The Aesthetica Art Prize celebrates contemporary art in all its forms, offering opportunities for exhibition at a major public gallery alongside publication in Aesthetica Magazine and the Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology. The award celebrates creativity in all its forms, across multiple disciplines, including: digital art and installation, painting and drawing, photography, performance and more. Previous exhibitions have posed larger questions about what it means to exist in a digitised, post-industrial landscape. Join us to hear from a selection of our shortlisted artists for this year’s Aesthetica Art Prize. Each artist will take to the stage to discuss their practice for five minutes.

The metaverse continues to dominate technology headlines, from NFTs to virtual and immersive reality. These explosive developments provide new forms of interpretation and experience, calling into question the intersection between art and technology, as well as its potential future. But what, really, is the metaverse? How will immersive realities influence creative spheres? How can NFTs be used by artists?  Metaverse strategist Kadine James has pioneered new forms of digital content for two decades. She discusses how artists can use these tools to enhance their practice, in conversation with NFT certification platform Verisart’s Shelley Mannion, and Ana-Despina Tudor,  London College of Communication.

Artificial intelligence. Virtual reality. Augmented reality. Immersive experiences. As these technologies offer users new experiences, and our average screen time reaches upwards of seven hours per day, the lines between “digital” and “real” worlds become increasingly blurred. London-based immersive art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast cut through the noise. In conversation with award-winning designer Sadie Clayton, Co-founder Robin McNicholas discusses the complex relationship between art and emerging technologies, taking us behind-the-scenes of MLF’s mesmerising multi-sensory experiences. This session is a glimpse into the future: it looks at how we might use digital tools to spark conversations.

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How do curators make decisions? How does an idea develop into a fully realised exhibition? How can you ensure it is a success? In a world where attention spans have been reduced to three seconds, how do you captivate audiences and ensure that public engagement is high? What opportunities are there for emerging practitioners in an age defined by footfall and what is “Instagrammable”? Who and what is being exhibited, how and why? This session discusses the role of the curator in all its many forms and intricacies in the 21st century. The panellists are from some of the UK’s leading galleries, including Open Eye Gallery, Hayward Galley, The Art House and Barbican, and the discussion is chaired by Ameena M. McConnell.

Heather Agyepong is a trailblazing contemporary artist and winner of the Jerwood / Photoworks Award 2022. Over the past five years, she has achieved worldwide recognition from the likes of Foam Talent, Prix Pictet, Sky Arts and many more. She will discuss how lens-based practices and performance can be used to explore mental health and wellbeing in relation to diasporic communities. This often involves looking to the past to critically examine prevailing versions of history. She will reflect on her key projects, such as Two Many Blackamoors, which meditates on her experiences as a young Black woman dealing with the macro- and micro- traumas of racism. Agyepong will also discuss capturing emotion, as evidenced in recent series.

Anthony Aziz and Sammy Cucher have worked together as artistic duo Aziz + Cucher since 1992. Experimenting across a variety of media, including digital imaging, sculpture, animation, and video installation, their work is marked by a distinctive concern for technology’s impact on the body and society. Aziz + Cucher have been exhibited globally, notably at the 46th Venice Biennale with works held in museum collections including: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles Country Museum of Art and Reina Sofia, Madrid. They will discuss the representation of the body in the post-human digital age and portrayals of the natural world understood through new technology.

Turner Prize-nominee Ingrid Pollard is a photographer, media artist and researcher. Pollard is a leading figure in contemporary British art. She has developed a social practice concerned with representation, history and landscape with reference to race, difference and the materiality of lens-based media. In the 1980s, Pollard produced a series of photographs of Black people in rural landscapes, entitled Pastoral Interludes. The works challenge how English culture places Black people in cities. Pollard will speak about her career – how she has broken new ground and forged pathways for younger generations, which has shaped Britain’s understanding of society and culture.

Visitors have the chance to explore the 2023 Aesthetica Art Prize ahead of the crowds at this private view. You can join delegates, curators and guests from the art world, alongside the Aesthetica team, for a special evening of networking. After an informative day of talks and panel discussion, enjoy the Awards Ceremony – all from the heart of York Art Gallery. The exhibition features 20 shortlisted artists whose work invites you to explore, discover and engage with themes from our rapidly changing world, including: the ethics of representation, mass digitisation, globalisation, diasporic identities and the threats posed by the climate crisis. Please pre-register for this event.

