It is 2076 – the climate crisis is fading, the Earth is in recovery, humanity is rebuilding, and the world is breathing a sigh of relief on its second chance at life. Beneath it all stretches the biggest communication network humanity has never seen, a tangled chimera of fungus and A.I. curling deep beneath the earth.

‘The Guardians of Living Matter’ invites visitors to speculate on this transformed world, from the heart of a multi-sensory research lab that weaves climate research with artistic imagination.

It is an uplifting concept that inspires us to imagine change and see hope as an active transformative force.

Ahead of the exhibition’s launch Leslie Kerwin talks to artist, John-Paul Brown about his inspiration for the project.

What triggered your interest in the climate crisis?

John-Paul: “Prepare for a 20 year answer! I never even considered recycling, walking instead of taking the car, anything like that, until maybe I was 24 or 25. One of my first jobs was working freelance in photographic studios, and they would have these huge room sets. They would build a kitchen or a bathroom, and I’d photograph that over the course of several days. And then once it’s approved, all of that goes in the bin. So that was my first time understanding waste.

“Then I went travelling in the Maldives, shooting a yacht… There was a school of fish washed up, a rubber dinghy shredded and loads of trash. We cleaned up about 12 bags of trash – and this is the most remote place I’ve ever been in my life! That kind of thing really does a paradigm shift in your brain.

“So when I came back, I stopped flying. I stopped driving and changed my bank account. I did all these things”.

Can you tell us a little bit about the exhibition and the techniques and materials you’ve used?

John-Paul: “The exhibition is responding to the climate in general and trying to envision another world in the future. Myself, Sophy King and other artists are collaborating on this project, ‘The Guardians of Living Matter’. We are very much about sustainability, and if not sustainability, then the recovery of materials that would otherwise perish, or be burned, or not be recycled in any way whatsoever.

“There are several companies that will get credited in this exhibition because of materials they’ve been generous enough to donate.

“[It’s about] not only what materials we choose to use, but what we’re going to do with it post-exhibition, like how much of this is an artwork that we keep, how much of this is material that we can use to become another piece of artwork in the future”.

With the exhibition, one thing that really did stick out to me was the huge emphasis on mycelium and linking it to AI – what was the thinking behind that?

John-Paul: “Mycelium is the biggest organism on the planet. There’s a whole connected system that’s a knowledge exchange with trees and roots and other soil. It’s essential to life on the planet, and it has its own language.

“If we as humans could listen to what that network was saying, how it communicates with trees, how they have this nutrient exchange, maybe we could have that knowledge and take over our planet in a better way, and maybe AI can do that for us”.

With the growth of AI, do you believe that it’s going to impact physical art?

John-Paul: “I kind of think it’s a bit outdated already. I did a random test when the first A.I. generators were coming round, and so I sat there blank minded with a text to image generator, and I didn’t have a clue what I wanted it to come up with. So I typed in Mark E. Smith and L.S. Lowry drinking Guinness in Manchester.

“Mark E. Smith had his hair pretty good and his jawline pretty good. But L.S. Lowry was monstrous. He looked like a Francis Bacon painting. I was horrified.

“The very next day I got my bike, I cycled to Manchester Southern Cemetery, and. I found L.S. Lowry’s grave – ‘Mr Lowry, I’m really sorry about this, I put your name in A.I.. It’s not worked out well.’

“Six months later, I did it again. This time it was a picture-perfect photograph. So, I found that kind of interesting, but I think it’s not been very creative. I think the bubble’s burst on that. A.I. just has a different skill set”.

I suppose it’s quite different working individually compared to collaborating with someone. How does that shape up the the creative process?

John-Paul: “Me and Sophy have collaborated for a few years now. First and foremost in Parallel, which is a network that brings together artists and scientists. So I’ve worked with several different scientists – some astrophysicists, someone who works on The Hadron Collider, material scientists, and these knowledge exchanges are really good, really important, really healthy, because everyone in life gets bored of their own jobs. So artists like collaborating with people who really give them a stimulus and a sense of, ‘Oh, I never thought of it that way’.

“So that’s how me and Sophy got to know each other. And we work really well together in idea sharing, and we’ve done some curatorial work together as well. But when it comes to two people making the same piece of artwork, then it is a process. It is an ebb and flow, getting to know someone. I think I’d find the experience really difficult with someone else”.

