Talk with Alan Butler, Arts Council Digital Artist in Residence at UCC

15 Jan 2026

• Alan Butler will share insights into his artistic practice examining how digital technologies shape culture, politics, and perception.
• Alan Butler is the first Arts Council Digital Artist in Residence at University College Cork.
• The residency celebrates diverse artistic voices and practices shaping Ireland’s creative landscape.

University College Cork will host a talk with Alan Butler, the inaugural Arts Council Digital Artist in Residence at UCC, on Tuesday 20 January at 2.00pm in the Digital Humanities Room, FSB 4.58.

The talk will offer an introduction to Alan Butler’s artistic practice, exploring some of his work and outlining the methods he uses to explore digital culture and its influence on how realities are formed and understood. Working across traditional and new media, his practice frequently draws on the history of image-making to examine the ideological and political dimensions of 3D graphics, video game technologies, and cloud-based systems.

Butler’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including V&A Dundee; transmediale at Akademie der Künste, Berlin; the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; Fotomuseum Winterthur; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art; C/O Berlin; FACT Liverpool; and Les Rencontres d’Arles, among others.

In 2026, Alan was announced as the first Arts Council Digital Artist in Residence at UCC. The award, jointly funded by the Arts Council and UCC, supports artists in deepening their practice while bringing fresh creative energy into teaching, research and campus life.

Speaking ahead of the event, Dr Stephen Roddy, UCC School of English and Digital Humanities and UCC Radical Humanities Laboratory, said: “We are delighted to welcome Alan Butler as the inaugural Arts Council Digital Artist in Residence at UCC. His work raises important questions about the cultural and political impact of digital technologies, and this talk offers a valuable opportunity for our university community to engage directly with those ideas.”

Alan Butler said: "I am delighted to have been awarded this residency at UCC, and excited to explore the parts of my art practice that intersect with the array of subjects that are read in the Department of Digital Humanities."

The talk is open to all UCC students, researchers, and staff.

It will take place on Tuesday, 20 January at 2.00pm in the Digital Humanities Room, FSB 4.58.