Visioning #2 2014

Close Your Eyes and Read is a new installation created by multimedia artist John D’Arcy. Appearing for one evening in R-Space Gallery, the installation wass an immersive digital experience of poetry, song and video. The work follows on from D’Arcy’s recent experiments with verbal art forms, typographic media and experimental engagement with audiences.

Drawing on emotions and experiences in the virtual realm, Close Your Eyes and Read explores digital life through inventive poetics. Non-traditional storytelling in sound and video actively plays with the viewer’s reading and listening through time as they navigate their electronic consciousness.

About the Artist

John D’Arcy is based in Lisburn. As a teenager he performed extensively across Northern Ireland as a songwriter, releasing singles on the Good Vibrations label and an album of songs for children, ‘Walk Around Lisburn’. Recently, John has been creating multimedia artworks incorporating lyricism, sound design and performance. In 2012 he released ‘Laganside: A Mobile Poetry Experience in Belfast’ for iPhone and Android. Following this he created the large scale sound installation, ‘Beckett Basement’ for the inaugural Happy Days International Samuel Beckett Festival. Last year he co-founded Belfast City Choir, an experimental vocal ensemble interacting with the public through improvisation and non-traditional musical scores. Later, he produced outdoor psychogeographic performances and works for Culture Night Belfast and Household Festival. John continues to work in various media while he explores the potentials for presenting poetry through interdisciplinary art forms in his role as researcher at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), Queen’s University Belfast.

Artist’s Website