I’m applying for the bursary to pursue a more immersive approach to my current moving image, sound and installation practice.
My idea pulls together three strands of thought:
– The three fates are three female figures and sisters (Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos) who are historically represented as deciding destiny combined with the symbolism of thread and weaving.
– The Magna Carta, and the formation of a bill of rights that enshrines values like equality, liberty, etc, and was created to counteract unchecked power.
– The need for publics to engage with recent AI rights and policy.
As part of my PhD research over the past two years, I have attended numerous conferences and events that identify the urgent need for the general public to engage in decisions about AI. Currently, the biggest and most influential tech companies are shaping the discourse. And yet institutions like the Ada Lovelace Institute, Data & Society, and Connected by Data recommend that we need initiatives that engage the general public. In Connected by Data’s last citizens’ assembly, they recommended that we should pursue, ‘A system of governance for AI in the UK that places citizens at the heart of decision making’ and ‘awareness raising about AI across society.’ My PhD research is focused on how algorithms and AI are worsening socio-economic inequality and prejudice against already marginalised communities.
What I’d love to use the funding for is to support local artists/collaborators, to spark new relationships with local organisations, to invest in local venues, to North East freelance creatives, and ultimately to develop a new idea with the unique input of local people who may not necessarily have an arts background.
I’d envisage using the bursary to develop a new immersive multi-screen work that would be dispersed across locations in Darlo, to pay dancers/performers/a costume designer to feature in the work, to reimburse a community group to participate in discussions about AI and rights, and to support some peers involved in the legal side of AI.
What I have found really interesting during my research in how to involve the general public in conversations about the legality of specific AI tools. A discussion would generate material for an immersive moving image work with reference to the three Fates and the Magna Carta, and what ‘rights’ communities would prioritise in relation to the ‘unchecked power’ (which in this context relates to tech companies and billionaire investors which shape AI development). I feel this is timely and socially relevant creative work which would hold a valuable contribution to the national conversation about AI (both artistically and socially valuable).
I’m from a working class family in Newcastle. I moved away from the North East for a long time, partly because of how few opportunities there were in the arts scene. But in 2021, after becoming a mam, I was offered a PhD scholarship in the NE. I’m super passionate about North East history and North East voices and I feel that national discussions about AI and the resources going into creating technology (both at a content and infrastructural level) are being steered by London and policymakers based in the South. I’d like to challenge this, to bring my Newcastle-based network to Darlington to see the work, and to work with local communities and dancers/performers/a director/costume designer/provider for costume materials as much as possible so that the work has a distinct connection to Darlington. I’d like to use the bursary to initiate a conversation with Tactial Tech, a Berlin-based arts organisation, to provide some discussion materials for a conversation with a community group, which I think would be quite unique to nurture critical digital literacy in the NE. The last commission that I received involved community workshops, so I’d like to build on this skill to co-produce an immersive work with people in Darlington.
The images that I uploaded below are from: my recent commission at NewBridge project (which involved a workshop and installation), a split screen video installation exploring AI biographies, and an installation commissioned by Cryptic.
I’m an artist and essayist working with moving image, projection mapping, sound, interactive design, 3D digital modelling, installation, and much of my work explores the relationship between technology and society. In my PhD practice, I work critically with digital technology, exploring algorithmic accountability and collective pushbacks against technosolutionism, asking questions like ‘When an algorithm gets things wrong, who takes responsibility?’ My perspective is shaped by my working class upbringing and feeling an urgency to challenge situations which limit people’s opportunities and impose stereotypes or prejudice. This year, I have been commissioned by NewBridge Project to create a video installation for their exhibition Everyday Algorithms; have had a work shared at the Singletary Centre for the Arts Visual Music Festival (University of Kentucky), have been programmed for Aesthetica’s digital programme running in conjunction with the exhibition at York Art Gallery (from Sept); and I have a work Terminal Decline which has been selected for Outside In’s National Exhibition touring to Christie’s London (12-22 January 2026) and the New Art Gallery Walsall (28 June-19 October 2025). Over the past five years, my work has been presented at: the Wrong Biennale, Peckham Creative Computing festival, Kelvingrove Museum, Project Ability, CCA Glasgow, Artech conference in Aveiro, Portugal, the 10th international conference on digital and interactive arts, Model Village, an online and physical group show curated by Hotdesque’s Lizzy Drury and Neena Percy, ARC Stockton, Digital Mental Health conference and Strangelove Time-Based Media Festival, an event touring to The Photographers’ Gallery, Turner Contemporary, Margate, Fabrica, Folkestone’s Quarterhouse and Brewery Tap. The theme looked at the ‘fast-paced consumer culture of digital media’, and was curated by Terry Smith and David Gryn (Daata Editions).