Aesthetica Magazine is a bastion of independent publishing, ideas and thoughts, founded by Cherie Federico and Dale Donley in 2003. This March, the publication celebrates its 20th anniversary. It is a true achievement, and in this session, Cherie and Dale will speak about their journey setting up an arts organisation with international reach. They will talk about what it means to make your mark. They did not have funding, a business plan or distribution; they had an idea and a passion for culture. Hear how this became a leading publication for art and design with a reach of 500,000, as well as a platform for creativity across the Art Prize, Creative Writing Award and the BAFTA-Qualifying Film Festival.

Painter, activist and entrepreneur Stuart Semple will speak about what it means to be a painter in contemporary society, exploring the impact the digital world has had on the medium. Beyond this, he will discuss his belief that art is for everyone. Semple is a multidisciplinary British artist working across painting, sculpture, technology and activism. He is well known for his sociologically engaged works that discuss youth politics, accessibility and democracy. Semple’s body of work orbits around a handful of recurring themes; anxiety, society, cultural history, technology, connection, community and freedom. There is a clear-minded sense of utility: art itself should have a social function.

Being an artist needs to be thought of as running a business. It is important to think about how you will fund projects and develop partnerships in order to reach your goals. There are funding bodies out there who do support artists; however, competition is fierce. How will you make your applications stand out and what can you do to support your practice? How can you transform your career and continue to make work that is financially viable, environmentally sustainable and creatively innovative? This session includes a panel of experts from New Contemporaries, Arts Council England and Jerwood about the avenues and opportunities currently available to developing artists.

Can creatives draw inspiration from and re-imagine classical work? How can these images be brought into the digital world? How do you converse with the past? These are questions posed by London-based Israeli artist Ori Gersht, who is best known for destroying painstakingly recreated versions of classical paintings on camera. Fruit explodes and flowers shatter in slow-motion video, many of which reference classical paintings. His distorted replicas invite conversation around digitalisation, reality and virtual spaces. Gersht is interested in time periods involving revolutions – the scientific, industrial and digital – which he posits as the crossroads that define photography. A collision of history, science and tech.

Yuri Suzuki is interested in the potential of sound to inspire, shape and connect people on a global scale, using unique combinations of digital and analogue technologies to push the boundaries of art. Interactivity is key to his practice, from community-focused installations to accessible phone applications that give people the tools to create music. In 2018, Suzuki was named as a partner of leading independent design studio Pentagram and has since shown work at The Design Museum, London, Turner Contemporary and Triennale Milano. He joins us to talk about sound design, interactivity and connection, drawing on significant projects from his studio and work with Google and will-i-am.

Photography has had a long and eventful history – moving from wet plates to smartphones, camera technology has changed dramatically over the years. What does the future hold for storytelling in this media? Four photographers with very different practices – Hannah Starkey, Tom Hunter, Maryam Wahid and Mónica Alcázar-Duarte – take us on a journey through the future direction of photography and lens-based media.  How do we hold up a mirror to the present? Where do we go from here? These panellists discuss how practitioners continue to innovate with the democratisation of photography – where almost everyone has a camera in their pocket, and pictures are shared round-the-clock.

Cornelia Parker RA OBE is one of Britain’s most acclaimed contemporary artists. She is best known for transforming everyday objects into room-sized installations, addressing issues of violence, human rights and environmental disaster. Her most famous examples include Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991), a garden shed frozen at the moment of explosion; Thirty Pieces of Silver (1988-1989), flattened silver objects including candle sticks and dinnerware; and War Room (2015), created from red paper left over from the production of British Legion remembrance poppies. Now, after her 2022 retrospective at Tate Britain – which brought together her most iconic pieces – Parker joins us.

Celebrate with us as we mark 20 years of Aesethetica Magazine and the close of the Future Now Symposium 2023. This drinks reception, taking place in the Medieval Gallery at Yorkshire Museum, is a fantastic opportunity to unwind after a busy day of sessions, portfolio reviews and networking. Catch up with participants and delegates alike. Make new connections. Discuss key themes from the sessions you’ve attended. Immerse yourself in conversations about art. This casual social event is a great way to finish off the Symposium experience. It’s a destination for meeting attendees over a complimentary drink, which will be served on a first-come, first-served basis. All attendees are welcome.