What is Organism?
In short, Organism is a practical experiment of a model for artistic collaboration that maximises connection with others. This model aims to support its artists with opportunities to develop new creative partnerships and learn new skills, and with time to play with new creative forms. By drawing directly from difference and contrast, Organism aims to form a two-way street between advocating for mutual aid and strength through diversity, and creating powerful, engaging digital artworks.
Although we are at the very beginning of this journey, the idea is that the Organism model continues to evolve and change, as we do and the world does, and is able to be a valuable resource and platform for those working at the junction of interdisciplinary art and creative technology.
The Organism Collective and the Symbiosis project are made possible with the support of our partners: Watershed‘s Pervasive Media Studio Development Fund, devising space in-kind from New Diorama Theatre and Project Grants funding from Arts Council England via the National Lottery.
Who is Organism?
Organism is a fluid nine-person collective. It is currently configured for our interdisciplinary digital installation project, Symbiosis.
Three Project Designers fulfill the role of co-artistic directors, curators and developers. Our Digital Artist Coordinator facilitates the online collaborative space used by the collective, and manages the logistics of the project. Five transdisciplinary Artists create the content for the piece in close collaboration.
Xavier Velastín • Project Designer
A British-Chilean performance and sound artist whose practice spans live performance, sound design for theatre, audio implementation for games, expanded and experimental sound poetry, and instrument creation. Their work often has a strong focus on utterance, agency, the environment, technology and the physicality of sound. They are a permanent resident of the Pervasive Media Studio.
Visit xaviervelastin.com to learn more.
Iris Colomb • Project Designer
Iris Colomb is a curator, editor, facilitator and interdisciplinary text artist working across poetry, visual art, performance, and sound art. Collaboration and participatory design are central to her creative and curatorial practice. In 2020, she founded the investigative poetry and performance platform SLANT, through which she co-curated and produced a rich programme of online events, supported by Arts Council England. As Co-Editor of HVTN Press and founder of their artist book imprint, ‘Interruptions’, she works closely with artists and poets to produce and publish their hybrid projects. Iris is currently teaching and convening ‘Writing, Performance, Art’, a Creative Writing module introducing BA students to cross-disciplinary forms of writing at the University of Roehampton.
Visit iriscolomb.com to learn more.
Virág Pazmány • Project Designer
Virag Pazmany is a London-based Hungarian visual artist. Her artistic language always focuses on innovative communication through visual design. Her talent for innovation is something she always brings to her personal and collaborative projects. She has a broad range of experience; her roles have included working as a scenographer for the Hungarian State Opera and MÜPA in Budapest, and as a production designer for award-winning film productions. Currently, she is highly active in the field of video arts and visual effects; her recent credits include productions for Netflix and the BBC.
Visit viragpazmany.com to learn more.
Maria Cynkier • Digital Artist Coordinator
Maria Cynkier is a curator and creative practitioner working in the fields of art, ecology and digital culture. In her practice, she is concerned with the social, political and material impacts of new technologies on humans, non-humans and the environment. She often works within the framework of speculative storytelling and worldbuilding tactics that enable critical dialogue.
She worked in curatorial and communications roles with Call For Curators, NN Contemporary Art, Maxim Gorki Theater, Furtherfield, The Wrong Biennale, Tate Modern and MoCDA (the Museum of Contemporary Digital Art) among others. Maria’s writing about art appeared in Hyperallergic, Artmag UK, Furtherfield and MoCDA.
Visit mariacynkier.com to learn more.
Ande Clock • Symbiosis Artist
Ande Clock is an artist, composer and sound designer. Their work spans theatre, film, radio, installation, written texts and live music. Their practice is centred on ways of listening and challenging audiences to listen to one another and their world in new ways – seeking to re-compose reality outside and away from neoliberalism and the necropolitics of representation.
They represented South London in the UK national exhibition project at the Prague Quadrennial 2023, and have presented work in basements, galleries, libraries, theatres and streets worldwide. Recent spaces they’ve worked in include Wellcome Collection, The Albany, Royal Court Theatre, Museum of Science & Industry, V & A museum, Times Square Arts (USA), Dresden Staatschauspiel (GER), Project Arts (IRL), Cooper Gallery (IRL) and Cleveland Clinic (USA).
Visit annaclock.com to learn more.
Henry Wang • Symbiosis Artist
Henry Haoyu Wang is an artist and technologist based in Denver, USA. He holds a BA in Art and Technology from Allegheny College, PA, and a master’s degree from NYU’s ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program). His artistic practice revolves around exploring the relationship between humans and the environment in technology-affected scenarios. He utilizes technology to extend our sensations and perceptions, challenging the connections between physical and virtual spaces. His work has been exhibited and screened in Austria, China, South Korea, Portugal, Mexico, Germany, and the United States. Currently, his artistic focus lies in bio and data ethics, critical and speculative design, as well as mixed reality and interactive storytelling.
Visit wangh.io to learn more.
Toi Guy • Symbiosis Artist
Toi Guy is a queer geordie-colombian artist working with movement, video and fibers to create performances, screen-dance and wearable items. Toi aims to soften into new worlds beyond patriarchal-imperialist-capitalism through per creations, looking to create spaces of empathy and mutuality with collaborators through improvisation scores, deep listening practices, embodied explorations, possibilities to learn from companion species. Toi weaves in memory from per Colombian heritage through engaging with folklore and tradition. Experiments in fantasy, speculative futures, pleasure activism, quantum queerness and punk DIY ethics are valuable for Toi towards a root ambition of healing self and community, taking agency in future-building.
Visit toitoiguy.com to learn more.
George Kuhn • Symbiosis Artist
George Micah Kuhn is in the field investigating virtual creatures and computer worlds. He focusses on biological processes in technological systems, from digital pets for managing chronic illness to the evolution of artificial life in computational worlds. He communicates his findings through video games, films and zines. He is a big fan of horror movies and cute animals. His research has been published in deleuzine and plutonics journal, and his work has been shown in the arebyte gallery, the wrong biennale and the rio cinema. Please reach out with any sightings of digital creatures.
Visit gmkuhn.hotglue.me to learn more.
Mia Windsor • Symbiosis Artist
I am a composer and improviser based in Leeds. A lot of my musical output is focused on drones with shifting harmonic and timbral components either for instruments and live electronics or pipe organ. I have done research into both genetic algorithms and the creative potential of artificial intelligence which has driven my interest towards how sounds can naturally mutate through complex interactions between humans and machines, or rather, symbiotic processes.
Visit miawindsor.com to learn more.