Five Artists Selected For Impossible Perspectives XR Residency

Abandon Normal Devices (AND), Cheshire East Council and Tatton Park are delighted to announce the names of five artists selected for Impossible Perspectives Lab, a unique XR (extended realities) residential talent development programme, taking place 14th-18th March 2022 in Cheshire, UK.

A group of emerging UK-based artists were selected from an open call in January. The weeklong residential lab will offer a supportive space for sharing, learning and expanding selected artists’ practices in scale and technologies of production in AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and wider XR (extended reality) technology based artforms, in collaboration with experts, artists and technologists from SODA (School of Digital Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University) Labs and HTC. 

The programme is inspired by Tatton Park’s landscape and the works of Italian painter Canaletto, whose paintings and drawings form part of the mansion’s collection. Canaletto’s works are renowned for their immersive qualities of imaginary architectural views (referred to as capricci), creating ‘impossible perspectives’ considered to be fledgling versions of current virtual reality.

Within this site-specific environment of production and exhibition, artists, curators and technologists will collaborate to develop proposals for ambitious, immersive artworks under the banner of ‘Impossible Perspectives’, that will feature in a site-wide exhibition at Tatton Park in the coming years.

An open review by partners with external assessor Tendai John Mutambu, have selected a diverse group of artists, working across varied disciplines for this exciting development opportunity:

Baff Akoto’s work embraces the fluidity of visual grammar, notions of plurality and (self) perceptions. Based in London, his practice explores the artistic potential of Virtual and Augmented Reality to interrogate how the digital revolution might avoid the same prejudices, exclusions and inequalities which arose from our industrial and colonial eras. Baff is shortlisted for the 2022 Aesthetica Art Prize and is part of the 2022 cohorts for both The London Open triennial at Whitechapel Gallery and the 13th Bamako Biennial of African Photography. 

Thomas Buckley is an artist and storyteller based in Brighton, using new media and the lower senses to create immersive works, working in projection, emergent technologies and interactive installations. His work often uses digital or XR outcomes to draw out our humanity, and develop projects that reanimate or reveal new truths in our social histories. Thomas is a Royal Shakespeare Company Digital Fellow Alumni and has worked with universities and international clients to deliver novel artworks.

Angela YT Chan is an independent researcher, curator and artist based in the East Midlands. Her work reconfigures power in relation to the inequity of climate change, through self-archiving, rethinking geographies and speculative fiction. Her recent research-art commissions span climate framings, water scarcity and conflict, and she has held residencies with Arts Catalyst, FACT/Jerwood Arts’ Digital Fellowship and Sonic Acts’ environmental research residency.

enorê is a Brazilian artist working between digital and physical media, currently based in London. Their work revolves around the fluidity of digital media into physicality and back, the modes of translation that arise from this kind of dynamic and how the body processes information. Using 3D scans and digital data to establish links between physical and digital realms, they bring into physical existence elements which can normally only be mediated through digital technology. enorê works with 3D printed ceramics, textile and video.

Kialy Tihngang is a Glasgow-based interdisciplinary artist working in textiles, costume, photography and moving image. She is interested in the inability of the human hand to replicate the accuracy and cleanness of mechanised objects, the inability of mechanised objects to replicate the spontaneity and rawness of the human hand, and the tension elicited when those principles are tested. Explorations of blackness, queerness, revisionist histories and imagined histories also inform her practice.

Established contemporary artists and leading sector experts will offer inspiring and practical guidance, workshops and professional development throughout the residency.

Speakers include leading artists, researchers and technologists working with XR artforms: Chiara Passa, Davide Rapp, ​​Gibson / Martelli, and Danielle Brathwaite Shirley. Valentino Catricalà and Dr. Kirsty Fairclough (SODA Labs), Josh Naylor (HTC), Liz Rosenthal (Venice Film Festival’s Venice and Venice Production Bridge Finance Market), William Uricchio (MIT Open Documentary Lab), Kay Watson (Serpentine Galleries) and National Trust Curator Jon Chu.

Ruth McCullough, AND Director says “We’re excited to gather these five artists together for such a unique opportunity at Tatton Park. We can’t wait to explore this stunning site, collection and XR technologies and imagine new immersive experiences together. Artist development is integral to what we do; supporting emerging talent in order to bring boundary-pushing art to audiences in inspiring locations with amazing partners.”

The residency will be underpinned by support from both AND producers, National Trust curators and archivists at Tatton Park.

Impossible Perspectives Lab is a new UK artist residency programme for Tatton Park. Produced by Abandon Normal Devices, commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices and Cheshire East Council as part of SHIFT. Supported with public funds from Arts Council England, with additional support from the Italian Cultural Institute in London.