An exciting collaborative event showcasing the evolving creative processes of two innovative artists exploring the intersection of technology and research driven art. This work in progress functions as a test space, providing you a glimpse of diverse practices. The space explores a myriad of artistic expressions, including experimentation with 2D images and 3D installations. Incorporating light and spatial augmented reality techniques, inviting you to engage with the artists’ evolving practice.
TechExploration is an iterative experimental space, pushing the boundaries of traditional art by integrating technology and research, using the inventions (and provocations) of AI in the works on display to start a critical dialogue.
TechExploration: The Prompt (Prompted) 2024
The Prompt delves into the ethical complexities surrounding AI art generation. As artists harness the power of artificial intelligence to create, questions of authorship, authenticity, and accountability emerge. This statement challenges viewers to contemplate the implications of algorithmic creativity, urging a critical examination of the role humans play in shaping AI-generated artworks. By exploring the boundaries between human input and machine autonomy, The Prompt prompts reflection on the ethical responsibilities inherent in the intersection of art and technology. Through this dialogue, we seek to navigate the evolving landscape of AI art with sensitivity, awareness, and ethical consciousness.
Louise Fago-Ruskin
‘The world is charged … it will flame out, like shining from shook foil’ (Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Poiesis is a fascinating word. Derived from Greek philosophy, it suggests material manifestations and unfolding processes – a form of coming into being. Poesis honours an aliveness of thinking and of practice. It celebrates unexpected convolutions and welcomes the unanticipated. Arno Bohler speaks of ‘virtual becomings – which are on their way to happen – perhaps”.’ The creation of new work can feel precarious – forays into the unknown are always so uncertain. But it is also an exhilarating act that allows for the emergence of the as-yet-uninvestigated. The Fine Art team are pleased to present their respective ‘becomings’ as works-in-progress. These displayed artefacts are offered as vulnerable disclosures of the artist’s processes. Questions are posed, methodologies explored and practices contested.
Sarah King presents various works-in-progress from her evolving body of work entitled The Lost Object. King’s practice is an intuitive one, exploring notions of memory, trace and the uncanny. Material explorations are presented in the form of offerings whilst chance incidents and intimate encounters with found ephemera inform the act of enveloping oneself in the work. The Lost Object engages with the attempt to mend the impossible.
Paul Hillon’s practice investigates the complex connections between physical structures, technology and human interactivity. These works-in-progress present as unresolved interplays between these particular thematics and extend Hillon’s current research on the past, present and possible future landscapes of Plymouth.
Joanne Dorothea-Smith engages with themes of Autism and Synaesthesia. Delving into the interplay of spacetime, quantum entanglement and consciousness, her methodology utilises the found photograph to challenge photographic realities and perceptions as she explores the philosophical nature of light. Her work is rooted in her lived experience, and she advocates for creative abstraction to communicate neurodivergent encounters.
Helen Billinghurst’s work is rooted in walking and paying attention. She is particularly interested in the codes of the landscape and the encountered atmospheres, ambiences, geni loci or ‘personalities of place’ of marginalised and overlooked spaces.
Spirit House (Red) (2024) is a work in progress made in response to walks taken in Stonehouse (Plymouth), Soho (London) and other English hunting grounds.
Louise Fago-Ruskin’s current work entitled Til All is Correct seeks to examine the delicate territory of contested ideologies in a world beset with traumatic political and religious conflict.
Its beginnings sit within her own familial heritage, examining painful historical acts of prejudice, exile and violence. Yet it strives to extend its reach, to tackle themes of collective
‘ Philosophy AS Artist Research : Philosophy on Stage. Arno Bohler. Reflection, 2019
PRESS
Arts University Plymouth has unveiled a new public sculpture in the grounds of its city-centre campus created by Paul Hillon, a multidisciplinary artist and Technical Demonstrator at the arts university.
Situated between Arts University Plymouth, Charles Cross Police Station and Drake Circus, the sculpture, named ‘Presence in Absence’, is a large-scale hollow cubic steel structure that captures the light that cuts through it and is over two metres tall.
Creator Paul Hillon is a visual artist who lives and works in Plymouth. A studio holder at KARST Gallery, Paul studied Fine Art at BA (Hons) and MA levels at Arts University Plymouth, before joining the Arts University as a Technical Demonstrator within the Materials Lab. His work has featured in exhibitions across the south west.
‘Presence in Absence’ was created based on Paul’s investigations into the relationship between a sculptural object’s physical properties and the space around it, questioning whether drawing attention to the contrast between the tangible and the immaterial alters our awareness of the space that we occupy.
Paul said: “I am delighted to have been given the opportunity by Arts University Plymouth to show this work outside of the gallery context. As a public sculpture ‘Presence in Absence’ offers an opportunity for new conversations about relative scale, the use of light and the space that both occupies and surrounds the work.”
Professor Stephen Felmingham, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of Arts University Plymouth, said: “Creative education at Arts University Plymouth is by artists and designers, for artists and designers, and nowhere is that more evident than in Paul Hillon’s extraordinary work at the front of the campus. It is a real example of how staff here produce research and practice at a high level to feed back into teaching students. We are pleased and proud to be able to show his sculpture. Paul’s work will reach out into our community to generate thought and reflection in a busy pedestrian area, and is certain to be a positive addition to the city environment.”