I’m currently completing a PhD in Fine Art with a specialism in Digital Media at the University of Newcastle.
I work with moving image and digital media, and my topic is fate in a digital context so I am exploring how computational algorithms are making decisions for and about people.
I completed a Masters in 2012 at the University of Oxford (achieving the highest mark with Distinction) yet this was in music and experimental sound art. Since then, I moved away from sound art and spent a decade working predominantly in the visual art sector with the majority of my commissions coming from this area.
This year, my digital work ‘Meeting Approach-1’, a work about algorithms in education has been longlisted for Aesthetica Art Prize. I’ve been Artist of the Month for Outside In, with this accompanying online interview. In Linz, Austria, I was Winner of Sankt Interface ‘Flying Mouse’ award with ‘A will, a way?’ presenting an interactive sculpture with glove-based interface and reactive video. The piece explored online directionality and intent, how autonomous our decisions are in virtual space, and the blanket criminalisation implied by mass digital tracking. My cardboard and electronic work Dead Pigeons and Chandeliers was presented at The Poor Door exhibition at A-Side B-Side gallery in London which was shortlisted for Artquest’s Work Week award. I have also been a recipient of Arts Council England funding. My PhD and associated living costs are supported by a scholarship awarded by AHRC’s Northern Bridge Consortium, supporting academic researchers (particularly women) from disadvantaged backgrounds.
I run an arts and society podcast called Digital Fatalism, curating an international line-up of guest speakers to discuss how algorithms and AI are influencing people’s lives and how artistic practices are addressing these issues in different ways.
I have worked with and been commissioned by: Autograph Gallery (London), Glasgow Museums/Kelvingrove Museum in partnership with Outside In, University of Hull in partnership with Yorkshire Sound Women Network, Axisweb, DNweekend (Doncaster), Chorlton Arts Festival, and NewBridge Project.
I have yet to have received an opportunity like this.
My audio-visual installation Watchtower commissioned by Cryptic was given 4* in The List magazine. I was also interviewed by culture critic Gareth Vile about this commission. The Wee Review described this work as ‘mesmerising’, ‘immersing the viewer’ and ‘articulating the language of the internet’. My ‘intricately detailed mini-auditorium’ sculptures were mentioned as a highlight in Country & Townhouse Magazine. My video work about digital media and mental health was also selected as a highlight in Axisweb’s recommendations.
Digital artist at Vital Capacities. Online exhibition Appearances featured new digital artwork ‘We Are Not Target Practice’.
I was selected as one of six female Sound Pioneers for an ambisonics surround-sound residency at University of Hull and Yorkshire Sound Women Network, including a final performance at Hull’s Middleton Hall.
Can Serrat, artist-led space near Barcelona, to develop projection-mapping work Living in an Inbox.
A 5-day invited residency at Cove Park to develop Watchtower for Cryptic.
A two-month residency supported by ACE at The Auxiliary, Stockton.
Email: kin.artcollective@gmail.com
Address: 37 Cheltenham Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne, uk, NE6 5HR, GB
Local Authority: Newcastle City Council
