Allegories of The Metropolis is an online residency facilitated by screen service and curated by Nadia J Armstrong. This residency invites two artists to consider the process of ruinology as a creative, embodied act with which to explore the heritage and geographical legacies of urban cycles. Media theorist Jason Parry describes ruinology as “the study of the speculative reconstruction of ruins.” Taking place online from September to November 2024 through a series of virtual gatherings, this residency will culminate with a presentation of artworks at Beta Festival 2024.
screen service is a service-oriented artist collective supporting early career artists with screen-led practices in or from Ireland. Committed to providing a platform for experimentation and connectivity, projects are facilitated that encourage the development of media practice across various manifestations. screen service is co-directed by Ellen O’Connor and Bronagh Gallagher.
Aindriú Ó’Deasún (artist)
Aindriú Ó’Deasún (b.2000, Dublin), is a visual artist living and working in Dublin. Having recently graduated from NCAD’s Fine Art Media department, Aindriú’s practice combines sculpture and installation with new media practices. His work navigates intimacy and memory, with reference to thinkers and theorists such as Paul B. Preciado and Tiffany Sia. Recent achievements include receiving the Digital Society Award (2023), exhibiting at the Creative Factory in Turnhout, Belgium and a 6 month residency at the Fabrica Research Centre in Treviso, Italy. Aindriú’s practice has been funded by the Arts Council of Ireland since 2023.
Mel Galley (artist)
Through writing and visual work, Mel builds speculative places which hinge on the concept of palimpsests to question ideas of the city, ownership, housing, vacancy and land. Through speculative storytelling she offers a path into academic, political and archival materials which scaffold these themes. In January, 2023, Mel completed her MA in Art and Research Collaboration at IADT, continuing on to join the teaching staff as a tutor in digital fabrication and visualisation. Currently on residency at Maynooth University with Data Stories, a project on data and housing, she has shown and performed work across Ireland and the UK, including at the LAB Gallery (Dublin), Barnavave (Carlingford), the Institute of Art (Carlisle) and Pink (Manchester). Mel participated in collaborative group projects around queer ecologies (the Balcony Project, Project Arts Centre) and cities and archives (Art and the City, Dublin Fringe). Her artworks are held in the collections of the Bodleian Library (Oxford) and, more importantly, on the walls and bookshelves of strangers and friends.
Nadia J Armstrong (curator)
Nadia J. Armstrong is a visual artist and funded PhD researcher with NCAD, the National College of Art & Design, Dublin and CONNECT, the Science Foundation Ireland's Centre for Future Networks & Communications. Her creative practice incorporates performance approaches, digital poetics, speculative worlding, storytelling, 3D composition and AI collaboration - typically culminating in expanded video installations and experiences. She treats machine learning processes, data accumulation methods and computational systems as creative and cultural material with which to explore the conditions of our existence. Her artworks have received multiple awards and have been exhibited internationally and across Ireland. Armstrong regularly delivers artist/researcher talks, participates on panels and residencies and has lectured in Visual Culture with the CFA programme at NCAD. Her research is situated within the field of STS and explores the cultures, jargons, histories, imaginaries, myths and belief systems that drive the development of communication systems and in turn build the social fabrics of our futures.
