The Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics artist-in-residence programme awards artists in the community who wish to engage in scientific research to further their own practice, fostering links between the arts and science communities to promote interdisciplinary research.
The purpose of the residencies is to support artists, curators or producers to develop and research new, ambitious work intended for public presentation. The residencies will allow the artists impactful access to current research at Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics at Dublin City University. The research collaborations will focus on the development of a particular project.
It is hoped that the residencies will inspire the creation of work that is ambitious and far-reaching: works that propose new forms of medium and new ways of theorising complex scientific ideas.
Professor Tomas Ward, Insight DCU Director says:
‘I am delighted to announce that we have welcomed two new talented artists to the Insight community as part of our artist-in-residence programme. This is an exciting opportunity for us to bring new perspectives, ideas, and creativity to our research endeavours.
Please join me in welcoming our new artist- in-residence, AlanJames Burns and Erin Redmond. We are thrilled to have them on board and look forward to seeing how their artistic practices will enrich our research community.
I encourage you all to engage with our artists-in-residence and learn from their unique perspectives. Let us continue to foster a vibrant and inclusive community that promotes interdisciplinary collaborations and innovation.’
Artist in Residence: AlanJames Burns
Project overview: Climate change disproportionately affects people with disabilities, including from eco-ableism, lack of accessible information and vulnerabilities in extreme weather events.
AlanJames’ research and project at Insight DCU uses interactive brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies as a creative medium to explore the intersection of climate change and neurodiversity. People with neurodiversity are largely left out of climate action yet people with neurodiversity think creatively in non-linear patterns that could greatly support climate action and mitigation.
Together with the team at insight, the artist will research the BCI technique of hyperscanning which can measure the brain activity of multiple individuals at a time.
AlanJames is interested in conceptualising and visualising the differences in people’s brain activity as a positive and creative human ability to solve problems and create change but that can only fully be achieved through collaboration and putting all of our diverse minds together. Through this body of research AlanJames will further explore the accessibility of climate action and a just transition for people with disabilities.
AlanJames’ research is underpinned by the evolutionary theory of Complementary Cognition, spearheaded by Dr Helen Taylor of Cambridge University, proposing that neurodiversity in humans is and evolutionary adaptation that enables problem solving via collaboration. In the pressing challenges of climate change the importance of this approach is nowhere more evident than in the work of Greta Thunberg and Dara McAnulty.
Biography
AlanJames Burns is a neurodivergent, environmental and audio-visual artist and curator producing interactive, socially engaged and site-specific exhibitions. The focal points of their artistic practice are disability, climate change and the human mind. A precursor to the research Burns is undertaking at the Insight SFI Research Centre is their 2022 body of work Augmented Body, Altered Mind, an immersive interactive experience that explores the relationships between neurodivergence and climate change. Originally commissioned by Carlow Arts Festival the work was recently exhibited at the Earth Vision, London, curated by Marek Wolynski. Since 2016, the artist has developed critically acclaimed multi-sensorial installations in caves, Entirely hollow aside from the dark, exploring the concept of aural consciousness, biophilia and wellbeing. In 2019, this work was installed at Creswell Crags caves that features the only examples of Ice Age Rock Art on the Western Isles. Burns’ previous work also includes Silicon Synapse 2019, a VR experience commissioned by Fingal Arts and European Commission, that was installed within the repurposed historic setting of the Carnegie Library in Swords Fingal.
Burns’ projects have been funded by Arts Council Ireland, Arts and Disability Ireland and Arts Council England, Cavan Arts and Creative Ireland.
Artist in Residence: Erin Redmond
Project overview: CHISTERA BITSCOPE
Erin has been working as an artistic liaison for the BITSCOPE project within the Insight SFI Research Centre at DCU and has been reaching out to art universities and institutions to increase engagement with the BITSCOPE Project. They have put out an Open Call for artworks to be included in the project and discussed this and other things to consider at the intersection of AI and Art at a BITSCOPE talk at the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Metrology for eXtended Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Neural Engineering (IEEE MetroXRAINE 2022). They have been searching online for diverse artworks from different backgrounds to create a wide sample selection of artworks that will be used in the BITSCOPE research. They have been particularly focused on finding artworks from a varied number of genres and mediums and from as many cultures as possible in order to obtain more variety within the data collected. The image above is of one of the paintings that was submitted to represent the artworks they have been collecting.
https://www.chistera.eu/projects/bitscope
Biography
Erin Redmond is a visual artist based in Dublin and is a member of A4 Sounds Studios.
Their practice inhabits a space between art, science and ecology and has elements of sculpture, installation art and participatory/interactive art. Their work often materialises in the form of large-scale sculptural and architectural interventions that are a way to spread awareness about environmental issues such as plastic pollution and climate change. They are concerned with the relationship between humans and the natural environment and how we can limit our negative impact on it.
Their installations have been created using a variety of recycled and biodegradable materials such as newspaper, coffee sacks, plastic wrappers/bottles, seaweed, soil and living plants such as runner beans and wildflowers. Their current work-in-progress is uses recycled fabric swatches collected from Recreate in Dublin, which are being hand stitched into a large-scale sculpture of an octopus for an exhibition at The LAB gallery later this year.
Their practice lies in the broad context of contemporary art that is concerned with social gathering, sustainability and developing more environmentally aware ways of creating artworks.
