Help me to do my first international residency

Aim

Help fund my living expenses for my first international residency, to enable me to take my practice to the next level, for the first time.

I create kinetic, new media installations and experiences, that allow audiences to enter an intimate, cosmic space that we, as humans, cannot physically experience ourselves. 

Can you help me to fulfil my dream and take my practice to the next level, by supporting me on my first international residency in South Korea?

I need your help to raise funds to cover my living expenses, to enable me to complete my first international art and science residency at the Asia Culture Center, starting 16 September until the 16 December 2019, where I hope to fulfil my dream of working as an artist full-time and internationally, for the first time.

My place only got confirmed on the 22 July 2019, so since then, I've sacrificed my full time job, I've been spending most of my evenings and weekends looking for funding, and now I'm preparing to take my work to the international stage - so its all or nothing! All I need now is your financial support ready for my trip, to ensure I can eat, travel, pay for my VISA and insurance etc.

Your support will mean I can enjoy my trip to the full, as well as creating a financially sustainable start to my career, so that I can become an established artist during and after my residency, ready for when I return to the UK, at the end of 2019. 

Your donations, big or small, will enable me to make my residency happen, and to make sure I’m fuelled up and ready to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

When you pledge, you’ll become a lifelong supporter of my work and I’ll keep you in the know about all the exciting things I’m striving to do, as they happen.

Every pledge that you make will make a HUGE difference. I really couldn’t do this residency without you, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Read on to find out how you can make my dream - a reality!

What is this campaign about and what am I raising money for?

On 22 July 2019, I was selected to do my first international Art and Science Residency at the Asia Culture Centre in South Korea, from 16 September to 16 December 2019. I need you help to make my dream of being an artist as a profession, by donating whatever you can, big or small, to fund my living expenses for my residency. 

Without your support, I will struggle to fulfil my dream, so your support is crucial to ensure I create a sustainable career for myself, in the long term. Your support will mean I can eat well, travel to network and conduct research/experiments, as well as funding my work VISA, insurance and other items that are essential to make this happen. As you’ll already know - they all add up!

I was lucky enough to be one of only seven participants to be selected for the residency, alongside four Koreans, one British and an American, after the ACC received many applications from around the world. After a tough application process, consisting of several rounds and interviews with language translators (at very early times of the morning because of the +8hr time difference) - I got selected! It was a wild card option, as I’ve never applied for an international residency like this before, so I didn't expect to be selected for such a dream opportunity so early on, in the fourth year of my practice. 

Travelling and working as an artist full-time, what more could I want?! This residency will enable me to establish myself in the long term to sustain my career as an artist part-time when I return to the UK. I’m also hoping to tour ‘Inner Horizons’ in the UK for the first time in 2020-21, so your support will not only enable me to continue with my lifelong dream and ambition, but also to make it sustainable in the long term. I’ve never travelled, or toured my work, or worked abroad, so this trip has many ‘first times’! I hope you can get on board and support me, to make my ambition of becoming an established artist and founder of my own studio of artists, scientists and technologists - a reality.

I’m ecstatic to announce that my favourite artist Yunchul Kim (Collide International Award - Arts at CERN Winner 2016) based in Seoul, South Korea (who also recommended me to apply for this residency), will be my mentor throughout the residency. I will receive several 1-1 sessions with him, where he’ll advise me in terms of my artistic ideas, technical making (electronics/sound etc), curatorial, as well as how he founded and runs his studio - Studio Locus Solus. Overall, working closely with an artist who I look up to will not only inform my long term ambition of becoming an established artist, but also to found my own studio in the next ten years, as Yunchul did. (Find out more about Yunchul Kim below).

Why I need your help

Your support will be essential to fund the living expenses for my trip. The total I am looking to raise is £4600, so please donate what you can, as every penny counts and I will get to keep whatever I raise, so be as generous as you can be.

I have been working full-time and doing my practice in any spare moments that I have, since my practice started in 2015. Now I've got four years experience and more commissions and with your help - I’m ready to take my practice to the next level, to develop it into a long-term profession.

Your money will mean that I am well fed and fuelled up to delve into my creativity once again, during my residency and when I return home at the end of 2019, I will be in a more financially-stable place, to continue my practice as an artist part-time, to enable me to become an established, artist working full-time in the next five years. In the next ten years, I'd like to run my own studio of artists, scientists, technologists and makers, to create innovative, new commissions, that tour nationally and internationally.

