Want to know more about our Artists in Residence at Energy House 2.0? In this special edition of Talking Salford Podcast, both Mishka Henner and Emily Speed talk about their practices, projects, careers, and the work they are doing in collaboration with Energy House 2.0!
Available on your preferred Podcasting platform, or on YouTube at the link below!
Two new pieces of writing in response to the debut of The Conductor, a brand new performance artwork developed by Mishka Henner as part of his Energy House 2.0 artist residency. You can now read reviews from Lizzie King and Jack Nicholls for Corridor8.
The Conductor captivated audiences at Sounds From the Other City 2024 by translating live lightning data into electrifying percussion. Set in a reverberation chamber at the University of Salford Acoustics Department, The Conductor is the result of an 18-month artist residency by Henner at the University of Salford’s Energy House 2.0, a cutting-edge research facility that simulates extreme global climatic conditions under one roof to help design net zero and carbon neutral housing for the future.
Dive into the immersive experience by reading the reviews from Lizzie King and Jack Nicholls here:
“At Salford’s Sounds from the Other City music festival I was led across a university campus with nineteen others to an out-of-the-way departmental building. After being shepherded through its corridors, we entered a smoke-dark room…
The Energy House 2.0 Artist Residency Programme is organised by the University of Salford Art Collection in partnership with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool as part of the LOOK Photo Biennial, and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, and generously supported by Friends of Energy House Labs.
Mishka Henner’s The Conductor was a real experience. From sensory overload to sensory deprivation, Henner played with the way we experience thunder and lightning, sound and visuals. This is not Henner’s first exploration of visual and sound art but is perhaps his most immersive. The performance began with a guided procession by the theatrical ‘Protector’ who declares, ‘Follow me to all the world’s thunder.’
The Protector leading the audience at Sounds From the Other City, 2024. Photography by Breige Cobane.
Every lightning strike in the world is compiled in a click track that is, unbeknown to the audience, playing in the ear of a drummer (Jennifer Walinetski). Led into a pitch-black room the audience experiences a loss of vision which is soon replaced by flashing blue lights illuminating the silhouette of Walinetski who begins to play a set of percussion instruments in response to the undisclosed click track. The sound is overwhelming, all-encompassing, visceral. It fills the space in that all-consuming way that vibrates you to your inner core. It was invasive yet captivating and I could have stayed in there longer.
Mishka Henner, Performance, 2024. Photography by Sam Parker.
We were brought out of that dark room and taken into another. The anechoic chamber is a world-class acoustic research facility at The University of Salford and according to Danny Wong-McSweeny, the facility manager, the second quietest room in the world. We went into the dark with a click track playing very quietly, the same track that had played in Walinetkski’s ear. Wong-McSweeny turned on a light and gives our group an explanation of the room. Unlike the first room where the large bangs reverberated around and through us, the anechoic chamber is full of foam cubes all over the walls and floors so no sound can reflect. The tiniest whisper from Wong-McSweeny is audible, he demonstrated how as he turned around we could hear his voice less as it had nowhere to bounce off. He turned the light off and again we were in pitch black. The floor is covered in netting, with the bounce of a trampoline and someone in the group asked that no one jump as we stood there in the darkness with the least amount of noise we have ever heard. It was pure silence. It’s pure deprivation of stimuli, bar the slight instability felt standing on the netting. There is no information to take in, but purely experience the lack of. After hearing such loud sounds the lack really hits you. Again I could have stayed in there longer and hearing Danny’s explanations was fascinating.
Henner is currently artist in residence at Energy House 2.0. Energy House 2.0 collects data looking for ways to create more energy-efficient homes which can work with and withstand weather. Henner here seems to be playing with the data of weather to examine our relationship and experience with it. Weather is after all for us a sensory experience, we feel it, hear it, see it; we are amongst it. In this way The Conductor hit these points, we were amongst it. I think this piece can ask us to think bigger about how on a global scale with the climate emergency, as that ever-present white noise constantly surrounding us, we relate with weather? Is there that awe and respect there when we consider global weather events like the kind of captivation that happens when experiencing sound in this way? Is it something further away and distant, unlike the local rain on our face? The Conductor brings the far into focus and makes it palpable. It held the audience in awe and respect of the power of sound, and it left us talking and posing questions like all good art should.
