Il.luminar – Matt Woodham & Benjamin Shirley-Quirk

Private view: 27th
May 6-8PM

Exhibition: 28th May
until 18th June 

Open: Tuesday until
Saturday 12 – 4PM

Location: Artcore
Gallery, Albert Street, Osnabruck Square, Derby DE1 2DS

Booking: Il.luminar Tickets

About Il.luminar

Thanks to recent advances in semantic enrichment technology, researchers Matthew Woodham and Benjamin Shirley-Quirk
have reconstructed a kinetic, interactive lantern from plans found in manuscript fragments dating from the 7th to 16th centuries. Transforming Artcore Derby into a truth-illuminating lighthouse, this proof-of-concept demonstrates a technology both new and old, which promises to revolutionise decision-making throughout government and industry. 

East Midlands-based creatives Matt Woodham and Benjamin Shirley-Quirk were selected for one of these Collaborative Project Bursaries delivered in partnership between Artcore and NMG Development Programme, aimed at paired looking to work collaboratively to develop and
deliver a project together. 

Artists Bios

Matt Woodham aims to expose the system dynamics of nature, integrating mathematical and physical models to describe the common behaviours of complex systems. His academic background in cognitive neuroscience informs an interdisciplinary approach which aims to bring together ideas and communities across art, music, science and technology. He uses live settings to create immediate, real-time experiences in both physical and online spaces.

Benjamin Shirley- Quirk
is a trained blacksmith who primarily works with code and embedded
microcontroller systems. He has a passionate interest in sculpture, physical
and abstract problem solving, mathematical representations of the world anddialogue between aesthetics and craftsmanship. He is an active toolmaker, and contributes to programming languages and open-source software communities. He builds tools and techniques to solve functional and aesthetic problems within both his programming and blacksmithing.

About NMG 

New Midland Group (NMG) is a consortium of three artist-led organisations located in Nottingham. Backlit, One Thoresby Street and Primary work together to foster the profile and sustainability of contemporary visual arts in the Midlands, through research, activity and
development opportunities for artists and creatives.

The NMG Development Programme is an 18-month project providing routes into contemporary art and articulating the value of artist development. The programme centres around a group of associates from the East and West Midlands with an emphasis on creatives who have not engaged in formal arts education or are from backgrounds currently under-represented in the sector.