About
Michael Lightborne is an artist, researcher and teacher based in Birmingham and Cork. He works with sound, moving images and text, and has exhibited in galleries and festivals in Ireland, the UK and internationally. His sound work has been featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Late Junction‘, NTS Radio, ddr, Resonance FM, WFMU, Raidió na Gaeltachta, Lyric FM, Internet Public Radio, Radio Punctum amongst others. His most recent album Slí na F​í​rinne was released by The Department of Energy in 2022. Previous albums include RING ROAD RING and Sounds of the Projection Box on Gruenrekorder. His moving image work has been shown at Cork Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival, Flatpack Film Festival Birmingham, Art Night Venezia, Bucharest Film Festival, Thessaloniki Queer Arts Festival, Bogotá Experimental Film Festival, Eastside Projects Birmingham, Vivid Projects Birmingham, DivFuse London, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Herbert Gallery Coventry, UCL Urban Laboratory, Cinecity Melbourne, Coventry Biennial, Sluice Biennial, Arquiteturas Film Festival Lisbon and many more.
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He is Associate Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick (as Michael Pigott), where he teaches and writes about film and video art, and the relationship between sound, environment and cinema. He is the author of Joseph Cornell Versus Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2013), the forthcoming Wild Sound: Cinema and the Sonic Environment (Bloomsbury, 2024), as well as articles on the image of the sleeping body, the sonic environment of the projection box, experimental documentary practices, and the uses of projection outside of the cinema.
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His work combines artistic practice with academic research, focussing on the development of trans-disciplinary methodologies using field recording, sound composition, filmmaking and projection, resulting in non-text outputs such as albums, films, video installations, and performances, alongside conventional journal articles and books. He was co-investigator on Sensing the City, a major UK Research Council funded project developing humanities-based methods for the investigation of urban space, producing a set of films and an album that were exhibited at Herbert Gallery Coventry. Before that he was co-investigator on The Projection Project, a major funded investigation of the history of cinematic and extra-cinematic projection in Britain. He is currently developing a project called Concrete Cinema, that uses experimental filmmaking and outdoor projection to explore the history and lived experience of Modernist and Brutalist architecture, and the future of concrete as a building material.
Michael’s work has been shown at:
Arquiteturas Film Festival, Lisbon
Arte Non Stop Festival, Buenos Aires
Art Festival at Hay
Art Night Venezia, Venice
Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham
Birmingham Open Media (BOM)
Bogotá Experimental Film Festival
Bucharest Short Film Festival
Cinecity, Melbourne
BFI Imax, London
City Arcadia, Coventry
Cork Film Festival
Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art
Eastside Projects, Birmingham
Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham
Glasgow Film Festival
Herbert Gallery and Museum, Coventry
Luxury Goods Festival, London
North Portland Unknown Film Festival
Parachute Light Zero III International Short Film Festival, Paris
Sluice Art Fair, London
Sluice Biennial
Square Gallery, Bristol
Stryx, Birmingham
Trade Gallery, Nottingham
Vivid Projects, Birmingham
Selected exhibitions and screenings:
2021
A Catalogue of the Great Buildings of Coventry (at great speed) screened as part of 'Living with Buildings' programme of experimental films about architecture, Coventry, 2021.
Extraction: a Psycho-geological Report series of AV works exhibited online and onsite at Vivid Projects, Birmingham.
Puzzling Configurations of Stuff video essay for Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Commissioned accompany the 'Maud Cotter: a consequence of – a dappled world' exhibition. Online (2021).
'In conversation: Michael Lightborne with Maud Cotter’ published in Maud Cotter: a consequence of – a dappled world (Dublin: Hugh Lane Gallery, 2021)
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2020
Salt video piece commissioned by Vivid Projects/Culture Central for #ItGetsLightFromHere online event, December.
Fields of Stirchley anarchaeological sounding workshop as part of Ten Acres of Sound festival, September.
RING ROAD RING album released on vinyl and digital by Gruenrekorder. Available from Gruenrekorder here, Bandcamp here, and from Juno in the UK here.
Sensing the City: an Urban Room group show at Herbert Gallery and Museum, Coventry, January .
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2019
Shapeshifter screened at Bogotá Experimental Film Festival, Colombia
Shapeshifter exhibited at THESSALONIKI QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL, MOMus Experimental Center for the Arts, Thessaloniki, Greece, June 7 – 23
Fields of Stirchley anarchaeological sounding workshop commissioned by Hipkiss & Graney/Dead Shrines, June 30.
For a Road Can Be a Thing of Beauty screening at 'City, Essay, Film' event at UCL Urban Laboratory/UCL Festival of Ideas, London, June 7.
2018
Sounds of the Projection Box: Liner Notes on a Phonographic Method talk and workshop as part of Mediafest, Vivid Projects, October 20
Digital Light Processing live audiovisual performance as part of Mediafest, Vivid Projects, October 20.
Digital Light Processing installation as part of Mediafest, Vivid Projects, October.
Sounds of the Projection Box album released on vinyl and digital by Gruenrekorder. Available from Gruenrekorder here, Bandcamp here, and from Juno in the UK here.