Lizzie King, 2024
The Conductor was presented on the 5th of May as part of Sounds From The Other City. The Conductor was conceived and directed by Mishka Henner as part of the Energy House 2.0 Artist’s Residency. Organised by the University of Salford Art Collection in partnership with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool as part of the LOOK Photo Biennial, and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, and generously supported by Friends of Energy House Labs.
Lizzie King is an artist based in Salford who works with photographic methods and sound, currently environmental artist in residence for Open Eye Hub and undertaking an MA in Contemporary Fine Art at the University.
The Conductor, a performance by Manchester-based artist Mishka Henner channels live lightning data from around the world through a single percussionist beating a drum each time a lightning strike occurs in the world.
Set in a reverb acoustic chamber at the University of Salford, The Conductor is the result of an 18-month artist residency by Henner at the University of Salford’s Energy House 2.0, a cutting-edge research facility that simulates extreme global climatic conditions under one roof to help design net zero and carbon neutral housing for the future.
Screenshot from Blitzortung.org
Presented by the artist as an “Energy House Party”, The Conductor promises to be an immersive and unforgettable sonic and physical experience, offering audiences a profound opportunity to contemplate Earth’s natural forces and our relationship to them in a new light.
Describing The Conductor, Henner says: “We live in a world haunted by climate change and are connected to distant natural disasters like never before. The Energy House 2.0 project says so much about our generation’s connection to the planet and our desire to live more sustainably. With The Conductor, I’ve tried to find an artistic response that conveys this new and often terrifying relationship we have with our planet. As a species, our experience of thunder and lightning is so primal and has forever been tied to the mysterious powers of nature.”
The performance is made possible thanks to live data available on Blitzortung.org, a remarkable network of 10,000 lightning sensors distributed around the world. As Henner says: “Through Blitzortung, we can literally see planetary and climatic forces at work. The whole planet is a kind of Energy House and our species’ survival depends on our ability to understand and harness these natural forces.”
A graphic score of the performance – whose design is inspired by the work of the scientists at Energy House 2.0 – will be published after the event, allowing future generations of musicians to reinterpret our present-day climate conditions.
Join us for an unforgettable experience that transcends boundaries and resonates with the urgency of our changing world.
Professor Richard Fitton, Director of Energy House Labs, added: “Our artist-in-residence programme has grown from strength to strength in the past few years, and we are now on our third residency. This scheme aims to take some of the building science work done at Energy House 2.0 and create groundbreaking artworks – we see this as a positive impact to the work we do, engaging the public in ways that we simply could not have done beforehand.”
Tickets for Sounds From the Other City are available now. Attendees can sign up for a time slot for The Conductor when they collect their wristbands, with five performances on the hour from 3.00pm.
The Artist in Residence programme at Energy House 2.0 is organised by the University of Salford Art Collection in partnership with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool as part of the LOOK Photo Biennial and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester and generously supported by Friends of Energy House Labs.
Back in February the Art Collection team returned to the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum to host a final event for the Craig Easton Is Anybody Listening? and Our Time, Our Place touring programme. The symposium ‘Commissioning and Collecting Socially Engaged Photography’ brought together partners and stakeholders along with artists and participating communities to ask again: Is Anybody Listening? It was a full day of talks from artists and facilitators, as well as audience feedback sessions based around the concept of ‘socially engaged practices’ and their place in the art world.
In the morning, we heard directly from Craig Easton, along with artists/facilitators Liz Wewiora, Poppy Cain, and Gwen Riley Jones; celebrating the work of the young people and emerging photographers that they supported, as well as discovering what impact each project had.
