Ivan Mack

Ivan Mack is a director, producer and maker working in tech-centred art and film and is a 2024 recipient of our Explore Fund.

Using hundreds of vapes, dozens of ‘shift registers’, a few hundred meters of cable, a pool of water and 50-year-old logic, Ivan will explore the building of an installation that tells interwoven stories about things like the sixth mass extinction, the sublimation of organic life into digital forms, our sketchy hold on reality, and ghosts of the industrial landscape of the North.

‘I’m interested in art that can speak to those of us who don’t process art experiences through academic discourse, and as a neurodiverse artist, I want to make work that can be accessed in a purely sensory way.”

This project will be Ivan’s first funded installation piece as a solo artist rather than as a creative tech consultant or collaborator. The work speaks of the post-industrial landscape of Bradford with echoes of the landscape of chimneys. The technology used is similar to that used in vapes and so ubiquitous with the trash in our local environment, provoking thoughts about consumption and waste. The release of the vapour can also be seen as a comment on the effects on our city’s air quality and our wellbeing.