With your support, I will be able to cover my living costs for the full duration of my residency, ready to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So your support is crucial to not only fulfilling my dream of doing my first international residency, but it will also allow me to create a sustainable start to my lifelong, professional career as an artist.

What your pledges will be used for

• £960, or £60 per week, will keep me well fed and fuelled up, so that I can be as creative as possible throughout the residency.
• £840, or £52.50 per week, will cover local and regional travel in Gwangju, so I can conduct research and experiments, to inform the making of my final artwork.
• £325 will fund any extra travel to network with other artists, scientists, makers, producers, curators etc across South Korea, so I can build networks and contacts to bring my work back to South Korea in the near future.
• £271 will pay for my travel, medical and gadget insurance.
• £164 will buy my work VISA - so I can enter and work as an artist in South Korea.
• £141 will pay for my essential living expenses, including a SIM only phone contract on Kimchi Mobile and UK-Korean travel adaptors, so I can keep all of you lovely pledgers up to date about my experiences in South Korea.
• £100 will pay for any travel vaccinations that I need to keep me on top form throughout my trip.
• £49 will pay for my return travel to/from my house to Manchester Airport, so I can get there safe and sound.
• £1073.50 will support my overheads in the UK whilst I'm away, so I can continue to sustain my practice part-time, once I return to the UK at the end or 2019.
• £392.35 will cover my contingency (10% of total budget). You never know what might happen - so budgeting appropriately and having a contingency are vital to having a successful and sustainable career, especially in the arts.
• £284.15 will cover any outstanding costs for the rewards and fees, to run this crowdfunding campaign.

What are the rewards?

You'll receive some unusual, funny gifts that will make you giggle and some high quality, exclusive artworks and experiences, in return for being such a star, but be quick to avoid missing out.

Check out the rewards in the boxes to the right of this page and look through the images below, where you can find images of the bubble sticker and the limited edition artwork up for grabs. Be quick, once it's gone - it's gone!

The Abyssal Glow, Macro Video Still, 2019:

Collide, Unframed Signed Limited Edition Print, 2016:

Collide, Framed Signed Limited Edition Print, 2016:

In Transition, Unframed Limited Edition Photographic Print, 2015:

In Transition, Original Lenticular Print, 2015:

Joanna Roy - Producer, Signal Film and Media said:

"Whilst taking part as a selected artist in the North West Artists Development Lab here at Signal, Cat worked incredibly hard to challenge herself to test new ways of working and made the most of all the opportunities the Lab had to offer. 

She has an exceptionally proactive approach to her practice and has worked relentlessly to establish herself as an artist whilst working full-time, something that takes a huge amount of passion and determination. The awarding of this unique residency is very well deserved and I'm sure will be instrumental in Cat reaching the next level of her career. 

Myself and the Signal team are excited to see her return to the UK in 2020 with an abundance of new knowledge, having developed her practice through this fantastic opportunity, in a new and culturally rich environment like South Korea. 

We hope anybody able to, will support her in this key phase of her development, as financial stability is so crucial in enabling young emerging artists like Cat, to flourish. We wish her all the best of luck for her time there!”

The Jury at the Asia Culture Institute/Center said:

"The Juries and ACI selected your proposal as your project showed good examples of how art&science could be conveyed through the artwork. 

Also your specific production plan and collaboration with Korean artists, such as Yunchul Kim, looks very feasible to complete your production here in Gwangju."

About my mentor - Yunchul Kim 

Yunchul Kim is an artist, an electroacoustic music composer, and the founder of Studio Locus Solus in Seoul. His latest works are focusing on the artistic potential of fluid dynamics, metamaterials (photonic crystals) and especially on the context of magnetohydrodynamics. His works have been shown internationally including: FACT, Liverpool; ZKM, Germany; Ars Electronica, Austria; International Triennial of New media art, China; VIDA15.0, Spain; Transmediale, Germany; ISEA, Germany; and New York Digital Salon, amongst others.

Kim was the winner of the Collide International Award 2016, CERN, and was awarded the third prize at VIDA 15.0, Vida Foundation in 2013. He has received grants from renowned institutions and organisations such as Ernst Schering Foundation, Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art.

Find out what I’ll be creating during my Residency

During the residency, I'll create new artwork ‘Inner Horizons’, of my biggest scale to-date’. The artwork will be a kinetic, tank installation, as an inner listening experience, where audiences will step inside an intimate, impossible, underwater bubble landscape using viscous liquids, electronics and hydraulics -similar to our first sonic experiences of the world, submerged in liquid inside the womb.  I will also take this opportunity to develop my interest in inner sounds, that exist inside of spaces we can't physically get inside of, as humans, such a micro-scale bubble. What would it sound like from the inside? 