Gwen Riley Jones, Lindsay Taylor, and Rob Fulton enjoying their time on the discussion panel. Photo credit : Roger Sinek
Stemming from questions that have arisen during the project, the afternoon focused more closely on the ethics surrounding socially engaged photographic practice – from commissioning and collecting through to what is valued, by who – and why? Speakers including Sarah Fisher (Executive Director of Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool), Lindsay Taylor (Curator, University of Salford), Laura Jamieson (Creative Producer, LeftCoast), Craig Easton (exhibiting artist/documentarian), Gwen Riley Jones (socially engaged photographer and Creative Director of Stockroom), and Rob Fulton (Youth Work Manager, Salford Youth Service) each presented a response to the question: From the spectrum of socially engaged photographic practice, what should we be collecting?
The panel went on to answer questions about what evidence there was that our audience are interested in socially engaged photographic practice, whether we are omitting an important part of art history by failing to collect socially engaged practice, and how we might begin to think about recompense for those co-authoring the work; this led to a very engaged and thought-provoking debate amongst the delegates.
The event then finished with a touching reading from poet Abdul Aziz Hafiz; collaborator on Craig Easton’s Bank Top project.
Abdul Aziz Hafiz reading his poem to the room. Photo credit : Sam Parker
At the Art Collection, we know that our recent socially-engaged work with young people has already made a huge impact on the way we work – including the way we think about commissioning, collecting, and reaching audiences and participants. In particular, our projects with Salford Youth Service have proved particularly inspiring, and we hope to find ways to develop this work further in future.
Sam Parker, Art Collection Team Assistant, April 2024
Emily Speed, currently Artist-in-Residence with Energy House 2.0, discusses sustainability and her practice with Castlefield Gallery in the most recent addition to their ongoing series Spotlight: Artists and Sustainability.
Click here to read the full interview on the Castlefield Gallery website, where Speed discusses how her work relates to issues of climate change, the ways she works more sustainably in her artist practice, and her thoughts about the role of arts and art institutions in tackling the climate crisis.
Emily Speed was awarded the second of two 18-month artist residencies at Energy House 2.0, in partnership with Castlefield Gallery, Manchester and Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool in early 2023 and she is currently engaged in research, working closely with the Energy House Labs team.
Team Assistant, Sam Parker, attended the LOOK launch event back in January, and here he shares his thoughts on a few of his favourite works from the exhibition in Liverpool.
1. Executive Decision by Mishka Henner
Executive Decision by Mishka Henner installed at LOOK Climate Lab 2024, Liverpool. Photography by Rob Battersby.
Sam Parker: To start with, I can’t not mention Mishka Henner’s new work Executive Decision. One of our current artists-in-residence at Energy House 2.0, Henner has begun to develop work with the AI Midjourney, creating his own worlds and imagery using prompts that continuously manipulate the work.
The layers of the work really draw me in. The work itself depicts a man in a business suit, not panicked by the prospect of fire, but to me, he seems content or even relaxed. Combined with the title of the work, Executive Decision, it makes me think of the government and organisational decisions that continue to do our planet harm; an ‘executive decision’ to damage the already depleting health of the environment around us.
I’m also really interested in Henner’s use of artificial intelligence, particularly at this time when conversations about AI are so contentious. The painterly aesthetic of the piece seems to point towards the way AI may make traditional labour techniques redundant. From a distance, and with no knowledge of Henner’s work, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a painting – drawing inspiration and source material from historical artwork when discussing the work with Henner ahead of the exhibition, he rightly said it could be “indistinguishable from paintings.”
Along with this, Henner has deliberately used a service that prints on demand for this work – highlighting another problem that we as a society are facing; the mass production of goods with no care for the environmental impact of said production. The work speaks to the nature of modern culture; we can make and sell anything, without care for the process and impact of its production.
To me, these things combine to make a truly thought-provoking work, which describes contemporary problems, the diminishing viability of hand-crafted products, and the almost glorification of destruction that we as a species cause.
2. Strange Eden by Mario Popham
Strange Eden by Mario Popham installed at LOOK Climate Lab 2024, Liverpool. Photography by Rob Battersby.
