Previous AA2A Artist

Leila Houston

Artform:
A British artist working with video, photography, sound and installation.
Year:
2022-23
Location:
Leicester
Influences:
Andrei Tarkovsky
Email:
leilahouston392@gmail.com
Website:
Project summary:

I am a self-employed artist exhibiting and running projects and workshops that influence the work I create. I wish to use this time at Loughborough University, on the AA2A, to research and design an interactive, mobile installation. I wish to combine many technical, historical and conceptual influences and use the workshop spaces to construct, well-made works on wooden objects.

The work will appear old or placeless/ timeless and collaborate perhaps using DIY electronics. I want to explore and celebrate how far we have come with digital technologies looking at old automation devices to computers, as well as looking at revisiting the magic we perhaps have lost with mass production.

I envisage the installation to be of the appearance of a wooden trolley using Victorian pram wheels, a system that has compartments for various things to view, a challenge to undertake and experience. There will be an element of performance and spectacle for those that take part in the installation.

What have we lost? In 20 years, what is the future? In today's world, what does it mean to be an artist? In light of the pandemic, the climate emergency, and the cost of living crisis? I will analyze how this has affected my own practice and interactions with the world. Discovering the magic of old, haunted automata that brought excitement and life. Combining handmade with DIY electronics to create sound and light mechanisms. What does it mean to make art that you can eat, to give people options and choice.

I am a self-employed artist exhibiting and running projects and workshops that influence the work I create. I wish to use this time at Loughborough University, on the AA2A, to research and design an interactive, mobile installation. I wish to combine many technical, historical and conceptual influences and use the workshop spaces to construct, well-made works on wooden objects.

The work will appear old or placeless/ timeless and collaborate perhaps using DIY electronics. I want to explore and celebrate how far we have come with digital technologies looking at old automation devices to computers, as well as looking at revisiting the magic we perhaps have lost with mass production.

I envisage the installation to be of the appearance of a wooden trolley using Victorian pram wheels, a system that has compartments for various things to view, a challenge to undertake and experience. There will be an element of performance and spectacle for those that take part in the installation.

What have we lost? In 20 years, what is the future? In today's world, what does it mean to be an artist? In light of the pandemic, the climate emergency, and the cost of living crisis? I will analyze how this has affected my own practice and interactions with the world. Discovering the magic of old, haunted automata that brought excitement and life. Combining handmade with DIY electronics to create sound and light mechanisms. What does it mean to make art that you can eat, to give people options and choice.

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