Libby Heaney: slimeQore

Join us for a live performative lecture sliding into the slimy world of quantum computing as both medium and subject matter as part of Among the Machines at the Zabludowicz Collection. Artist and quantum physicist Libby Heaney will present the premiere of slimeQore, an immersive video montage and spoken narrative that utilises slime as a metaphor for the blurry, slippery quantum world and also the “slimy” corporations developing quantum technology through slime-like interfaces.

The artist will utilise data from IBM's five qubit quantum computing systems to continually (re)compose the placement of the video montage across the gallery revealing the layered reality inside quantum computers and highlighting the vast multidimensionality in quantum computing. You do not need to have any prior knowledge of quantum computing, rather, through metaphor and embodied play the performance will explore the topic in a playful and accessible way.


Libby Heaney
Libby Heaney's post-disciplinary art practice includes moving image works, performances and participatory & interactive experiences that span quantum computing, virtual reality, AI and installation. Heaney's practice ofte uses affect, humour, surrealism and nonsense to subvert the capitalist appropriation of technology: the endless categorisations and control of humans and non-humans alike. Instead, Heaney uses tools like machine learning and quantum computing against their 'proper' uses to undo biases and to forge new expressions of collective identity and belonging with each other and the world.

Heaney holds a PhD in Quantum Information Science and a MA Art and Science. She has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally including solo exhibitions at Light Art Space, Berlin (2022); arebyte Gallery, London (2022) and group shows at re:publica festival, Berlin (2022) with the Goethe Institute; ZKM, Karlsruhe (2022); HMKV, Dortmund (2022); Tate Modern (2019, 2016) & V&A (2018). She has performed in the UK and internationally including at Sonar Festival, CCCB, Barcelona (2021) and Southbank Centre, London (2022). Heaney is a recipient of a Mozilla Foundation Creative Media Award (2022) and is currently a resident artist at Somerset House Studios.

This event is FREE, booking recommended.