What do you want people to be thinking or feeling after the exhibition?

John-Paul: “I think I’m pretty aware that a lot of people have high anxiety about climate change, and safer artificial intelligence and technology. So, I hope we create a space where they can digest both of those things in a way that they don’t feel anxious, and it can leave them in the headspace of being able to enter the conversation again.

“I think there is so much happening right now, in this country and abroad – there’s just too much doom. There’s too much gloom. It’s all so heavy. Everyone’s having a bad time. Everything’s getting more expensive. And so I’m hoping we put on a show that brings some people together and makes them be in that space, even if it’s for an hour, and leave feeling like ‘ohh, actually, not everything’s bad.’”

The Guardians of Living Matter is at Lowry, Salford from 31 January to 29 March 2026.

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The wide-ranging exhibition of feminist art showcases work from more than 90 women artists across two decades of art and activism, including radical artwork which in its time was considered so obscene police raided the exhibition where it was on display and shut it down.

The Manchester exhibition is organised by Tate Britain in collaboration with the Whitworth, The University of Manchester and National Galleries of Scotland. It runs across 6 rooms exploring key themes of maternal and domestic experiences, anti-racist and LGBTQ+ activism, Greenham Common and the peace movement, and punk and independent music.

The rooms are organised chronologically from 1970 to 1990, a decision it took curator Lindsey Young two years to settle on. “It’s uncomfortable, because there isn’t feminist work by artists of colour visible until the late 70s,” she explains.

Lindsey spent five years working on Women in Revolt! before it was initially displayed in Tate Britain in 2023. She cites three strong reasons behind her inspiration.

“The first is, I wanted to make a present for my mum,” she says. “She was a single mum, she was a nurse, she was funny, she was brilliant, and the world really kind of f*****d her over. It’s those injustices, small and large, that just infiltrate women’s everyday lives.”

The second reason comes from Lindsey’s time working at the Tate. “I was asked early on to make this display about the 1980s. And I ended up going for all the queer work, and all the work from people of colour. And I remember them saying ‘Oh this is so unusual’, and to me, I’d just told the most obvious story of the 80s. That got me thinking, what can you do in an institution like this?

“The third reason is because I was called curator of contemporary art, British art, but I realised I didn’t know about British art. I knew about a white, male British art, because that’s what I’d been taught.”

Despite long careers, many of the artists featured have been excluded until now in artistic narratives of the time. And this is the first time many of the works featured have been displayed since the 1970s.

Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990’ is open from 7 March to 1 June 2025 with the same opening hours as Whitworth Art Gallery.

The exhibition includes Bobby Bakers ‘An Edible Family in a Mobile Home’, a sculptural installation of edible, life-sized family members made from cakes, meringues and biscuits, served to visitors with a cup of tea.

An Edible Family in a Mobile Home is also free to enter and is open until 20 April 2025 during the following special opening hours: Wednesday: 10.30am–4pm; Thursday: 2pm–8pm; Friday: 10.30am–4pm; Saturday: 10.30am–4pm and Sunday: 10.30am–4pm.

Alongside the exhibition, the Whitworth is running a programme of free events.

Content warning: Women in Revolt! addresses a range of social issues that could be distressing. Gina Birch – Three Minute Scream (1979) plays on a continuous loop with other audio installations, earplugs will be available from the Visitor Team.

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From where he was living at the time, artist Imran Perretta could see the smoke from the burning buildings. Friends of his were caught up, in various capacities, in the rioting. A Riot in Three Acts, originally installed at Somerset House in London, now recreated for the gallery space at HOME in Manchester, is Perretta’s attempt to grapple with the personal, political and social fallout from the events of that August.

The installation, occupies the entire ground floor gallery. It’s on a good scale for the location – not so small as to appear insignificant, nor so large as to overfill the space: “uncomfortable in a brilliant way,” as Perretta describes it. Each of his skills, as artist, filmmaker and composer, is put to work.

The main visual element is a scenic backdrop of Reeves Corner, location of House of Reeves (a local furniture store, owned by the same family for over a century).

We enter looking at the back of the construction – wooden struts and blank canvas – so that the artifice is immediately apparent, but also the viewer must make the choice to proceed. We have to move towards the installation and around it, in order for the subject to be revealed.

