No Bounds Festival – Hallam’s collaboration set to spark conversation

An exciting, barrier-breaking cultural festival is coming to Sheffield this October – and we’re thrilled to announce that staff and academics from the Culture & Creativity Research Institute have been involved in key exhibitions.

What to expect from the festival?

If you come to the festival, you’ll have an opportunity to see the city from new and different perspectives and a rare chance to experience art and research created and developed by a selection of our very talented colleagues in the Research Art, Design & Media Centre and Lab4Living.

How did CCRI get involved?

We welcomed our new Culture & Creativity Research Institute Innovation Manager, Amy Carter Gordon, in April 2022 and she has has been the catalyst for our involvement. Amy has been a collaborator and supporter of the No Bounds Festival as it has evolved over the years, and felt like there was a synergy to be explored between the research and art created in the Culture & Creativity Research Institute and that of this brilliant local independent festival. No Bounds Festival truly celebrates new technology, contemporary art and electronic music.

After a series of conversations with the festival director, Liam O’Shea, a partnership emerged.

As the themes for No Bounds emerged, Amy Carter Gordon sought out installations that would spark discussion around the issues of the day: climate change, the changing relationship between our bodies and environmental toxins and big data and how it shapes our lives.

Moore Street electrical sub-station was chosen because it is an extraordinary building with the mechanism to power the whole city and Amy saw synergy between that and the place-making mission of Hallam. There is also real appeal to bringing audiences to forgotten or unused spaces for unexpected cultural experiences.

So what are the artists from CCRI contributing?

The brutalist architecture and dark and resonant warehouse-style space in the rarely publicly accessed Moore Street substation will showcase Noemie Soula from Lab4Living  Mythical Living Data: an inquiry into the future of data storage. This is a research-driven and interdisciplinary project, interweaving life sciences, storytelling, and craft. It mixes legend with science by examining chimeras and investigates how our polluted environment can interact with – and alter – our life code, the DNA. The work also explores the blurring lines between emerging biotechnology, genetic engineering, and what is defined as human and non-human.

The G Mill at the Sheffield and District African Caribbean Association (SADACCA), with its industrial heritage and open space, plays host to Professor Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway’s installation, 196.85 ml/h. This work involves a computer-controlled laboratory pump, which produces a precisely calibrated drip of oil that forms a puddle on the floor at the rate of 196.85 millilitres per hour. At this rate, the level of oil in the room will rise at 3.6mm per year, the current rate that the oceans are rising.

David Cotterrell’s installation, God’s Eye View IV (Conflict) will also be showcased at SADACCA.  This is a large-scale immersive projected artwork created in collaboration with Shelly Knotts, an improviser with an interest in coding, data and network music.

How to visit the exhibitions

The No Bounds Festival runs from 14-16 October 2022, with the exhibitions at Moore Street and SADACCA running from Saturday 15 to Sunday 16 October. They are free for anyone to attend, and you don’t need to buy a ticket for the No Bounds festival.

There are some restrictions on entry to the Moore Street substation. Advance booking is essential as tickets will be limited – you can now book here.

More information on No Bounds Festival? Click here.