Doireann O'Malley, University Professorship for Gender and Space

Doireann O’Malley’s trans-disciplinary practice unites collaborative methodologies, healing and reparative movement, writing, and theory with a strong technological emphasis on new media, VR and film.

"I would like to create a program which unites the different methodological approaches I use and to create a non-hierarchical space of exchange for students to explore the intersection of gender, trans* and queer topics with a critique of the institutional, social and political dominance of cis/het infrastructures. Over the past years, I have developed an original, interdisciplinary pedagogical concept for teaching expanded forms of live and media art that seeks to deconstruct my own and others’ artistic work through the lens of non-binary epistemology, post colonial discourses and Indigenous unpacking of digital tools, particularly AI. I believe the expanded media forms of AI, AR and VR have the potential to reflect and diffract cosmological projections which connect to representation and might even unravel tired, dualistic forms of art production and representation. Through my ongoing multi-dimensional practice I have built up a network of collaborators including researchers and artists in the fields of video, film, sound, 3D, CGI and VR, AR and AI. In addition I work regularly with somatics and live art practitioners, programmers, writers and theoreticians. In my studio at the moment, I am researching the interconnectedness of virtuality, gender embodiment and cybernetics, as part of a multiyear, multimedia work, Hyperbodies , which will combine film, VR and performance. I am presently excited by the opportunities and challenges of continuing to teach at the intersection of theory and practice, focusing on expanding formats and integrating collaborative methodologies further into my multidimensional practice."

They are currently a research fellow at the Berliner Förderprogramm Künstlerische Forschung 2020–2021 and were a participant of the Berlin Program for Artists (BPA). They are also a guest professor on the MFA programme at Nuremberg Academie of Arts 2021–2022. They were a guest professor at Zurich’s University of the Arts for the winter and spring semesters of 2020. Recent exhibitions, talks and screenings include, The Narrow Gate of The Here and NOW , IMMA,  Dublin, IRE; Protoclub, Shedhalle, Zurich, CH; Art Taaalksss, Art Institute, Basel, CH; Biennale Zielona Góra, PL; New Nature Vitrines at the Goethe-Institute Montreal, CA, Berlin Weekly, DE, feldfünf, Berlin, DE, goeben, Berlin, DE and the Goethe-Institute, NY, USA; Urban Video Project, Light Work at The Everson Museum Syracuse, NY, USA; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), Berlin, DE; BPA Talks, KW, Berlin, DE; National Sculpture Factory/ Cork Film Festival, Cork, IE; Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, SE; Stadium Gallery, Berlin, DE; Nordenhake, Mexico City, MEX;  Fondazione Adolfo Pini, Milan, IT; Rencontres Internationales, Forum des Archives, Paris & HKW, Berlin; Spaces in Between, Bozar, Brussels, BE; Mumok Kino, Vienna, AUT; Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Dublin, IE; Bobs Pogo Bar, KW, Berlin, DE; Berlin Art Prize, 2018, DE; Wild, Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg, DE. The catalogue Prototypes was produced by Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane and co-published by Sternberg Press and Edith-Russ Haus für Medienkunst with essays by Lou Drago, Caspar Heinemann and Joel Kuennen