Foolish Flame is the selected project of the SHARESPACE International Open Call for Artists 2024. As part of this initiative, artists were invited to develop a multi-user, hybrid, interactive art performance for Deep Space 8K. Created by lead artists Peter Power, Leon Butler and team, Foolish Flame is a transdisciplinary piece that explores the fraught frontiers of climate change and our inherited cultural trauma. Through collective experience and real-time generative technology, visitors witness an evolving landscape of environmental narratives. Traversing between the liminal space of the bog and a realm beyond, Foolish Flame unfolds as a dynamic storytelling system, conjuring new digital rituals of connection, synchronicity, and ecological reflection.
Foolish Flame merges performance and technology focusing on contentious frontiers of climate change and our inherited traumatic heritage surrounding them. Wandering between worlds is the Foolish Flame, a representation of the Will-o’-the-wisp myth, animated and trained on contemporary dance movement and cross-cultural traditional dance archives.
This apparition traverses the frontiers, creating moments of synchronicity between real and digital realms, symbolising humanity’s fragile relationship with nature and serving as an allegory for natural forces responding to environmental disruption. The installation is scored with Uilleann pipes, electronics and voice, encouraging audiences to respect the delicate balance of ecosystems through physical and emotional connection to equally endangered heritage. Presented in Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Festival 2025, the piece allows up to five participants to.
Credits
Lead Artists: Leon Butler, Peter Power.
Head Creative Technologist: Caillean Finn
Artistic and Technical Collaborator: Aisling Phelan
Contributing Artists: Neonatus
Music by Peter Power
Choreographed and performed by: Robyn Byrne
Uilleann Pipe and Voice performed by: Muireann Ní Shé
Executive Producer: Maura O’Keefee
Creative Producer: Aisling Murray
About the Leading Artists
Peter Power is a transdisciplinary Composer, Writer, Visual Artist, Sound Designer and Director from Waterford based in Ireland. He holds an honours degree in Biochemistry and a Masters in Composition. He is the Artistic Director of the Award winning company Sparsile Collective creating encompassing post-disciplinary artworks. He is a current Associate Artist of the BETA festival as part of the Dublin Digital Hub. He is the outgoing Artist-In-Residence of the Cork Midsummer Festival and the National Sculpture Factory, as well as numerous other international residencies in Denmark and Holland. Peter’s awards include: Arts Council of Ireland Music Bursary award, Theatre Bursary Award, Music and Theatre Project Awards, and most recently the AGF and Visual Arts Commission Award. His current interests are in live art, science and story, and the felt connections between the human, the real and the digital.
Leon Butler is an artist and academic working at the intersection of art and technology. His award-winning practice has been recognised by The Type Directors Club, 100 Archive, Future Makers, Digital Media Awards, Young Directors Awards, and the Irish Design Awards. Recent projects include Foolish Flame, Imagined Islands, Dwelling, Performance Surveillance, and Emperor 101. He has held fellowships at the University of Galway, Otis College of Art, and the Royal Society of Arts. His work has shown internationally with support from the Arts Council, Ars Electronica, EMAP, and Science Gallery, with major presentations internationally.