This store survived the riots, but the Reeves family’s other establishment was burnt to the ground. Video of this fire is shown on loop, using Perretta’s Blackberry phone (the sight of a Blackberry with all those lovely buttons all but brought a tear to my eye). There is so much to unpack in this – the transience of “cutting edge” technology; the beginnings of so-called ‘citizen journalism’; accounts that BlackBerry Messenger service was used by looters to organise attacks; the interesting decision of an artist who views himself primarily as a filmmaker to use just this one, tiny moving image.

It is, I think, a wise choice. The point of an installation is to invite the viewer to ‘be here, now.’

Immediately facing the image of House of Reeves is a 3-D recreation of the site of the store that was destroyed (and, despite plans, never rebuilt) – pitted concrete columns, concrete planters with the size and appearance of underground drainage pipes, containing sickly, spindly bushes whose only “leaves” are the detritus of city litter. Walking across the gravel base creates a sound effect to compete with the music (a modern classical quartet, composed by Perretta and performed by members of the Manchester Camerata*). It is one of several significant juxtapositions.

Having arrived at Ai Weiwei’s impressive Sunflower Seeds installation (Tate Modern) just after health and safety had (with good reason) withdrawn permission for visitors to walk on the one hundred million porcelain seeds, it was a relief not to be denied a key auditory aspect of the experience.

The litter and disarray is not overplayed – a can and a bottle here, some cardboard there – and the weeds are Manchester’s very own, handpicked by the artist. What Perretta offers us is less shock and horror, more an enduring sense of puzzlement, regret and lack of resolution.

Three years on from the financial crash of 2008 and with the new coalition government’s austerity measures just beginning to bite, poverty, racial tensions and long-standing grievances with policing all contributed to these riots, although political and press reactions tended to focus on sheer criminality. No Scarman-style inquiry was commissioned. Hence, one feels, the sense of unfinished business and unanswered questions layered through this installation.

The effect is emotionally involving and thought-provoking. How many of us (not just politicians) had all but entirely forgotten these riots (a mere 14 years ago)?

It’s worth reminding yourself about those events in August 2011 (especially at Reeves Corner) prior to visiting A Riot in Three Acts. Allow yourself time to take it all in. As with any worthwhile installation, it’s not to be rushed. Walk, sit, look, listen, and think. Is act three truly completed?

Imran Perretta: A Riot In Three Acts is at Home, Manchester from 22 February to 8 June 2025. The gallery will host live performances of Imran Perretta’s specially commissioned piece for string quartet, A Requiem for the Dispossessed, on Friday 28 February and Wednesday 9 April 2025.

On 10 April the venue is hosting Imran Perretta and Dhanveer Singh Brar in conversation chaired by Rahila Haque.

The post Imran Perretta: A Riot In Three Acts – Review appeared first on Quays Life.

The exhibition, which takes inspiration from the hit musical SIX, celebrates ‘everyday’ queens of every description.

“With Queens we want to celebrate not only SIX and its huge personality and sense of fun, but also its glorious inclusivity, attitude and creativity,” says The Lowry’s Director of Visual Arts Michael Simpson. “We know it’s going to be an exhibition like no other and is for everyone who loves SIX, but also for everyone who likes to have a good time.”

In SIX each of Henry VIII’s wives are turned into a pop star on stage and take to the mic to tell their own personal tales, remixing five hundred years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power.

Since its early days as a student production in a 100-seat room at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the show has fast become a global musical phenomenon.

In the exhibition the history of these Tudor Queens, as well as their contemporary music influences – from Adele to Beyoncé, blend with lots of opportunities for visitors to sing, dance, play games and quizzes and even take suitably regal selfies.

Queens starts with a celebration of the hit musical SIX featuring two of Gabriella Slade’s iconic costumes from the show: those of Catherine of Aragon and Katherine Howard – a first for the North West.

The costumes are displayed alongside a newly-commissioned model of the SIX stage set, designed by Emma Bailey, as well as scripts, film and memorabilia from Toby and Lucy.

“We are so, so excited that this SIX-inspired exhibition is being curated by The Lowry,” says Lucy Moss. “It has been such a wonderful home for our show for so many years, and it’s just so cool that it will be inviting the Queendom to engage with it, its history, and theatre in a different way”.

