Well this is definitely a nice early christmas present… It is with great pleasure that I can announce that Spectre has been longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2020 and will feature in the publication Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology: Future Now!

We are thrilled to join the 100 contemporary artists for the Aesthetica Art Prize exhibition at York Art Gallery in March 2020. The Art Prize is open to works in any genre, and on any theme, however the jury are particularly interested in works that reflect upon our ever changing world.

Previous exhibitions have posed important questions about what it means to exist in a digitized, post-industrial landscape, as well as about the effects of over-consumption, media stimulation, globalization, and the climate crisis.

The Art Prize jury comprises influential art world figures, including curators, academics and artists whose expertise spans across all media. We would like to send a huge thank you to the Aesthetica Art Prize jury comprised of Sarah Allen, Assistant Curator at Tate; Ameena M.McConnell at Ambydesign; Andreas Gegner at Sprueth Magers; Dr. Beatrice Bertram, Curator at York Gallery; Cherie Federico, co-founder of Aesthetica Magazine; Claire Catterall, Senior Curator at Somerset House; Damon Jackson-Waldock; Deputy Curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Diane Smyth, digital editor at British Photography Journal; Dryden Goodwin, artist and Professor at Slade School of Art; Eliza Williams ,Editor at Creative Review; Dr. Ope Lori, artist and Director at PILAA; Pierre Saurisse, lecturer at Sotherbys Institute of Art; Shashti Lowton and Yuen Fong Ling, Artist, Curator and Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam.

We would also like to send a huge thank you for the generous support of Arts Council England, Sheffield DocFest, Site Gallery, British Council, and MUTEK Montreal. We are incredibly grateful for the encouragement and support to date and can’t wait to bring Spectre to more audiences in 2020!

Bill and I  secured initial R&D funding from Arts Council England, and then were fortunate to be awarded the ‘Alternate Realities’ 2019 Artist Commission as part of the Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019. Since then the project has been taking on a life of its own after receiving a somewhat bewildering amount of global media coverage since its premier at Site Gallery in June.

Last but not least, big props to our incredible team of designers, developers, behavioral psychologists, consultants, friends and project partners including the Psychometrics Centre, Cambridge University and CannyAI for their continued support to realize this ambitious and complex work.