I really enjoyed the variety of Mario Popham’s work on display here; the striking photographs, and also the experimental methods employed in a couple of the more abstract pieces. Particularly the layered pieces that literally stick out from the surface, giving an impasto aesthetic as the deep black colour prickles out from the imagery. This experimental approach interests me as someone who both photographs and paints. The material composition of the piece is also apt, using coal and other materials from the Brickershaw Country Park; which used to be a coal mine. This adds depth and connection to the source of Popham’s work.
Detail View: Strange Eden by Mario Popham. Photography by Rob Battersby.
There is something otherworldly about Popham’s work – in terms of shape and form, some of the works are almost reminiscent of the aliens and their language from the film Arrival – ink-like forms suspended in the air, travelling within something akin to a circulatory system.
3.Co-Creation with the Environment by Lizzie King
Details from Lizzie King’s Co-Creation with the Environment series. Courtesy of the artist.
Alongside Popham’s work, current MA Contemporary Art student and previous Graduate Scholar with the Collection Lizzie King also presented some beautiful experimental pieces that use nature itself to create the works on photographic paper. These works also provide this cosmic feeling and aesthetic; looking to contain special formations of stars, gases, and other astral bodies.
Scuffs and scratches, dirt and debris – King uses the unpredictability of nature to further enhance the works itself, using sustainable processes the work combines analogue processes and nature into one complete package.
LOOK Climate Lab 2024 installed at Open Eye Gallery. Photography by Rob Battersby.
From what I understand the prints are not fixed, and so are still altered by light – In Open Eye Gallery they are covered with a cloth that has to be lifted to view the work. I find the prospects of this quite interesting, as over time, the prints will change with each viewing until eventually, the print has become overexposed; along with the materials that have been kept on the surface, this could produce wildly varying results allowing all to ponder which element created certain colours and forms– it’s exciting!
4. Kherson by Nazar Furyk
Kherson by Nazar Furyk installed at LOOK Climate Lab 2024, Liverpool. Photography by Rob Battersby.
I also wanted to discuss Nazar Furyk‘s series of photographs taken within the Kherson region in Ukraine. Given the contemporary nature and global political situation surrounding the war in Ukraine, Furyk explores the ramifications of the conflict; not just the military action, but the people who continue to live through this, how it affects them, and how the war ultimately affects them as individuals.
Furyk shows us rubble, rubbish, murky waters, claustrophobic offices, books in the open, an abandoned football, destroyed infrastructure, and the resulting contaminated area from the destruction of fuel and chemicals – which then made its way into the Black Sea. Furyk visited this region several times, including immediately after the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam. A sustainable energy source destroyed – this begs the question: how will they recover? With so much lost, and the war not even over yet, how will they rebuild? Will the damage done to the environment ever be rectifiable?
It was interesting to compare this work to Stephanie Wynne’s Erosion work, where she explores the structural waste as a result of war and how post-WWII era Liverpool had to deal with the waste from bombed homes. In this case, tonnes of rubble from the bombed homes were dumped on a mile-long stretch of coastline – will something similar be the fate of Ukraine’s post-war waste?
Erosion by Stephanie Wynne installed at LOOK Climate Lab 2024, Liverpool. Photography by Rob Battersby.
There is one image that Furyk has captured that stood out from the rest for me; taken after the dam’s destruction, arid cracked ground, debris, and a sense of barrenness – green leaves rise from between the cracks, flowers bloom and shed their petals amidst the chaos. Life finds a way, and life goes on.
LOOK Climate Lab 2024
There’s still a week left to catch LOOK Climate Lab 2024 at Open Eye Gallery Liverpool. The exhibition closes on the 31st of March.
LOOK Climate Lab is a biennial programme exploring how photography can be a relevant and powerful medium for talking about climate change. The programme sees the gallery transformed into a lab: bringing together researchers and artists to test their ideas and encouraging our audiences to discuss systematic changes needed for dealing with the climate crisis.
Find out more about LOOK Climate Lab and visiting Open Eye Gallery over on their website, here.