Toby agrees: “We can’t wait for everyone to come along and experience the magic the team have been cooking up – we hope it’ll be super inspiring!”

SIX first came to The Lowry at Christmas 2018, at the end of the show’s first ever UK tour, and the production has returned regularly ever since, with sold-out audiences every time. The free exhibition coincides with the shows next visit to the venue’s Lyric Theatre from Tuesday 13 August to Sunday 1 September.

Queens: The Exhibition is at The Lowry from 20 July to 3 November. Entry is free but time slots are required, which can be booked in advance on The Lowry website .

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If we’re still none the wiser, then you will just have to get down to Aviva Studios and have a look for yourself.

The ‘you’ was indeed a Daisy, the ‘me’ was your Quays Life critic, and the ‘balloons’ were the collected inflatables of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose funky fun aesthetic runs right through this exhibition, the centre piece of the (sort-of) open Aviva Studios and this year’s Manchester International Festival. And it really is fabulous. Deliciously destabilising. I recall – when this was Granada Studios – there was a room of supersized props around the spot where the new Aviva Studios now stands. That was already belittling – our own Gulliver’s Travels – but these engorged inflatables make us feel even more Lilliputian.

The procession through the exhibition is really well handled. We enter through one room of yellow tentacles, entwined around one another… and we, who walk amongst them. This is an experiential exhibition and the temptation… indeed the desire on the part of the artist… is for us all to get amongst it, to get involved. Into the next room and we see the giant inflatables from up high, as if observing a strange new world. And then, once you have your spurs, you walk down and immerse yourself in that world, strolling through the sculptures, peering into some of them, even getting into one, to engender different sensory experiences. On whatever scale, each piece exhibits intricate design and assembly; patches seemingly hand sewn, before the final piece is inflated.

The story of Kusama herself is fascinating. Now 94, she was charged with making parachutes for the Japanese forces in WWII and was only 16 when America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That was when her battles with her own mental health began, and from these two fixed points we can perhaps start to trace the genesis of these supersized inspired artworks. After time living in Europe and the States, Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, checked into a hospital facility for the mentally unwell in 1977, and has lived there ever since. From such a fecund source of confusion and creativity come these magical inflatables of one cosmic imagination. Suspended animation; suspended clouds. Moments in a magical wonderland. Kusama herself says her influences are “subconscious and psychosomatic” and it’s hard to argue against that, especially when you watch Kusama herself sing about her own experiences in the video projection Song of a Manhattan Suicide Addict.

We are in the clouds but also feel on the water at times. The end of the exhibition is Bouquet of Love I saw in the Universe – 11 metres of pink tentacles that make us feel as though there is a monster just beneath the surface. So there are indeed the polka dot clouds of children’s imaginations, but also a sense, perhaps, of more sinister forces, under the surface. But that is a sense, only, because overall the feeling is of playfulness… of a huge, but gentle, world of freestyle fun. Into this world enters everyone from children to pensioners, all delighting in the different perspectives available, including lying down on float-y waterbed ‘clouds’ to look up at the sculptures above. (If anything, I felt there should have perhaps been a little more going on directly above the beds).

Disorienting and delightful, this is where psychedelia meets pop art; where Ivor Cutler meets Jeff Koons. So if you fancy being elevated to somewhere entirely ‘other’, get down to the Factory, keep a tight grip on reality, and hold on for some itsy bitsy, teenie weenie, yellow polka dot balloon-y.

Yayoi Kusama: You, Me and the Balloons is at Aviva Studios as part of Manchester International Festival from 19 July to 28 August 2023.

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How did your artist journey begin?

Dez: “I am a family man born and raised in the city of Manchester, a creative artist, diagnosed with bipolar in my late 20’s and in more recent years autism. I am very strong on breaking the stigma around mental illness, autism and helping others.

“I use art as my own personal therapy and coping strategy daily. I believe that many other people with mental health issues/autism and in general, could also benefit from expressive art and I want to help promote this.

“I started using a free editing app on my phone one day when I was in a state of mania and found it helped me focus on one individual subject. This eventually became a pattern to which I turned to daily and I believe it helps me channel my thoughts into one subject and not go down a rabbit hole of negativity.

