Alan Warburton: Rendering Work at the Bleeding Edge

Decades after canonical media theorists predicted that new media software had ‘collapsed’ old media into endless ‘hybrid’ combinations, the walls really do seem to be crumbling: games engines are a crossroads of 21st century creative practice where the work of the architect, animator, filmmaker, games developer, contemporary artist, fashion designer and computer scientist increasingly overlap. But what does this mean for ideas of creative practice, for media or art? Are we all now multi-specialists, forced to constantly adapt as platforms automate our work? How do we stay afloat in this convergent, AI-assisted media ecosystem? Can media theory save us?

Alan Warburton is an artist, filmmaker and video essayist who has spent 18 years experimenting and reflecting on computer graphics, AR, VR, visual effects, motion graphics, projection mapping and 3D animation. Bluesky: cgwtf.bsky.social, website: alanwarburton.co.uk/

The Virtual Realisms public lecture series critically investigates the evolving forms of reality created through algorithmic worldbuilding, where advanced digital technologies give rise to new and diverse interpretations of what is considered ‘real.’ As virtual spaces reach unprecedented levels of fidelity, this seemingly contradictory term suggests that, rather than a unified representation of our reality, we are now enmeshed within multiple new artificial realisms shaped by the proliferation of immersive technologies, CGI, and intelligent automation across all sectors. Spanning both technical and speculative practices, the series of lectures will explore how real-time virtual environments, and the technologies that underpin them, are redefining the logics of cultural production, creativity, and power in our increasingly rendered world.

Virtual Realisms is a monthly series of public lectures taking place throughout the 2024-25 academic year at the University of Westminster in London, UK. For more information about the series, please visit www.virtualrealisms.com.

Virtual Realisms is curated by Tadej Vindis, Lecturer in Creative Technologies, and Teodora Sinziana Alata, Lecturer in Creative Computing and Algorithmic Cultures, at the University of Westminster.

The series is organized as part of the Quintin Hogg Trust funded project, "Emerging Technologies and Advanced Technological Literacies for Creative Disciplines", led by Dr. Elizabeth Allen and Tadej Vindis, and is part of a wider CreaTech initiative of the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries at the University of Westminster. Graphic design by Andrew Mallinson.

Host or Publisher Virtual Realisms