-funded fellowship.
The Artist Programme is a collaboration with King's Culture and King's Digital Lab, colleagues from which assessed the applications for the scheme alongside representatives from the National Gallery, GAZELL.iO and Electric South.
The artworks will feature in a hybrid exhibition which will be physically located in the Bush House Arcade and Strand Aldwych and will also be accessible online.
I am delighted to be working with four accomplished artists who will produce a diverse range of works which speak to gender identity and technology and sit at the intriguing intersection between physical and digital realms. These works will make for a ground-breaking exhibition which will animate the canvas of the newly developed Strand/Aldwych space in very exciting ways!
Professor Sarah Atkinson, Professor of Screen Media
Meet the artists:
Yarli Allison is a Canadian-born, Hong Kongese art-worker based in the UK/Paris with an interdisciplinary approach that traverses sculpture, installation, CGI (VR/AR/3D modelling/game), moving-images, drawings, poetry, tattooing, and performances. Yarli's recent works were exhibited at Tai Kwun Contemporary Museum (HK), LINZ FMR (Austria), FACT (Liverpool), Barbican Centre (London), Institute of Contemporary Arts: ICA (London), V&A Museum (London).
Yarli will develop a speculative (possible) future of a fictional city entirely made of Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs), harvested from blastocysts in the uterus. The research-based, multi-media project will explore the usage of biotech innovations to solve current issues on gender health / data gap, with an attempt to heal damaged ecologies. Audiences can access the world-building series via sculptural objects in relationship with digital screenings, sound art, and/or access interactive maps.
I'm super delighted to have the opportunity to be part of GLoW3 to explore new tools and professionals in realizing the early stage of my long-term research-based project!
Yarli Allison
Rebecca Smith, an artist practicing under the name Urban Projections, has been drawing lines between the natural world, art and technology for over 20 years. Smith's practice centres around the natural environment and our place within it, aiming to reaffirm our connection to nature and each other. Often through the creation of large-scale immersive experiences, Rebecca has developed innovative methods for taking digital arts out onto the streets.
Rebecca's project 'Second Nature' is an outdoor, site-specific artwork which uses live environmental data to transform public space and give agency to audiences. Through the democratisation of data, it encourages us to explore our fragile relationship with the natural world, and the impact we have upon it.
I am excited to have been chosen to be part of this exhilarating art and technology project. It's a dream come true to merge my passion for creativity with cutting-edge innovation.
Rebecca Smith
Violeta Ayala is a multifaceted creator, spanning the roles of filmmaker, technologist, writer, and artist. Co-founding unitednotions.film and koa.xyz, Violeta has been instrumental in driving innovative projects. In 2020, she became the first Quechua member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Currently, Violeta is working with character and metaverse creation through syntography, algorithmic art, and AI model training, pushing the boundaries of storytelling and artistic expression.
Weaving Ancestral Memory and AI, Violeta's project 'Las Awichas', is an immersive/interactive Augmented Reality (AR) installation that honours and dignifies Violeta's female Quechua ancestors by interlacing collective digital memory and the Neo-Andean Cosmovision, embracing the nonlinear concept of time inherent in Andean cultures. The experience combines eight physical AI-generated visual representations of grandmothers. The life-sized acrylic portraits serve as the heart of the installation, drawing viewers into the narrative, where each Awicha, corresponds to a unique Andean bird, brought to life through the motion-captured movements of dancers, music, and spatial sound.
I am filled with satisfaction and anticipation. Being backed by GLOW3 at this pivotal time is a tremendous boost, particularly as we endeavour to demystify technology and recognize its potential for power and change. It's critical for women to understand the influence of semantics and the ability to be an active part of constructing new models that are emerging, rather than just being consumers. This opportunity, I believe, will open doors and foster that understanding.
Violeta Ayala
Lisa Jamhoury is a Lebanese-American movement artist and programmer creating embodied, computational experiences. Rooted in contemporary circus and mindfulness, her practice includes interactive performances, installations, and websites that encourage a consensual, celebratory approach to humanity's shared physicality. As an aerial acrobat, she has choreographed and performed across the United States. Supporters of her work include Ars Electronica, Meta Open Arts, NEW MUSEUM / NEW INC, and New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program, where she completed her master's degree and is an adjunct arts professor.
Situated at the threshold between physical and virtual worlds, Lisa's project, 'L'Entrée (The Opening)' is the first work in a series of installations memorialising what of our humanity is lost, or possibly gained, as we pass into digital realms. On first blush, porcelain-esque objects that capture energy and movement, on closer inspection reveal a critique, asking how we choose who gets put on a pedestal, and how we can better represent and revere diversity in an increasingly virtual existence.
As an artist and mother, I care deeply about how people, especially women and other minorities that are still grossly underrepresented in architecting new technological waves, will be represented and treated in Web3 frameworks. I am grateful to have the opportunity to use the GLoW3 platform to bring new perspectives to the conversation at a pivotal moment in Web3 development."
Lisa Jamhoury
The selected artists will be awarded up to £8,000 funding and will have access to the facilities and expertise of the project supporters National Gallery X (NGX), the Virtual Immersive Production (VIP) Studio at University of Nottingham and Epic Games Innovation Lab in London along with King's Culture and King's Digital Lab.
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Professor of Screen Media
