Izzy Laishley

Play the System was an exhibition exploring cybernetics, situationism and the environment, featuring the work of multidisciplinary artist Agnes Little and the composer Louary. Through collaborative working and a shared cybernetic methodology, works of sound and sculpture were commissioned and made using deep listening, walking and mapping practices. Each artist respectively made works based on their sensory and affective mapping,  of routes they had each walked, through Queen’s Park based on the readings of a decibel meter below 50db taken by Little, and subsequently the same recorded route taken by Louary and mapped through field recordings. This formed a co-generative process creating systemic feedback loops based on data both experientially embodied and affectively driven, through digital and organic means.

It was an immersive interdisciplinary exhibition with a participatory dimension that explored themes of embodiment, listening and the affective mapping of one’s surroundings. It also engaged with notions of dwelling and being-at-home-in-the-world and connecting with the environment in new ways through the situationist derive or drift, as a practice of wandering through urban space to experience its emotional and psychological effects. To do so drew upon systems theories, situationist texts, Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, Walking as Embodied Worldmaking, Pauline Oliveros’ writings on Deep Listening and Tim Ingold’s Perception of the Environment.

The intention of the exhibition was to explore counter cartographies of the environment, prompting viewers to creatively engage in new perceptions of the environment and create new systems of meaning, as an affective response to a technologically saturated world where we are the data, and our attention is divided and drawn to devices. The spatial layout of the exhibition was then arranged for people to wander around the exhibition in a non-linear fashion, encountering the works in an order and from a perspective of their intuitive choosing. The exhibition extended this cybernetic methodology to the viewer by their becoming part of the system in their own non-linear wandering through the space, engaging directly with themes of home and dwelling, and generating their own affective and experiential data.

The intention of this project was to curate an exhibition that felt like a painting, and a space in which the self could be heard. The project was a group show of work by international and UK artists Vera Bartolozzi, Joanne Ning and Lucille Brownrigg, and consisted of an immersive and tactile exhibition and opening performance in which the artworks could be physically touched, and activated through performance and viewer participation. This was to evoke an experience akin to wandering through a landscape painting: a material manifestation of the pictorial that becomes an affective space, where the work could be seen, touched, heard and felt, where atmosphere was key. Taking place in the Barnes Building Garage, the site of a former hospital, which also housed a working anecoic chamber, the project drew upon the site as a space for exploration, hearing and healing.

To achieve this, the concept of the shell was used to contour the experience of the space, providing a curatorial framework that was conceptual, spatial and experiential in nature. A performance by the artists was curated as an event to create space for an artistic encounter, where the audience completed the artwork through their experience of it — an affective, embodied experience that was both individual and shared. In this sense, the audience and participants effectively became the mollusk within the painted  shell space of the Garage, embodied and earthly, between flesh and emptiness. The artists played their works that doubled as both sculpture and instrument, activating the affective, relational and spatial resonances of the artists work. Works were both selected and commissioned, including sculpture, film, improvised sound pieces and the opening performance.

The project was inspired by diverse references including Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, the Jungian notion of the collective unconscious, psycho-geography, techno raves, the work of Louise Bourgeois, and the exhibition Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Alice Adams, held at the Courtauld Gallery in London in 2025, where the tactility of the work bore a felt resonance that engaged with both the abstract and concrete emotions of the artists.  The exhibition was also curatorially structured in a way that echoed Bourgeois’ cell-like structures, taking on the spiral form of the shell by opening up layers of experience.

The exhibition project also drew upon the practice of walking (wandering) as a form of embodied meaning making, and free writing as a mode of encounter, drawing upon research into acts world-making as a mode of curatorial practice. In this way the project was one of opening up this idea into an immersive experience — an internal and external terrain to be wandered through and explored by an audience. This was alongside individual writings central to practices and collaboratively made writings in the exhibition process — further opening up the affective, perceptual, conceptual and relational elements within the artists’ works.

From April to August I undertook the role of curatorial intern to curate an exhibition opening the design process of the 2014 and 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games Medals, and accompanying accessible workshop and engagement programme. In doing so I developed a socially engaged and accessible curatorial framework that mediated objects, processes, and the audience experience, to create an exhibition journey that connected diverse audiences through both material objects and shared cultural narratives – celebrating design history, artistic practice, sporting endeavour and appreciation, and public participation in an accessible way that resonated on all levels. As the medals contained braille on them for the first time, making it the first truly inclusive medal design, 3D prints to be handled by the visitor were displayed alongside archival, visual and film works. Materials and interpretation were sourced and researched through visits and conversation with the GSA Archives and Collections and the University of Stirling Archives teams.

Original exhibition text:

Inspired by the Glasgow 2026 Festival theme of ‘Celebration’, this exhibition brings the medal design process to life. Featuring materials from The Glasgow School of Art Archives & Collections alongside film, this immersive exhibition follows the creative journey behind the making of both the 2014 and 2026 Glasgow medals, from first sketches to finished objects, opening up the process from the inside. The Glasgow School of Art’s international reputation in Silversmithing & Jewellery makes it a natural partner for the Commonwealth Games medals — a relationship that has shaped both the 2014 and 2026 designs.

The medals from 2014 were made by award-winning artist, designer, jeweller and academic, Dr Jonathan Boyd, capturing the industrial history and uniqueness of Glasgow. The 2026 medals have been designed by award-winning artist, designer, silversmith and GSA graduate Militsa Milenkova, originally from Bulgaria, exploring her connection to the city as her chosen home. Featuring braille and tactile elements for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth Games, the 2026 medal ensures inclusion is tangible and physically felt in the hands of every athlete. Inspired by Glasgow’s shipbuilding heritage, rich landscape and coat of arms, the medal takes the form of a Reuleaux triangle, featuring the iconic Finnieston Crane, Scottish tartan and the three tiers of the podium, forming a rich surface and story to be unravelled and discovered.

The exhibition will feature materials including original sketches, design proposals and wax and 3D printed models alongside medals, commemorative and fashion pieces from the 2014 games.

It also premieres Designing the Games, a short film by BAFTA Scotland-winning filmmaker and GSA graduate Callum Rice. Weaving together process, archive material and voices from across the school, the city and the Games, the film explores reach, impact and legacy, and its role in shaping the next generation of designers.

Connecting the objects, the making, and the stories that carry across cultures and bring people together, the exhibition traces the design decisions, materials, feelings and ideas that shape a symbol of sporting excellence, cultural identity, friendship and belonging.