For the 2026 Postgraduate degree show, I installed and exhibited ephemera and photographic documentation from the ‘Trans Futures’ project’s final public-facing iteration, ‘Waters of the Womb’. This included photographic prints (the photos themselves the work of photographer Ellis Bairstow and one of my own), an A1 PVC foam sign used during the exhibition run, poster, exhibition interpretation and a video demonstrating how the ‘patchhaus’, a curatorial soundspace I designed in Max MSP, was used by the artist Ashley Stefano to augment and record the sound that made up the final work in ‘Waters of the Womb’. In the video you can hear and see the patchhaus being ‘played’ with the original two videos that later made up the final work, through use of reverb loops, pitch shifting, distortion, synthesisers and multichannel volume control, as well as filters and effects that respond to the performers themselves within the videos, such as a face-tracking control- causing a pause whenever the lead artist’s face was obscured or a degrade filter triggered by the brightness of the video, that darkens whenever performer Iris May walks in front of the camera in her black dress.

The curation of my degree show presentation was pursued in line with the aesthetic ethos visible within the curation of ‘Waters of the Womb’, whereby a ‘white cube’ style space is disrupted via industrial, typically DIY fixings (steel nails and magnets for hanging and black wires and cable clips for tech) and the addition of sound designed to immerse an audience audibly, as well as visually. Physical fixings are subtly exaggerated to communicate an acknowledgement of the labour of the install, rather than a desire to hide the signs of construction or fixing. My DIY curatorial ethic, developed through the ‘Trans Futures’ project as well as during my time as an electronic music promoter, resists the impulse to disguise, and would rather engage in fantasy. I wanted to encourage audiences to view the artefacts of the installation, and listen to a recreation of the sound, in order to conjure up the emotional affect that the original installation created.

Ellis Bairstow’s crisp yet abject photography contributed to this, as well as the graphic design of both the poster and supporting interpretation displayed. Textual elements of the graphic design were inspired by the promotional copy of The White Hotel, a formative industrial arts space for me, having lived in Manchester for 6 years before moving to Glasgow. I aimed to communicate a forced stylistic ‘slant’ through exaggerated italicising on a traditionally-styled serif font. The poster, graphic designed by myself, is based on a photograph by Stina Aldén of the lead artist, shot during the filming of the work. It was designed to communicate the dissociative affect of sound as an additive curatorial frame to a performance through its distortive layered filters that warp and blend the lines between the artist’s body and the watery background surrounding them.

The objects were curated, collected and installed by myself, with tech provided by the GSA Media Studio and mounted by Dougie Kennedy. Further help with install was provided by Ella Woodcock, Maggie Ashmole, Bel Sheridan-Moore, Sofya Mikhaylova, Mike Hill and Owen Speir. I’d like to thank these people in particular for their role in supporting my degree show presentation, along with everyone who has supported this project for their time and effort.

To view the patchhaus demonstration and selected photography of ‘Waters of the Womb’, please see my page ‘Trans Futures- Bathing in the patchhaus’