Energy House 2.0 Artist-in-Residency Programme
In partnership with Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, the University of Salford Art Collection is currently hosting two artist residencies at Energy House 2.0, the unique, world-leading energy performance facility at the University. Mishka Henner was awarded the first of two 18-month artist residencies in early 2023. Emily Speed was awarded the second residency in summer 2023. Both artists are developing new work in response to Energy House 2.0’s research, exploring themes of the climate crisis, net zero research, and the future of housing. Find out more about our residencies here.
Sam Parker
Graduating from BA(Hons) Fine Art at the University of Salford in 2023, Sam joined the Art Collection team as a graduate associate in October of that year, working closely with the team to develop collections care, technical installation, and his own curatorial skills.
Sam is continuing to explore all avenues of knowledge in the curatorial world whilst aiding in exhibition installations, artist development, networking, planning, and the inner workings of the Art Collection.
He also maintains a fine art practice with an interest in sound, music, and synesthesia – how audio and visual mediums can come together to create enhanced experiences. Find out more about Sam’s fine art practice here.
LOOK Climate Lab is a biennial programme exploring how photography can be a relevant and powerful medium for talking about climate change. The Open Eye Gallery has been transformed into a lab: bringing together researchers and artists to collaborate, test their ideas, and encourage audiences to discuss systematic changes needed for dealing with the climate crisis.
The exhibition is open now! However there is a private view and launch alongside the We Feed The UK project on the 8th of February, 6-8 pm. Come along if you can!
Featuring Stephanie Wynne, Nazar Furyk, our artist in residence at Energy House 2 Mishka Henner, John Davies, Mario Popham, Johannes Pretorius, Hellen Songa, one of our previous Graduate Scholars Lizzie King, and Gwen Riley Jones!
RSVP and find out more through the Open Eye Gallery website – link below!
LOOK Climate Lab is partnered with Gaia Foundation, Energy House 2.0 Salford, Royal Horticultural Society, The Tree Council, Impressions Gallery, Peloton Liverpool Coop, Wigan Council, The Mersey Forest, Liverpool ONE and many others to bring people and ideas together, explore the complexities of human-nature relationships and make positive changes to live more sustainable and connected lives.
Free Admission – Thursday 29th of February 2024, 9:30am
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum
Slatey Road, Birkenhead, CH43 4UE
Our friends at the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum are hosting the last leg of the ‘Is Anybody Listening?’ tour, this also includes a thought-provoking symposium on the theme of socially engaged photography.
Facilitated by the Culture Lead for Liverpool City Region, Sarah Lovell, the symposium will explore the ethical considerations of socially engaged photography, and ask “What should we be collecting?”
Attending will be the award-winning photographer Craig Easton alongside socially-engaged practitioners and educators Liz Wewiora, Suzanne St Clare, and Gwen Riley Jones.
Expert Speakers include Sarah Fisher (Open Eye Gallery), our own Lindsay Taylor (University of Salford Art Collection), Laura Jamieson (LeftCoast), and Abdul Aziz Hafiz (Blackburn College).
There are limited spots for this event, so make sure you secure your place sooner rather than later!
Is Anybody Listening? Our Time, Our Place is presented by University of Salford Art Collection and generously supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Special thanks go to National Lottery players.
The University of Salford Art Collection, in partnership with Castlefield Gallery, is delighted to announce that the second of two artist residencies at Energy House 2.0 has been awarded to Emily Speed.
Cheshire-based Speed joins artist Mishka Henner, who was announced as the first artist-in-residence at the University’s world-leading research facility earlier this year, with the University of Salford Art Collection in partnership with Open Eye Gallery.
Speed was selected from an open call in early 2023 which received over 70 expressions of interest. As artist in residence, Speed will work closely with the Energy House 2.0 team over the next 18 months to develop new work in response to the groundbreaking research being carried out, around topics of energy efficiency, the climate crisis, net zero research, and the future of housing and homes.
Innards, 2018, working fountain at Knole House for ‘A Woman’s Place’ curated by Day & Gluckman, courtesy the artist.