“I feel that creating art and editing on my phone has given me a tool which really helps me stabilise my fluctuating moods and gives me something to turn to when this happens.
I am a strong believer in helping others and have helped raise money by donating artwork to many different charities. Through my art donations I have built up many good relationships with different organisations and also become an advocate for the NSPCC”.

I first discovered your work , all related to Manchester and bees, at a Manchester railway station, how did that come about?

Dez: “I am very proud that my Manchester ‘Bees about town’ collection is a permanent fixture on show to the public at Oxford Road train station and I have other artwork throughout the city centre with more to come.

“I can’t remember which piece came first in my Bee collection. I had an idea to promote old buildings or iconic places in Manchester by adding colour and large bees in an abstract style. Obviously, the Bee is a strong Manchester symbol, so I wanted to represent this in an image. I wanted it to reflect the people of Manchester going about their day to day lives through a visual representation.

“Once I created the first image, I thought I was onto something special and decided to create a collection so I could show more of Manchester’s beautifully diverse architecture and history at the same time.

“The picture I named ‘22 Bees’ I created in memory of everybody who lost their lives in the Manchester bombing. The concept of this image came to me instantly and I was manic to get it created. I asked my partner to take me to Manchester so I could get the photograph of the arena and then we came home, and I started to edit it immediately.

“This is one of the pieces I created where I had a clear image of how it would look, whereas a lot of my pictures have a concept, but I like to take an organic approach. I was also honoured to be asked to create a separate image which is now up at Victoria Station as part of the memorial and tribute to the 22 who tragically lost their lives in the Manchester bombing”.

Have you always been interested in art?

Dez: “Art has always been a passion of mine but I’ve only in the past couple of years really taken time and focused on it and realised the positive affect it has on my mental health. I am self-taught which makes my achievements mean so much to me. I have a lot of ideas I want to try but abstract art is what I really love.

“I have come in contact with so many amazing people through my artwork and it has really helped change my life. Although I don’t get out a lot due to my condition, knowing my art is reaching so many places gives me great satisfaction and gives me a real sense of self-worth – especially knowing it helps others.

“With my art it all depends on the mood that I am in what the outcome will be. I like it to feel organic, but I like to put multiple messages and subliminal meanings in a lot of my images. I create a lot of pieces on current topics and try to give a different spin on them. Being a proud Mancunian, a lot of my art is Manchester focused”.

Have you other interests apart as well as your art?

Dez: “Away from art I am strong on self-education and mindfulness. My mental health condition and autism play a strong part in my life, so I try to manage this with positive thinking, structure and patterns.

You refer to yourself as a Poster Boy for Art Therapy, why is that?

Dez: “I feel very blessed to have found art and not only is it my passion it is my lifeline which I use in my daily life to help with my condition.

“I was diagnosed with bipolar well over 10 years ago, just before what I call the ‘bipolar boom’ where it seemed everyone started to receive the diagnosis.

“I was put on all types of meds throughout the years. Every combination you can think of which they can prescribe for bipolar possible. None of these combinations ever worked in stabilising my moods.

“Some combinations I was taking were so strong that I had no quality of life. I would take them in the morning, the affect would kick in around lunch time (where I would become like a zombie and barely be able to function), this would last till I went to sleep at night. Waking up in the morning I would feel groggy take my meds again, then just as the grogginess would ware off, I would be back in the cycle.

“On one occasion this happened in-front of my dad and he said he saw my eyes roll in the back of my head & my whole demeanour change. Obviously, this wasn’t a healthy way of life or existence.

“Years passed by living this way, trialling different medications with all types of side effects. Going to appointments with psychiatrists every couple of months to see how and if the meds was settling.

“I was referred to CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) twice in all these years… The first time was in the early years of my diagnosis and I found it very helpful. The psychiatrist was German I think, and after our first initial hour session I went back, and I felt she had broken my life down quite clearly as I saw it. The sessions were very stressful as you can imagine, talking about past issues and trauma, but I felt we was making progress. These sessions were cut short due to her having to move on. So, I was back to square one.

“So finally, many years later, I had my Autism Assessment around the time I started the Clinical Assessment Treatment therapy (CAT).

“The Autism assessment suggested I showed strong signs of high functioning Autism – something I wasn’t aware of.

