Eight digital arts projects in Northern Ireland receive £75,835 investment

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has announced National Lottery funding investment of £75,835 to support eight individual artists from Northern Ireland in the creation of a number of exciting, high-quality arts projects using innovative digital technologies.

The eight artists from throughout the province include Helena Hamilton, Graham Thomas Patrick Robinson, Ivan Paul Moore, Abra Dickson White, David Cosgrove, Rodrigo Romero Flores, Joe McStravick and Dawn Richardson.

The funding is part of the Arts Council’s National Lottery Individual Artists Digital Evolution Awards, a programme funded by The National Lottery and match funded by Future Screens NI, which offered artists across all art forms the opportunity to apply for grants of up to £10,000 each. The awards aim to support those artists who are making digital art for the first time or are working with digital or immersive technology in a novel or innovative way.

Matthew Malcolm, arts development officer, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, said: “Today’s announcement is welcome news, and we are delighted support these eight artists through this programme, thanks to game-changing funding from The National Lottery players and support from Future Screens NI.

"This investment will support these artists in learning new skills to create art using digital and immersive technologies, and widen and diversify audiences, so that more people from all backgrounds can enjoy arts experiences.

“This programme reflects the Arts Council’s commitment, as outlined in Outcome 3 of our 10-year strategic plan, to invest in creating a sector that is more supported to develop through experimentation and innovation. The National Lottery Individual Artists Digital Evolution Awards encourages innovative practices that cross artform boundaries and builds digital capabilities within the Northern Ireland arts sector, and we look forward to experiencing these ambitious projects as they develop.”

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Professor Paul Moore, director, Future Screens NI, added: “Once more it is a joy to see the range of work being proposed by the awarded artists. The areas of practice continue to expand and it is especially pleasing to see the projects where there is cross-over into other sectors, for example health or historical archive. A number of the projects are also entering into an engagement with AI, an engagement which is vital if we are to ensure the positive aspects of these technologies are fully harnessed and exploited for creative purposes. It will be fascinating to see the completed works.”

Each of the awardees will now go on to complete a digital arts project including:

Helena Hamilton – Project title: Immersive multi-level game as an art experience.

Funding award offered: £10,000.

Helena Hamilton will create an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) artwork using Unreal Engine to develop an exhibitable VR multi-level game. This proof-of-concept will be showcased at Sonic Arts Research Centre and DAS in Belfast in 2025. The project includes mentorship to advance the artist’s technical skills in using Unreal Engine, particularly in blueprints, interaction and 'game feel'

Graham Thomas Patrick Robinson – Project title: Ascend.

Funding amount offered: £9,965.

Graham Thomas Patrick Robinson will create his first work in Virtual Reality (VR) entitled Ascend. Ascend will be an immersive visual art piece designed to take viewers on a poignant journey. This project aims to explore the intersection of urban existence, mysticism, and spirituality, while advancing the artist’s practice through the innovative use of a games engine, VR technology and motion capture to evoke profound emotional and spiritual experiences.

Ivan Paul Moore – Project title: Exploration of digital technology.

Funding amount offered: £10,000.

Ivan Paul Moore intends to explore using digital technology as a tool to translate data into artistic content; for example, algorithms that create audio or visual content from data input. This project will build an interaction that can be used within a multimedia installation that explores the idea of the body as data and how we use our nervous system as a haptic experience through wearable technology.

Abra Dickson White – Project title: Immersive art prototypes using cross sector technologies.

Funding amount offered: £9,452.

This project will create a large-scale interactive and immersive digital artwork that adapts as the audience moves around a space. It is meant to be experienced as a community rather than individually with the aim of bringing people together through a shared, collective experience.

The project will involve research and development of at least two prototypes using Virtual Production techniques from the film industry to create scalable immersive virtual artworks for in-person audiences.

David Cosgrove – Project title: Belfast Blitz VR.

Funding amount offered: £7,943.

For this piece, viewers will wear a VR headset to find themselves inside of a 3D immersive environment, one that puts them on the ground in the streets of Belfast. This piece will allow audiences to explore the devastation of conflict from a safe environment, while also giving them the power to empathise with those who have found themselves displaced due to their homes and towns being bombed.

The project will involve high end virtual production techniques to create environments with a combination of 3D scanning of real-world locations, 3D handmade models, and marketplace assets, to digitally recreate bombing locations as they are today then transition to reveal how they looked back in 1941. A supporting immersive audio soundscape combined with audio retellings of first-hand accounts and eye-witness testimonies will also be created in an app.

Rodrigo Romero Flores – Project title: Collateral Landscapes.

Funding amount offered: £8,475.

Collateral Landscapes aims to create an immersive room, exploring themes such as the sense of loss and devastation, through digital art and sound composition. The project will utilize AI generative software and visual effect tools like Photomosh Pro to transform poetic texts into compelling visuals. These visuals will be manipulated using Resolume software to create reactive sound-based effects and design projection mapping. The immersive room will be adaptable for both fixed exhibitions and live sound performances, providing a unique reflective and aesthetic experience for viewers.

Joe McStravick – Project title: VAST.

Funding amount offered: £10,000.

VAST is a virtual environment which will be produced and presented in Virtual Reality (VR) 180. It will allow its user to experience the life of and to walk in the shoes of a person who has been diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This digital artwork can also be used as a digital learning tool for medical practitioners and the wider neurodivergent community. The project will be created by artist Joe McStravick who has recently been diagnosed with ADHD and who has been exploring Autism through visual arts since 2017.

Dawn Richardson – Project title: Extended Reality Project- 360 for Domes.

Funding amount offered: £10,000.

This project aims to create an immersive digital environment that explores the commonalities and differences between Irish and Cambodian folk music traditions through post-colonial analysis including generational trauma. By merging original footage from Cambodia with archival footage from Northern Ireland, the project will blend histories and cultural outputs into a single digital space.

This mixed-reality piece will be developed in Belfast and Phnom Penh using 360-degree cameras and ambisonic sound recording. It will be presented in a dome environment featuring Irish language folk musician Rose Connolly/Rois, who will be a central character, following a loosely-scripted journey through Phnom Penh. Working on location in Cambodia with a multidisciplinary group of artists, funded by the Baring Foundation, the project aims to create a deeply immersive experience using innovative visual, sonic, musical, and narrative techniques.

The National Lottery Individual Artists Digital Evolution Awards is one of the Arts Council’s core National Lottery programme areas. To date the programme has provided almost £280k funding to artists in the delivery of 30 digital arts projects across the region.