I’d like to explore creating site-specific, regenerative artworks, co-created with the Darlington community. By this I mean artworks that go beyond sustainability and actively support the ecosystems on which they reside, as well as regenerating the local community by bringing people together and enhancing environmental awareness. I’m particularly interested in how speculative or interactive forms can open up space for imagination, joy, and ecological care within shared civic contexts. The Dover Prize would allow me to test some of my research and ideas in a real world context, pushing the boundaries of my practice and allowing me to bring together previously separate disciplines.
Throughout the last years, I have been exploring citizen science and environmental monitoring with communities including indigenous tribes in the Amazon rainforest, wetland communities of Sri Lanka, as well as working extensively with Northumbrian Water and wild swimming communities in the North East. I’ve used these projects as an avenue to develop community artworks, but would like to push my practice further into focusing on co-creative artworks from the forefront of the project.
I’d like to test out my research into regenerative systems, and explore how site-specific artworks can actively contribute to not only the sustainability but the regeneration of the land they stand on. This could include generating solar energy through kinetic sculptures, incorporating living materials into installations that capture carbon and support plantlife, and displaying live environmental data from sensors in digital artworks that help encourage their protection. I also see this as an opportunity to test new materials and fabrication methods that support long-term outdoor installation while minimising environmental impact.
A potential outcome to this project could be the creating of a meadow of bio-digital hybrid flowers, inspired by Darlington council initiatives, and co-created through workshops with the local community. Each participant could create one flower, which when put together respond in real time to data from environmental sensors using colour and light to communicate changing ecological conditions. These flowers would also contribute to the active support of the ecosystem, in ways that would be determined following my research into live, regenerative artworks.
My proposed project would bring cutting-edge creative technologies and participatory methods to Darlington, raising the profile of the town as a centre for innovation in both the arts and environmental practice. By combining environmental sensing, regenerative design, and co-creation, the work would position Darlington at the forefront of conversations around climate-responsive public art.
Through workshops and collaborative design processes, I would work directly with the local community to create interactive, site-specific installations that connect people to the natural environments around them. This not only extends access to contemporary art practices to new and diverse audiences, but fosters a deeper sense of civic agency and environmental stewardship.
The work would offer opportunities for people in Darlington to gain new creative and technical skills while contributing to a public artwork that celebrates the area’s landscapes and ecological narratives. By inviting people of all ages and backgrounds to participate, the project encourages ownership and local pride in the creative process.
Ultimately, the ambition is to demonstrate how Darlington can lead in combining technological experimentation with environmental responsibility; showing how regional towns can produce nationally relevant, future-facing cultural work that is rooted in place, care, and community.
Luisa Charles is a multi-award-winning design engineer and creative technologist with a background in interactive and experiential design, film, and installation art. She specialises in crafting playful, participatory experiences that engage communities and communicate complex ideas through creative technology. Luisa has exhibited internationally, with her work currently on show at the MAK Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna as part of Water Pressure: Designing for the Future. Her project, FLOAT, a DIY water quality sensing robot, has also featured at exhibitions including Prototypes for Humanity in Dubai, Grand Designs Live, and the Great Exhibition Road Festival. Other public works include interactive commissions for Science Gallery London, the National Science Museum of Thailand, and London Design Festival, where she has exhibited for four consecutive years. With experience across film, theatre, and digital arts, Luisa has worked on special effects for major film productions such as Dr. Strange and Star Wars IX, developed immersive XR exhibitions, and led interactive design for live science experiences. Her installations often use sensors, data, light, sound, and co-design methods to explore urgent topics ranging from environmental justice to the inner workings of machine intelligence. Luisa’s inclusive practice has been recognised by multiple awards, including the Helen Hamlyn Award for Best Inclusive Innovation and the Greengrads Changemaker Award. Her participatory design approach is informed by her work with wetland and Indigenous communities in Guyana, where she led projects fusing traditional craft with modern sensing technologies to address local climate challenges. She currently lectures at both the Royal College of Art and the Creative Computing Institute at University of the Arts London, teaching Creative Robotics and Information Experience Design. Luisa is passionate about empowering communities through creative technology and views design as a tool for storytelling, empathy, and transformation.
Her studio practice focuses on hybrid projects at the intersection of science, art, and social change – crafting physical-digital installations that inspire new ways of thinking and feeling in response to our rapidly evolving world.
First Class Honors – BA (Hons) Interaction Design Arts, University of the Arts London, London College of Communication, 2015-2018
Distinction in Dissertation – MA Global Innovation Design, Royal College of Art, 2020-2022
Merit – MSc Global Innovation Design, Imperial College London, Dyson School of Design Engineering, 2020-2022
Helen Hamlyn Award for Best Inclusive Innovation, 2022
Greengrads Changemaker Award, 2022
Geovation Grant Funding, Ordnance Survey, 2023
Santander X UK Awards 2022 (Third Place)
Imperial College Venture Catalyst Challenge, AI & Robotics Track 2023 (First Place)
I run a small studio called Studio Eljay, working on both self initiated projects and partnerships with charities, NGOs and universities. One such project, SWIM, grew out of my final masters project, FLOAT, seeing me working with indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest, building environmental sensing robots out of local, sustainable materials, using traditional indigenous craft skills and ecological knowledge, and then using the data collected by these to co-create community artworks – culminating in an interactive video installation. This was in collaboration with NGO Cobra Collective, the Open University, and the previous iteration in Sri Lanka was in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute.
I’ve worked with several science museums and galleries around the world, including multiple commissions from the National Science Museum of Thailand, and projects for Lates at the Science Museum in London and Science Gallery London.
I completed a funded/paid residency with Greywood Arts in August – November 2024, creating site specific interactive installations for Space Fest at the National Space Centre of Ireland.
Email: studio@luisacharles.com
Address: 7 Antrobus FRoad, London, Greater London, W4 5HY, GB
Local Authority: London Borough of Ealing
