The Deep Field Project situates artistic practice in the field / site / location or context of interest. This approach means that project fieldwork can be undertaken across locations ranging from physics laboratories to post-natural or threatened landscapes. Undertaking this work means understanding the context of a site, being involved in collaborations, working alongside collectives and/or recording in relation to sensitive/complex issues that reflect our relationship with the changing landscape and broader political and philosophical concerns for artists in terms of eco-social engagement.

As the Deep Field operates at the intersection of cultural experience, theoretical discourse and practice research, this approach could be described as a method in which ‘context is half the work’1. Our methods therefore reflect both the expertise of the artists, as well as providing practical and ethical support for research. This includes the planning of rigorous groundwork, fieldwork as well as engagement with the production of artistic research outputs for exhibition, screening or publication.

To date, we are supporting ambitious research proposals ranging from projects exploring deep time and the geological; in oceanic seascapes, mountain laboratories and across data networks, to the microscopic and organic; in quantum physics, xenofeminism and towards post-natural or science fictional settings. Each project is grounded by the specific practice of the artist, or collaborators, who shape this inquiry.

In our own research studio there is dedicated access to moving image and data processing and editing, emergent 3d technologies – VR. We can also access physical art / sculpture and casting workshops etc, all with full technical support.

The Arts Catalyst Art & Science Resource Centre is also located in this research studio. A generous donation on loan for our researchers and guests, it includes rare and limited edition books relating to contemporary art and science field, with key texts on art and ecology, art and environment, critical ecology as well as rare collection of artist catalogues. It is supplemented by The Mike Kenner Archive, and other books on the philosophy of experimentation, epistemic things and socially engaged practices from the Office of Experiments who initiated the Deep Field Project.

Following previous restriction due to the Pandemic, CREAM PhD researchers from all areas are now able to book access to the studio to meet, debate and organise projects, exhibitions, residencies or placements and to present and discuss ongoing practice.

You will find the studio overlooking the central courtyard in J Block adjacent to the staff ‘Garden Room’. The location is Room JG 32 on the Harrow Campus. Or you will find us out in the field / or at the studio!

1. Artist Placement Group
2. Image Credit: Still from A Borderline Conception Lying at the Extreme Edge of the World of Appearances. Project on the becoming-planetary-body of technological monitoring apparatus during deployment of the ‘Gigaton Volume Detector’ neutrino telescope at Lake Baikal, Siberia. Supported by the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Deutsche Electron Synchrotron, and Irkutsk State University. Jol Thoms 2017-2019.