“I suggested this to my psychologist who I was seeing for the (CAT), and she strongly agreed and changed her approach to her usual process.

“Due to Covid my therapy went on all through 2020 which really helped me assess my condition. I feel that what I would normally call mania can also be explained as meltdowns which to me makes far more sense. As I never knew much about autism (especially high functioning) it was a big learning curve and I also felt like it was a big piece to the puzzle. The more I learned the more it all made sense and I am surprised it has never been picked up before in all the years of assessments.

“My psychiatrist had already given me the diagnosis of autism to go with my diagnosis of bipolar and recently, I received a call to explain that I have been given a full diagnosis of autism (high functioning) and that I will be referred to a life coach to hopefully give me some coping skills”.

I noticed that on your website, there is a very poignant piece of art showing a man and a clock, what was your reasoning for this?

Dez: “I created the picture of a male silhouette shortly after receiving the news as regards my diagnosis of Autism. I created it one night on my phone. The male represents myself, walking towards the sunset, while the looming numbers of time whirl over me – representing from then till now.

“I have always had an issue and fear of time and it’s power. Time dictates everything I believe – for better or for worse… It is the one thing that is eternal!

“Hoping for good but expecting ups and downs… life’s journey… only time will tell!”

To read Dez’s full blog on mental health and also to see more of his work, including ‘The Male Silhouette’ go to his website.

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In David Bickerstaff’s documentary, simply titled Sunflowers, the director takes us on a journey around the world visiting the southern French landscapes that inspired the works during the late 19^th century, and the galleries where they are now displayed in London, Amsterdam, Munich, Philadelphia, and Tokyo.

This is the third film Bickerstaff has made on the artist; his previous two being, Vincent van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing (2015) and Van Gogh & Japan (2019). His knowledge and interest in Van Gogh is apparent, in the depth to which the film goes in uncovering stories of each of the paintings, the level of expert commentary, and the fascinating insight that comes from visual juxtapositions of these different works.

The cinematic journey introduces us to the many works and painters who influenced Van Gogh and those he later influenced. It also looks more widely at how sunflowers have been represented in art, and how Van Gogh came to use this towering flower, which he once said gave him hope for the future, as his motif.

There is a fascinating insight into the artist’s use of and experimentation with colour, encouraging a greater appreciation of creating a monochrome image that on one level can appear so simple. The artist’s techniques are further unveiled by new research at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, which used X-ray images and infra-red technology to see reveal the charcoal sketch below the surface of the paint.

In a packed 85 minutes, we come to a better appreciation of both the artist and his work, in an imaginative way which mixes views of art (both at a general gallery viewing distance and up close, where individual brush strokes are visible), with images of nature, expert interviews, dramatic interludes with actor Jamie de Courcey portraying Van Gogh and Jochum Ten Haaf bringing the artist’s thoughts to life by reading from letters, and a soundtrack of original music by Asa Bennett.

In this sense, although the film is based on Van Gogh and the Sunflowers at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, it is much more than an exhibition on screen. And the subject is covered in such academic depth that it will appeal to those with an interest in art history, as well as those who want to know more about this iconic work.

Sunflowers is released in cinemas across the UK from 8 June 2021, including Curzon, Everyman, Odeon, Picturehouse, Showcase, Vue and independent cinemas. Find your nearest cinema at exhibitiononscreen.com

The post Sunflowers the mystery of Van Gogh’s greatest masterworks: Review appeared first on Quays Life.

However, aside from the huge growth of the gaming industry, it’s often overlooked how VR and AR could impact the world of arts and entertainment. But the pandemic shift to online arts has brought the possibility to the fore. Here are some of the changes you can expect to see:

More Access to Performances
The pandemic has sadly forced concert venues across nationwide to close. VR and AR headsets are an alternative option for experiencing the concert atmosphere, from the comfort of your own home.

It’s expected that over the next few years the price of headsets with come down considerably, making the the virtual concert experience a lot more affordable, and long-term, much cheaper than the price of a front row ticket.

If more people buy and use headsets it is possible artists could use them to expand theor market for concerts, making shows more accessible to a wider, world-wide audience, with a more realistic feel of being at a gig than watching on TV.

Longer-term this new technology has the potential to completely change how ticket pricing works or even how venues run live events.