Using sound as matter, I’ll create an intimate fluid, mechanical tank installation (using hydraulic pumps, automated bubble machines) with different compartments for the viscous liquids (silicone oil, UV bubble liquid etc) and air pressure, to create bubbles and flows to form and move, mix and separate. Audiences will be able to ‘listen in’ to the sound of the ever-changing inner climates in the tank, as if they were of another scale, through their bones in the ‘inner ear’ (bone conduction), with an ‘inner listening device’. I will use light sequences, to illuminate how the states of gas and liquid move within each compartment of the tank, that change depending on the atmospheric conditions in the tank. 

I’ll also learn many new technical skills using state-of-the-art audiovisual technology (software and hardware), so I can develop sound as a medium within my installations, independently, from now on. I’m also going to tase this residency as an opportunity to test new ideas and develop my skills in programming (Arduinos etc) and making electronics and sculptures, in order to make my work kinetic (to move) - which is something I started doing independently, this year during the North West Artists Development Lab, at Signal Film and Media.

In addition to the above, I’ll also have access to high quality studio and workshop facilities and equipment (3D Printers, Lasercutters, Electronics, Acrylic and Woodwork etc), along with technical and curatorial support.

I’m also over the moon that I’ll be mentored during the residency by established artist and Arts at CERN Collide International Award 2016 Winner - Yunchul Kim from Seoul, South Korea. (See an example of his work below).

Effulge, 2012-2014 by Yunchul Kim:

Whilst I'm there, I'm also going to use the networking money pledged, to network with Korean Curators/Producers from new media, kinetic art festivals and galleries, to create relationships that will bring further international opportunities, not just in Korea, but the rest of the world, depending on their partners. The Asia Culture Center are partners with Ars Electronica in Austria, which is a place that I hope to show my work in the next five years, at their annual Ars Electronica Festival. So I'm hoping to also build connections with Ars Electronica with support from the ACC, to create further opportunities in the near future.

'Inner Horizons' will be exhibited in a two month art and science showcase at the ACC, alongside nine other artists and researchers. I'll also do a talk, performance or workshop to engage with Korean audiences for the first time.

Speaking in a Q&A about Digital Art and Immersive Experiences, Under The Northern Sky Exhibition, March 2019: 

The showcase will tour internationally in 2020, first to Stereolux, France, with more venues to be confirmed. 

I'm also planning to tour the work in the UK in 2020-21 - so watch this space, to see how you can experience the work for yourself.

What will the Asia Culture Center provide?

• Production budget to create my biggest artwork yet, titled 'Inner Horizons’.
• Return flights from Manchester to Seoul Incheon Airport.
• Airport transfers from Seoul to Gwangju, and vice versa.
• Shared accommodation, with a private room.
• Shared studio space.
• State of the art audiovisual technology (hardware and software).
• High quality tools, machinery and workshop spaces, with technical support. Machines include: laser cutters, 3D printers, electronics, woodcutting facilities and more.
• I will be mentored by artist Yunchul Kim, based in Seoul, South Korea. (Arts at CERN - Collide International Award Winner 2016).
• To exhibit the artwork in a two month showcase at the ACC.
• The opportunity to engage with Korean audiences during the showcase, by doing a talk, performance or workshop.
• Support from ACC Curators in preparation for the showcase.
• My artwork will tour to several venues in future, including Stereolux, France in 2020.

About my Practice

I'm a collaborative artist based in West Yorkshire, in the fourth year of my practice. I use scientific concepts to create impossible landscapes, that explore the deceptive nature of scale. I create kinetic, new media installations and experiences, that allow audiences to enter an intimate, cosmic space that we, as humans, cannot physically experience ourselves.

I regularly collaborate with artists, scientists and makers as a member of The Superposition collective in Leeds, to produce new artworks, exhibitions and events, and through artist residencies in institutions, organisations and studios.

I've been commissioned and have exhibited my work across the UK, at Signal Film and Media, the National Science and Media Museum, the Royal Society of Chemistry, Manchester Metropolitan University, Light Night Leeds, ASMbly Lab Festival, the University of Leeds and The Edge, University of Bath.

Follow my Journey - #InnerHorizons

To be the first to hear about my latest updates during and after my residency, or to find out more about my practice - pledge on this page, sign up to my mailing list, visit my website and follow me on Instagram.

This project successfully funded on 6th October 2019