2017
The Future is a Waste of Time selected for Bucharest Short Film Festival, December
Shapeshifter shown at 'Deep Thrash in the Underworld', Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, London, October
The Future is a Waste of Time print series is part of 'The Future' group show at CET Building, Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art, October 2016
Distressed Tape selected for North Portland Film Festival, October
Monolith at Black Hole Club exhibit, Sluice Biennial, London, September/October
Shapeshifter shown at 'Re:Jacqueline Morreau – Mythologies and the Marginalised' exhibition at Nunnery Gallery, London, September
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2016
The Future is a Waste of Time selected for Cork Film Festival, Nov.
The Future is a Waste of Time selected for Arte Non Stop Festival Buenos Aires, Sept.
The Disrupted/Disruptive Pattern AV performance with Ryan Hughes at Leamington Camouflage Festival 2016, Sept.
Video design for punkplay at Southwark Playhouse, Sept.
Abandonware Jungle, single screen generative video, part of '#ArtistsCompute' group exhibition at City Arcadia, Coventry, Sept.
Porous City installation at 'Aesthetics of Poverty' symposium, University of Warwick June.
Obscura Island performance installation, commissioned by Birmingham Camera Obscura, centre of Birmingham city, June.
Lost Cities live AV performance at Test Card, Texture, Manchester, June.
The Future is a Waste of Time selected for Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham, April.
Realness (bifurcation) selected for Parachute Light Zero III International Short Film Festival, Paris, April.
Real Slow video installation at Digbeth First Friday, Vivid Projects, Birmingham, March.
Sound design for Diabolical Roses, immersive dining experience produced by Kaye Winwood and Sarah Baker-Groves, Birmingham, February.
The Future is a Waste of Time 2: Melancholy of the Nibbler live AV performance at AV Silk Road, Birmingham, February.
2015
Realness live AV and performance installation in collaboration with Kate Spence, at Sluice Art Fair, OXO Bargehouse, London, October.
Choreography for Camera and Missing Sculpture installation as part of 'JHB Archive 23/1961 or 28/1961' group exhibition, BOM Lab, Birimingham, September – October.
The Future is a Waste of Time selected for Arquiteturas Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal, October.
Realness live AV and performance installation in collaboration with Kate Spence. Part of Queer Traces at mac Birmingham and Vivid Projects, May.
Highway selected for Cinecity 2015, Melbourne, Australia, May.
In Order to Prevent the Discovery that I do not Exist (installation version) at Black Hole Club Social, Vivid Projects, Birmingham, April 2015.
Porous City installation at University of Lincoln, February.
2014
The Future is a Waste of Time live AV performance, Digbeth First Friday, Vivid Projects, Birmingham, December.
Slow Scan live AV performance as part of Sonification, Digbeth First Friday, Vivid Projects, Birmingham, September.
Distressed Tape selected for ESP Film Open. Screened August 2014, Eastside Projects, Birmingham.
Forest Light installation, part of Between Two Worlds group exhibition at Vivid Projects, Birmingham, August.
Lost Rock Bands of South America exhibition of collaborative work with Santiago Oyarzabal at Vivid Projects, July.
Lost Cities audiovisual performance as part of Tropicalism at The Tin, Coventry, July.
33 video tapes, erased and rewound exhibited at Black Hole Social Club, May.
Zero live AV performance with John Bradburn and Ashok Mistry, Black Hole Social Club, May.
Riachuelo Crossing video installation presented as part of Superclubber Special, Flatpack Film Festival.
2013
Lost Cities audiovisual performance at 7 Days of Sound festival, Althorpe Street Studios and Gallery, Royal Leamington Spa, Dec.
ALAN SUICIDE video installation, part of BYOB Birmingham 2013, at Vivid Projects, Birmingham, Nov.
A Chronic Mist video installation, part of Light Capture group exhibition at Stryx, Birmingham, Oct-Nov.
Cornerpiece video installation at ESP Summer Camp, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, August
Sound design for the experimental film For Shadows (dir. Ken Paul Rosenthal, 2013)
Sound design for Late in the Day, theatrical production at the Hen and Chickens Theatre, Islington, June.
Selected photography and projection installation The Purple Spot, Venice, April 2012, part of group exhibition 'Retina 1' at Althorpe Street Studios and Gallery, Royal Leamington Spa, May.
What Did The Duck Say To The Pig? video short, shown as part of 'Dirty New Media' at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, March
2012
The End of the Journey installation involving projection, video screen and broken hurdy-gurdy, part of 'Five Songs' group exhibition at Minerva Works, Birmingham, December
VHS Raven video installation at ESP Summer Camp, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, Aug.
Interval (after Intervals) photographic installation at Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, Venice.
Cinema is Rubbish single channel version screened as part of A Short Sharp Blow to the Head.., at Trade Gallery, Nottingham, June
Cinema is Rubbish single channel version at Cinematique! Film Festival, BFI Imax, London. Invited speaker at event.
Lugosi video installation at BYOB Birmingham, Flatpack Film Festival 2012.
Cinema is Rubbish single channel version shown as part of This is the Point program at the Flatpack Film Festival 2012, Birmingham.
2011
Paramnesia Variations video shown as part of 'Kaleidoscope: New Perspectives on the Humanities' at the University of Warwick, May.
A Walk on the Deck is Indicated two channel video installation at the University of Warwick Library, June.
Cinema is Rubbish video installation/performance at The Courtyard Theatre, London, April.
2010
Elevator at Square Gallery, Bristol (Oct 2010 – Jan 2011)
Elevator at the Art Festival at Hay 2010.
Elevator video installation shortlisted for the Open Prize 2010. Exhibited at the Nicholls and Clarke Warehouse, London (July 2010).