Non-Physical Art
We are all familiar with traditional art forms such as painting and sculpture, which exist in the physical world. Over the past few years the Manchester International Festival has commissioned artists to develop works that cross artistic boundaries, and in recent years have begun to explore immersive digital art experiences such as Laurie Anderson’s To the Moon.

Time Magazine recently explored how artists are using VR headsets with Google’s Tilt Brush to create art in a 3-D virtual space. This is not just a world where software engineers can become artists but where the technology, if made widely available, can allow anyone from a school kid to a master sculptor can try out ideas without the fear of mistakes ruining their work. After all, in the virtual world there is no end to the number of times you can roll back changes and try again.

Again, these technologies could change everything we have come to know about how art is practised and who is creates the pieces that guide how different art form develop and are viewed in the future.

Ready Player One In the Real World
If you have seen the 2018 Sci-Fi movie Ready Player One, then you may have seen a glimpse of the future entertainment industry. This movie features a world in which the younger generations prefer to be online in a virtual space, where they play games with people from all over the world.

The players all have virtual reality ‘rigs’ that allow them to run around and move in any direction, while technically staying in one space. As VR technology advances, people may begin to notice the entertainment industry evolves in a similar way to the world of the film. And with so many new career options opening up companies such as Career Karma are offering advice on how to train and get the tech skills needed for the many new and emerging roles – jobs that could eventually turn what now seems like science fiction into reality.

At Quays Life we like to think that virtual and augmented reality is never going to replace the thrill of live entertainment, but there is no denying VR and AR are powerful tools that have the potential to expand the arts and entertainment sector in directions we’d previously never have believed possible.

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The art’s centre is calling for Salford residents to share their experiences of COVID-19 via stories, artwork, films, performances, poems and photographs.

Michael Simpson, director of visual arts at The Lowry, said: “Days Like These will bring together contributions from the people of Salford alongside works by LS Lowry himself.

“Lowry celebrated ordinary people living ordinary lives. He painted crowded streets and empty landscapes – capturing moments of community and isolation. Everyone has had a different experience of COVID-19 and we want to give everyone an opportunity to tell their story”.

Market Scene, Northern Town (1939), Going to Work (1959), House on the Moor (1950) and The Lake (1951) are among the artworks by LS Lowry that will feature in the exhibition.

Julia Fawcett OBE, chief executive of The Lowry, adds: “The arts provide a unique outlet for people to express themselves and better understand what’s going on around them – and it’s important we capture those emotions, responses and creations while they are fresh in the minds of our community.

“We hope people who experience this exhibition – either online or in person when possible – will find it helps support their recovery, physically and mentally, from the pandemic.”

Days Like These Launches online on Wednesday, 1 July 2020 and will be shown in the art centre’s gallery whenever the centre is able to re-open to the public.
Visit the Lowry website for details of how to contribute visit.

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Last year’s festival saw 19 installations, including interactive art works using voice and body movements to create light changes. Indoors the nearby Lowry Arts Centre hosted immersive virtual reality experiences as part of the festival.

This year, the 10 day annual light festival will run from 6-15 December 2019, and again includes a number of original art commissions.

Emerging artists are supported to join the festival by the Shine Programme in partnership with Light Up The North Network. Following an open call for submissions in June, three emerging artists won commissions to create new light art works for the festival.

Tom Lambert is creating a light installation to transport visitors into a world of kaleidoscopic wonder, where they’re invited to shift perspective from mundane to fantastic. Gemma Woods is developing participatory neon artwork exploring themes of happiness, while Joe Moran is using fresnel lenses to create a rotating sculpture that emits beautiful patterns of refracted light.

The launch of Lightwaves 2019 sees the premiere of a new film, Homage to the Rain. The film, by artists Antony Barkworth-Knight, Rebecca Rae-Evans and Rob Turner, is a celebration both of our rainy city and how rain impacts environments across the globe.

The artists are looking for people to send in their videos for use as part of the film. To be included your video needs to be shot on a mobile phone in landscape.

The project is co-commissioned by festival organisers, Quays Culture and the University of Salford’s Art Collection. For more details and to submit your video contact Homagetotherain@gmail.com or complete a form via the website.

For more details about Lightwaves 2019 visit the Quays Culture website or for volunteering opportunities email participate@quaysculture.com.

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