Anna Ridler, an artist who explores the meeting of human perception and Artificial Intelligence, has been selected as the winner of the 2018-19 DARE Art Prize by Opera North and the University of Leeds’ Cultural Institute.
Aimed at challenging artists and scientists to work together on new approaches to the creative process, the £15,000 DARE Art Prize was launched last year as part of the DARE partnership between Opera North and the University of Leeds. The partnership has since become a globally recognised model for collaborations between the arts and higher education.
Wikileaks: A Love Story © Anna Ridler
Anna is interested in making works that use technology or science to talk about subjects such as memory, love or decay. Over the year of her DARE Art Prize commission, she plans to work with scientists in the Language and Memory Laboratory, and the wider School of Psychology, at the University of Leeds to explore the functions of memory and the roles of the left and right sides of the brain, and how their operation might be embodied in a work of art.
Applications for the Prize were received from artists working in all media from around the world. The winning entry was selected by a panel comprising Opera North’s Projects Director Dominic Gray, Professor John Ladbury, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Biological Sciences at the University of Leeds, and science and culture consultant Lisa Jamieson, former Head of Engaging Science at Wellcome.
Lisa commented:
“Anna will be a very exciting artist to work with. She is fizzing with ideas and demonstrated genuine curiosity about the science and scientists she wishes to collaborate with. I look forward to engaging with the final outcomes of the DARE Art Prize 2018-19.”