Flatland, 2021, commissioned by Tate Liverpool for the Art North West award, photograph by Lucy Dawkins
Ideas around shelter and habitation lie at the core of much of Speed’s work, which spans disciplines from drawing to installation and performance. With two large environmentally-controllable chambers – able to accommodate two full-sized detached houses each and capable of simulating wind, rain, snow, solar radiation and extreme temperatures – the world-leading Energy House 2.0 facility, part-funded by the European Research Development Fund (ERDF), provides a unique opportunity to explore these themes and the future of housing.
On being selected for the residency, Speed says:
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have time and access to this fantastic facility and to be able to work alongside experts to develop research into the home, and how we might live in the future.”
Professor Richard Fitton, Energy House:
“Our artist in residence programme has grown from strength to strength in the past few years, and we are now on our 3rd residency, this scheme aims to take some of the building science work done at Energy House 2.0 and create ground breaking artworks – we see this as a positive impact to the work we do, engaging the public in ways that we simply could not have done beforehand. The quality of bids that we saw was amazing and Emily has some tough competition. We are now really eager to get Emily involved as part of the teams and see what she will achieve.”
Lindsay Taylor, Curator, University of Salford Art Collection:
“We were delighted to receive so many high quality applications by some fantastic artists. It was very hard to agree a shortlist and a finalist, however the panel all agreed that Emily’s interest in gender, the body and the domestic environment would bring a unique perspective to the work at Energy House 2.0”
Known for her work examining the relationship between the body and architecture, Speed’s practice considers how a person is shaped by the buildings they have occupied and how a person occupies their own psychological space. Working in sculpture, performance, drawing and film, Speed’s work looks at the relationship between people and buildings and in particular the power dynamics at play in built space. Her work plays with scale and creates layers around the body, often hybrid forms of clothing and architecture.
Over the last few years, Speed has had solo presentations at Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives, TRUCK, Calgary, and Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Texas. She has been commissioned to make performances for Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Laumeier Sculpture Park (St Louis) and Edinburgh Art Festival among others and recent exhibitions include: A Woman’s Place at Knole House; Body Builders at Exeter Phoenix Gallery; and The Happenstance, Scotland + Venice at the Architecture Biennale in 2018. Emily Speed lives and works in Cheshire, UK.
Launched in February 2022, Energy House 2.0 is a unique research facility, with two environmental chambers each able to accommodate two full sized detached houses. The research team can recreate a variety of environmental conditions – from extreme temperatures (-20˚C to +40˚C) to simulate wind, rain, snow, and solar radiation – in order to test out the latest innovations in the built environment. The £16m facility, part-funded by the European Research Development Fund (ERDF), is the largest facility of its type and plays a key role in accelerating progress towards low carbon and net zero housing design building upon the success of the original Energy House Laboratory which opened in 2012.
Castlefield Gallery is a contemporary art gallery and artist development organisation. Established in 1984, they’ve led the way in artist development for almost 40 years. They provide creative and career development, exhibition opportunities and commissions for artists and independents. Working from galleries in Manchester, off-site, online and in the public realm, they create long-lasting impacts in the Manchester city region, North West of England and beyond. Their national and international activities focus on artist exchange. Castlefield Gallery’s public and participation programmes provoke new ways of thinking, bringing together artists, creatives, communities and audiences to explore the art and issues of the time. They believe when artists and communities come together, they can help shape a better world.
They support more than 250 Castlefield Gallery Associates and a host of creatives through person-centred development programmes. Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces provide affordable making and project space in the North West, including on the high street. They are a home for artists and creatives. They are advocates for what they believe in: the power of new art. They make new art happen.
Ryan Gander OBE is Castlefield Gallery’s Artist Patron. Castlefield are a registered charity, supported by Arts Council England and Manchester City Council.
Open Eye Gallery is a photography organisation based in Liverpool, UK, working worldwide. They produce exhibitions, long-term collaborative projects, publications, festivals, and university courses — locally and worldwide. They welcome over 85,000 visitors to the gallery every year, over 200,000 to projects in other venues, and many more to the online spaces. They proactively take risks to spark crucial conversations and enable creative expression. Open Eye Gallery takes a lead on socially engaged photography nationally. Bringing different voices, photographers and communities together, they establish projects where the collaborative process is just as important as the final product. openeye.org.uk
