Cloud Illusions: Sonnets for Sustainability with Jessica Foley

Superprojects is pleased to be invited by the arts and architecture collective Annex to create a series of workshops taking place as part of the exhibition of their audio-visual and sculptural installation ‘Entanglement’. First shown at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021, ‘Entanglement’ will be on display for the first time in Ireland as part of the Galway International Arts Festival, from 11th - 24th July 2022.

Responding to the themes in the artwork, Superprojects has created a programme of workshops for people aged 12 - 18 and their parents called ‘Stuff You can Kick’. Led by four artists and one arts collective – Paul O’Neill, Jessica Foley, Katie Whyte and Lucida Collective, this series of four workshops will look at digital data as material, or ‘stuff’, and how it physically impacts ourselves and our environment.

This is the first workshop of the series.

Workshop 1:

Jessica Foley – Cloud Illusions: Sonnets for Sustainability

Wednesday 13th July at 11am

Artist Jessica Foley will guide young people and their parents to create constraint-based writing outcomes such as Sonnets, songs and other lyric forms.

‘Cloud Illusions’ will explore the theme of a ‘cloud-based lifestyle’ proposed by the ANNEX exhibition ‘Entanglement’, which looks at the physical embodiment of data and its environmental impact on our landscape. Through Foley’s Engineering Fictions process, the workshop will consider how our use of ‘networked information gathering devices’ shape our sense of ourselves and our environment. The writing results will be included in a zine publication at the end of the programme.

Age group: 12 – 18 and parents

Location: Exhibition of ‘Entanglement’

Jessica Foley is a conceptual writer, teacher and researcher working holistically across the fields of contemporary visual art and conceptual writing, telecommunications engineering and critical data studies. She has a specific interest in the forms and power of fiction and how these shape human and more-than-human relationships over time. Her work is context sensitive, historically aware and process led. She is Asst. Lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire. www.jessicafoleywriting.com

ANNEX is a collaboration of artists, architects, and urban researchers born and/or based in Ireland who came together to curate the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021. ANNEX explores the material and cultural implications of large technical systems for the built environment with reference to architecture, art, computer science, and gaming platforms. Members include Sven Anderson, Alan Butler, David Carpener, Donal Lally, Clare Lyster and Fiona McDermott. www.entanglement.annex.ie

Galway International Arts Festival takes place each July in Galway, Ireland and covers a range of art forms. The festival programme includes Irish and international work of the highest quality, featuring theatre, music, visual arts, opera, street spectacle, dance, discussion and comedy. In addition to the celebrated annual festival, GIAF presents a major discussion platform on creativity and innovation, First Thought Talks. www.giaf.ie