Telenesia is a transmedia art project exploring the imaginative terrain of a fictive island where obsolete and malfunctioning technologies accumulate. Drawing on the principles of media archaeology and glitch aesthetics, the work reimagines broken or “dead” media as vibrant sources of visual and conceptual possibility. The project frames Telenesia as a mythic archive of lost communications, an uncanny space where signals collapse, re-emerge and are reinterpreted through experimental image-making.
The installation combines experimental film, sculptural elements and interactive digital interfaces. A series of one-minute films, using scratch processes, analogue decay and digital glitch, forms the project’s cinematic core, several of which were screened internationally, including at the One Minute Film & Video Festival in Switzerland. In gallery settings, custom software patches built in Max MSP and Arduino-driven interfaces allowed visitors to engage directly with hybrid analogue–digital systems, transforming the installation into a responsive, participatory environment.
Telenesia also incorporated a collaborative and curatorial dimension. Contributions from leading experimental media practitioners across Europe, including artists working with glitch, sound and obsolete imaging technologies, expanded the project into a broader conversation about the life cycles of media. A commissioned sound work and a published catalogue featuring essays by media theorists further grounded the project’s conceptual framework, while the online component of Telenesia offered remixable Super8 material and a series of glitch-inflected Tarot images that extended the fictional world across platforms.
Supported by Arts Council England and presented in venues such as the Quay Arts Centre, Telenesia occupies a distinctive position at the intersection of moving image, installation and digital culture. It reflects on memory, technological obsolescence and the poetic potential of malfunction, inviting viewers to consider how broken media continue to shape contemporary visual experience.
A PDF of the Exhibition Catalogue is available here.
Link to project website is here.
Link to Telenesia film is here.
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