Hear from the people we mentored in 2020, and who in turn have helped mentor us. As we all dig into our deep reservoirs of being human, of having compassion and re-prioritising our capacity, we are trying to make new shapes and ways of experiencing life, asking questions and finding new possible pathways…. Read more »
Watch: WHO expert Dr Mike Ryan is leading the fight against COVID-19 12th March 2020 In the current climate of fear and uncertainty around COVID-19 and the misinformation and fake news which can distort our understanding of the spread of the virus, we wanted to share our work on infectious disease, in the hope… Read more »
Blast Theory has a long history of making social and political work, drawing on popular culture, performance, technology and games. Our new video gives a taste of some of the projects and people over the years that have made Blast Theory what it is. We’ve made work in all kinds of virtual and physical spaces, from… Read more »
Plastic Tiger Factory: James Shreeve While 2019 felt like a tough year across the globe, one thing that filled us with pure joy was having James Shreeve intern with us for three months. An autistic artist who often works under pseudonyms connected to science fiction motifs and cats, James’s work unites his twin obsessions… Read more »
Early in 2019, artist and Blast Theory resident Marina Wainer ran a project with the students of the Product Design course at the University of Sussex. The project resulted in several group collages about the future of nature and short videos that expand on the content. The work contributed to the ‘future’ section of the… Read more »
Gift will be available to try at the Munch Museum until March 2020. Our museum app Gift is now available to try at the Munch Museum in Oslo. Visitors to ‘Everything We Own – the Art of Edvard Munch and More’ will be able to select paintings and objects from the collection and send them… Read more »
I arrived at 20 Wellington Road with the intention of writing a new project. Entitled at the time (No)Man’s Land, the starting point was rather a question: what if natural elements had legal status? The terrace at 20 Wellington Road As the title was pretty confusing, at the time of applying for the residency, I… Read more »
We’re thrilled to welcome our new resident Cat Jones who joins us as part of the international residency program from pvi collective and in partnership with the Australia Council. Cat will be working on a new project Medicament for your Predicament, resulting from her Create NSW Fellowship examining medicine and feminist futures, as supported by Create NSW…. Read more »
– Matt Locke is Director of Storythings, Deputy Chair of British Science Association and also runs The Story. A couple of years ago, I tried to rob a bank. I spent a dusky early evening walking around the city, following instructions over my phone. I met up with a stranger in a desolate parking lot and together… Read more »
From VR warfare installations, to interrogations at the Venice Biennale about political violence, our work with the University of Nottingham’s Mixed Reality Lab has produced 12 new works since the nineties. We’re celebrating the 20th anniversary by taking a look back at some of them. Our development as a group of artists working with… Read more »
Like every charity we rely on volunteers. Countless people help us out for nothing. But this year we set out to offer paid internships too: to make sure that the opportunities we can offer also go to people who cannot afford to give their time for free. With the support of amazingly generous donors we… Read more »
On October 14th, Europe’s first ever interactive feature film Bloodyminded was broadcast live from an army base to cinemas and online. 126,000 people around the world have viewed the film online so far, and up to 1,000 people watched on the night in cinemas across Europe. The film broke new ground in artistic and technical ambition…. Read more »
…like a shot of adrenaline straight to your moral compass. Circles and Stalls Operation Black Antler’s latest run in Manchester is receiving great reviews, with audiences and critics commenting on the show’s ability to make you question yourself and the role of surveillance in our society. Manchester Evening News commented “Difficult, disturbing, challenging – one… Read more »
– A guest blog by Caleb Lewis It starts with a text message. You don’t recognise the number. But they seem to know you. It’s Luke, a guy you used to go to school with. You didn’t know him very well. In fact you’d forgotten all about him. But he remembers you. And he needs… Read more »
– A guest blog by Sofia Romualdo As a former art curator turned PhD researcher, who studies the use of videogames and gameful design as interpretation and engagement tools in museums, one of my main interests is play. Playing is a natural instinct in humans and many animals. Its benefits are well known, even if,… Read more »
The thought of seeing a production with audience participation – my participation – would have been bad enough, but the word “immersive” really set me on edge. However with a family member in the Operation Black Antler ensemble cast, attendance was compulsory. There was something else as well – the subject matter was far from… Read more »
– a guest blog by Alinah Azadeh For many years I have made work – installations, sculptures, performances – which have been sparked by my own personal narratives – as a bridge for the public to bring their own stories to the work, through objects or texts and latterly, by performing them with me. I… Read more »
– a guest blog by Sarah-Jayne Butler, cast member for Operation Black Antler As an actor a huge draw to this project was the opportunity to work collaboratively, creating a piece of work that seeks to challenge and question our own perceptions and understanding rather than to offer answers. No script to hide behind, no… Read more »
– a guest blog by Rachel Henson I like finding ways through an unfamiliar place. There’s a shift to a kind of all-around alertness which charges the location. It’s like a film I’m walking through, a visceral, and felt-in-the-body experience. I need tools that use this shift; that work with, rather than suspend, our heightened… Read more »
– a guest blog by Thanos Polymeneas Liontris This short text is a reflection on contemporary approaches to Music Theatre. In order not to cause misunderstandings I need to clarify that by music theatre I do not mean Musical i.e. the performances one can see in West End and Broadway, but rather experimental music theatre… Read more »
It has been proposed that our digital information will last longer than we will ourselves in the flesh. The average person spends 2 hours and 25 minutes per day using social networks, 80% of people use their mobiles to update their online identity on Twitter whilst on the move and 70 million photos are sent… Read more »
It’s all about processes for me this month – I’ve just finished a months unexpected studio residency here at Blast Theory. I generally work in video, with an initial background in photography and an increasing focus on installation. I’m interested in text and the role of language and different forms of story telling and histories… Read more »
One of the romances of writing is in the simplicity of tools required. As long as you are equipped with a writing device containing some kind of ink or carbon and a surface to depress it on – you can write – and carried with you, this action of writing can be undertaken almost anywhere…. Read more »
In April and May this year I was lucky enough to once more be one of Blast Theory’s artists in residence. I of course have been one before and this is because I tend to stay for short periods of time every now and again as opposed to being one of their longer stay resident… Read more »
Blast Theory are currently here at Cambridge Junction as we open Rider Spoke tonight, as part of the city’s Velo Festival, celebrating the Tour de France coming to Cambridge on Monday. Liat was writing her questions for the Long Live the Vortex! blog and had a PDF of BLAST open on her laptop… All these memories came flooding back of writing my… Read more »
On July 2nd 1914 BLAST, Wyndham Lewis’s Vorticist’s literary magazine, was first published. Blast Theory’s name comes from the manifesto found in the magazine, where the Vorticists name a long list of things that should be ‘Blasted’ and things that should be ‘Blessed’. Being the publication’s 100th year anniversary I took the chance to read… Read more »
Sometimes it’s good to go to a place where there are few distractions. A place without windows – where you can’t see the world outside and the only option is to sit there, with yourself and the walls. “Hello walls (hello hello) how things go for you today?” Blast Theory had such a space that… Read more »