Ronan Devlin is a UK based artist whose work looks at the intersection of emotion, sense perception and the material world. Working across print, screen and multi-sensory installation, with a focus on audience engagement, he produces self-motivated and commissioned works which have been widely exhibited.

 

 

Education
1996 B.A. (Hons) Visual Communication, University of Ulster, Belfast

Public Artworks
2019 LOOM (With Michael Flückiger), Broadgate, London

Solo Exhibitions
2017 Veillance, White Box, Pontio, Bangor University
2014 In Flow, Un Deg Un, Wrexham (Oriel Wrecsam Offsite)

Select Group Exhibitions
2019 Winter Lights, Canary Wharf
2018 Lightwaves, Salford
2018 Light Up Lancaster
2018 LIGHTPOOL, Blackpool
2018 LIGHT NIGHT, Leeds
2018 Design West, Connemara Ireland
2018 Wal Wen, Pontio, Bangor
2017 OVER (T)HERE, Made in New York Media Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA
2017 LLAWN 05, Llandudno
2017 Here Comes Everybody, Global experimental online/cable channel
2017 Artificial Idiocracy, Raumschiff, Linz, Switzerland
2017 Winter Lights Festival, Canary Wharf
2016 LIGHTPOOL, Blackpool
2016 Lumen Prize Exhibition Tour, Shanghai, New York, London, Caerphilly Castle
2015 CALL, Haus of Helfa, resident and exhibiting artist, Llandudno, Wales
2015 Build Your Own exhibition and workshop, FACT, Liverpool
2015 Videoformes festival, Clermont-Ferrand, France
2014 Colony 14, Cardigan, Wales, UK
2013 CodeD, Manifest Gallery, Cincinatti, USA

Select Awards, Commissions, Grants, Residencies
2019 LOOM (With Michael Flückiger), Broadgate, London
2019 Winter Lights, Canary Wharf
2018 SHINE commission, Light Up The North
2018 Research and development grant, Arts Council of Wales
2017 Wal Wen, Pontio, Bangor (commission)
2017 Small project grant, Arts Council of Wales
2015/16 Finalist, Lumen Prize (& touring exhibition)
2015 Winner Open Call 2, The Space
2015 Shortlist, EVA International, Ireland
2015 Shortlist, ‘Secret’ Science Gallery, Dublin
2015 Large project grant, Arts Council of Wales
2015 ‘Question Spaces’, workshop commission, Oriel MOSTYN offsite
2015 ‘&’, workshop commission, Oriel MOSTYN
2015 Long list, Daiwa Anglo Japanese Art Prize
2014/16 Designer-in-residence, Pontio Innovation, Bangor University,
2014 Shortlist Open Call 1, The Space
2014 Criw Celf, workshop commission, Flintshire County Council
2013 Large project grant, Arts Council of Wales
2013 Gronant & Talacre Festival of Light: Commissioned artist
2012/13 R&D project award, Arts Council of Wales

Studio
41 Cleveland Road
North Shields
Tyne & Wear
United Kingdom
NE29 0NW

Contact
+44 (0) 75 7710 7438
info@ronandevlin.com

Social
Twitter: @Ronandevlin
Instagram: ronandevlinartist

Veillance

An audio-visual artwork generated in real time from the data its audience generates while browsing the internet in the exhibition space. The work subsequently reveals covert (data surveillance) conversations with which the public are unknowingly engaged through routine online activity.

Our digital devices regularly share information with government agencies and third party companies for both surveillance and commercial purposes. ‘Veillance’ is an interactive artwork which visualises information generated by its audience’s internet browsing on digital devices. Data is intercepted and reconfigured in real time to create an immersive audio-visual experience intended to raise awareness about this covert conversation with which we are unknowingly engaged.

In the exhibition situation, each audience member generates a colour coded browsing feed from which the system highlights words identified by global security services as ‘triggers’ for potential warnings and suspicious activity. These selections, which navigate around the space, are both alarming and inadvertently humorous as they deliver a contrasting view to the user’s (generally) benign activity. The work simultaneously creates a (DNS) list of all websites which are covertly communicating with audience devices, illustrating the constant data communication between the viewer and outside agencies.

To comply with data protection laws, the artwork only intercepts information from unencrypted websites.

Artist:

Ronan Devlin

Project Team:

Vian Bakir, Academic
Ant Dickinson, Sound
Carwyn Edwards, Software
Michael Flückiger, Visualisation https://www.michaelflueckiger.ch/
Gillian Jein, Academic https://www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/staff/profile/gillianjein.html
Andy McStay, Academic https://www.bangor.ac.uk/music-and-media/staff/andrew-mcstay/en

Exhibitions:

White Box, Pontio Innovation, Bangor University UK, 2016 https://www.bangor.ac.uk/about/pontio/pontio-innovation.php.en https://www.bangor.ac.uk
Build Your Own exhibition and workshop, FACT, Liverpool (prototype), 2015 https://www.fact.co.uk/

Commissioned by:

The Space (winner ‘Open Call 2’) https://www.thespace.org/

Supported by:

Arts Council of Wales https://arts.wales/

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