AfterGlow (2016)

AfterGlow (2016): Mini PC Game system, HD 65” display or projection, custom built software in Blender Game Engine, soundbar or amplifier & speakers.

In boredomresearch’s award winning Lumen Prize artwork AfterGlow, an Animate Projects commission funded by the Wellcome Trust, boredomresearch collaborated with Dr Paddy Brock, a mathematical modeler at the Institute of Biodiversity Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, to explore the bounds of current epidemiological practice. This project forms a new expression of a malaria infection transmission scenario, placing the audience in the perspective of the mosquitoes.

Locked in perpetual twilight – prime mosquito blood-feeding time – AfterGlow presents a terrain progressively illuminated by glowing trails, evocative of mosquito flight paths. These spiralling forms represent packets of blood, carried by mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium knowlesi, a malaria parasite recently found to jump the species barrier from monkey to human. The infection left in the wake of wandering macaques as they search the island for food reveals the intimate relationship between disease and its environment. In AfterGlow the spectator is taken on a real-time journey through the eyes of an autonomous camera which traverses the island following the infection scenario; from clustering luminous spiralling cells of colour to black turbulent infectious spirals. Where the infection is most dense, we see a blizzard of disease, vividly expressing the complexity of this dangerous scenario.  

Selection of Exhibitions:
Restless Balance, Solo Exhibition – ASU Art Museum (5 Dec 2020 – April 2021);
Both Sides Now programme including: HOME, Manchester (30 Nov – 2 Dec 2017);
Artience Daejeon 17 UK Focus: Silent Signal Exhibition, Daejeon Artist House, Daejeon, S Korea (15 – 24 September 2017);
Data Aesthetics Exhibition, Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam in conjunction with ACM Multimedia conference and Waag Society (14 Oct – 13 Nov 2016);
Manchester Science Festival, (20-30 October 2016);
Science of the Unseen, SIGGRAPH 2016 Online Exhibition, Anaheim, California (24-28 July 2016);
Glasgow Science Festival, Scotland (19 June 2016);
Digitra, Treviso ricerca arte, Treviso Italy (14 May – 5 June 2016);
VIS Vienna Independent Shorts Festival (19 June 2016);
Balance Unbalance Exhibition, Manizales, Colombia (9 – 11 May 2016);
Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany (7 May 2016);
Silent Signal Exhibition including in 2016: QUAD, Derby; Vivid Projects, Birmingham; Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton; Wellcome Collection, London; LifeSpace, Dundee and Phoenix Leicester.
Lumen Prize Exhibition including: Berlin Electronic Visualisation of the Arts Conference, State Museum of Berlin (11-12 Nov 2016); Caerphilly Castle, Wales (23-28 Nov 2016) and Lumen Winners Gala, Hackney House, London (29 Sept 2016).

Links:
boredomresearch project interview
Scientist blog article
Silent Signal
Animate Projects


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