A BELFAST visual artist has been shortlisted for a prestigious award.
Glenn Marshall, who has spent 15 years developing new methods of 3d animation and experimental computer art, has been shortlisted for the Lumen Prize for his work, Particle Man, a project that is supported with funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Now in its fourth year, the internationally recognised Lumen Prize Exhibition celebrates art that is created digitally by artists around the world, showcasing the power and potential of this exciting genre through an annual competition and global tour of works selected by an eminent panel of judges.
Multi award-winning Glenn, who is a recipient of a 2015 Arts Council of Northern Ireland Major Individual Artist Award, worth £15,000, has over 1 million plays on Vimeo of his cutting edge animations, and a worldwide following for his unique, pioneering digital art and in 2008 he won the Prix Ars Electronica for a music video he created for Peter Gabriel.
He has also produced adverts and short films for BAFTA winning and Oscar nominated studios Nexus, in London, and Brown Bag, in Dublin.
The Particle Man by Glenn Marshall
Glenn commented: “It’s really exciting being in the running for a major global digital art award. The inspiration for Particle Man came from looking at the cover illustrations of the New Scientist magazine – beautifully clever ideas that connect science to humanity.
“I’ve always felt that too much of computer art is abstract and meaningless, so I wanted to do something that connected it back to the human, in this case it was a simple idea of particles in motion creating the shape of a man, entirely simulated through programming and mathematics.
“The reaction to Particle Man has been fantastic. The Arts Council purchased a still work for their collection based on the animation, which is the first digital art related piece work to be added to their collection, so this is especially pleasing as it feels a bit historic.
“In New York, Particle Man is featured in a new 360 stereoscopic, virtual reality film called In/Formation. And to top things off, the Lumen Prize website homepage is using my image to represent the competition itself – always a good a sign! I’m also proud to be representing Northern Ireland around the world with digital art I’ve created with my Arts Council award.”
You can cast your vote in support of Glenn now by first registering at http://lumenprize.com/lumenonlinegallery