Linen Lab

Linen Lab is an exhibition and creative engagement programme for young people offered by the FE McWilliam Gallery & Studio. It bringing artists, designers and young people together to take a fresh look at linen and to test out some exciting creative techniques.

As part fo the LinenLab Connected Project I’ve been exploring the working conditions of mill workers in the late 1800’s when linen was a major industry in Ulster. I’ve also been working with students at SRC looking at employment issues within the creative industries. This has involved some skill development alongside ceative thinking, collaboration and completing applications.

I was fortunate to benefit from an augmented reality mentorship programme offered by AmmA and delivered by Cathal McDonnell. This introduced me to Artivive which provides artists with a platform for their artwork and audiences an app through which to engage with art in a dynamic manner. Download the Artivive App to your tablet or phone to see what happens when you hover on the images with the Artivive label. For the exhibition I produced a number of artworks that include a film, film score, publication, text based artwork and large scale Mill Workers Banner.

Gallery Shots

Requiem Soundtrack

Visualisation of the Requiem Soundtrack. A list of preindustrial independent flax growers circa 1896

Artrivive activated images. The app can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play

Requiem: a film with soundtrack composed from the names of independent
flax growers circa 1796

The making of flax fibers into linen thread is shown in layers of hand and machine working. The soundtrack was composed by extracting notes from the names of pre-industrial flax growers in an area of Northern Ireland close to where this work will be exhibited

Click on the image to see the whole publication