Libby Heaney

Background

About Libby Heaney

I am an award winning visual artist with a PhD in Quantum Information Science. I make beautiful & disturbing art that brings together science, technology & society, creating immersive worlds, slimy sculptures and interactive environments that inspire change. I am currently a resident artist at Somerset House Studios in London, where I have my first UK institutional solo show in Feb, commissioned by HTC Vive Arts. In 2023, I was commissioned to make the world’s first artwork about quantum computing and climate change, shown in Spain, Amsterdam & Dubai. In 2022, my artworks were exhibited across the world including Seoul, Berlin, London & New York City where my work was placed along side mobiles by famous modernist sculpture Alexander Calder. In 2022 I created my major immersive quantum artwork Ent- which won the Lumen Prize, the Falling Walls Art & Science Prize. Ent- has toured across continents & was named one of the best exhibitions in Berlin March 2022 alongside renowned artists Jenny Holzer, Louise Bourgeois and fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.* I also recieved the Mozilla Foundation Creative Media Award. People have written that I was the first artist to make work with quantum computing in 2019, taking a post-human, feminist approach to working with these tools. You can read about my practice with advanced technologies in magazines and news outlets such as The Guardian, Wallpaper*, the BBC, Spike Art, Forbes, Die Zeit and Tagespiegel. I've presented work with many large institutions including The Barbican, who along with Sky Arts commissioned me as part of their Arts 50 programme, ICA, Tate Modern, V&A, Southbank Centre, Somerset House and Serpentine Gallery. My work is in major private collections including Zabludowicz Collection, where I've also performed. Before retraining as an artist at Central St. Martins London, I completed five years of post-doc fellowships at the National University of Singapore & the University of Oxford where I led my own research through a prestigious EPSRC research fellowship. I have published 20 papers on topics such as quantum entanglement, ultra-cold atomic gases & quantum biology. In 2008 I won HSBC and the Institute of Physics, UK, Very Early Career Women Researcher of the year. I have extensive expertise of speculating and story-telling around quantum technologies to general audiences in engaging and surprising ways. I am available to give keynotes about topics such as the ethics of quantum technologies; quantum computing and the arts and creative uses of machine learning.