Masterclass: Aisling Phelan – Futures in the Making: Identity, Speculation, and Digital Representation

This masterclass is part of a series run by the Centre for Creative Technologies at University of Galway. Further information about the series can be found at: https://universityofgalway.ie/creative-tech/training/masterclasses/ 

In this masterclass, Aisling Phelan will present an overview of her artistic practice, tracing the research, processes, and technological explorations that shape her work in relation to identity, corporeality, and digital representation. Drawing on recent research into DeepFakes, doppelgangers, and robotics, the session will also invite participants to engage in speculative thinking around possible futures shaped by emerging technologies, using fiction and open-ended questioning as tools to reflect on contemporary technological anxieties.

Image Credit: Mark Stedman

Speaker Bio

Aisling Phelan is an Irish multidisciplinary artist exploring digital doubles, speculative futures and human-machine interactions and entanglements. Through 3D animation, AI, video, sculpture, and live interactive technologies, her work explores what it means to be human in an era of rapid technological advancement and pervasive algorithmic influence. Drawing from a transhumanist and speculative fiction perspective, Phelan explores how far we are willing to go in the pursuit of self-optimisation and the potential costs of such advances. Fusing the intimate with the artificial, her practice confronts the seductive promise of transcendence and enhancement, creating space for reflection on the role of current digital infrastructures in shaping how we understand ourselves and others.

Join online

To join via Zoom, you can register at: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Fb4r-VXCTAOFEkSJdwm8iw