Venice 2025 Panel: Creating Spaces
Friday 29 August | 16:30-17:30
Venice Production Bridge | Venice Immersive Island (Lazzaretto Vecchio), Spazio Incontri Immersivo (Panel Area)
Credit: Sasha Ljubojevic
Creating Spaces
Not emerging, emerged - immersive exhibition in the UK
Hosted by the BFI at the 2025 Venice Production Bridge - UK is increasingly a place where immersive work is supported by an engaged and growing exhibition network, ranging from long-time permanent dedicated spaces, to major institutions commissioning and presenting work within their artistic programmes, as well as newly built galleries inside established cultural venues, dedicated to presenting immersive works. All of these spaces - which are representative of the UK exhibition landscape - present opportunities for world-renowned UK creative businesses to navigate, develop and regularly present work.
MODERATOR:
Ben Luxford
Director of Audiences | BFI
PANELLISTS:
David Massey
Senior Producer, Creative Technology and Storytelling | Wales Milennium Centre
Amy Rose
Lead Curator, Undershed | Watershed, Bristol
Alex Rowse
Executive Producer | Mashmallow Laser Feast
Nicola Triscott
Director/CEO | FACT Liverpool
(L-R) David Massey, Amy Rose, Alex Rowse, Nicola Triscott
About the panellists
David Massey
Senior Producer, Creative Technology and Storytelling | Wales Milennium Centre
David Massey is an Executive Producer and Curator working with talented artists that experiment with new art forms, technology and storytelling. In 2017, David started his journey using immersive technologies to develop audience participation and engagement. Commissioned by Welsh National Opera, Magic Butterfly was an XR experience that combined motion capture, animation, music and technology to create a new interpreation of two scenes from two operas. He then went on to produce and tour acclaimed XR experiences Rhondda Rebel and A Vixen’s Tale. In 2020, David joined Wales Millennium Centre to spearhead the venue's Creative Technology and Storytelling programme. Since joining the organisation he has commissioned and co-curated XR projects including Ripples of Kindness and the Museum of Nothingness. In 2022, David conceived, developed and launched Bocs, a new venue dedicated to exhibiting immersive and interactive work. Bocs has become a beacon for the immersive sector, presenting compelling, story driven experiences to delight and excite a new generation of audiences. David is Executive Producer for Annwn, a new prize dedicated to Immersive Storytelling and managing the producing team in Wales for Immersive Arts.
Amy Rose
Lead Curator, Undershed | Watershed, Bristol
Amy Rose is a highly acclaimed director and maker, known for creating sensory stories that experiment with new technologies. In all her work, she seeks innovative methods for creating connection with audiences - working with the body as much as speaking to the mind. In 2013, she co-founded Anagram with May Abdalla. Their work spanned many forms - including interactive installations, VR documentaries and various genre-bending artworks for festivals, museums and public space - and they won multiple international awards for their striking and profound approach to interactive storytelling. In 2022, Amy began developing the concept for an immersive gallery at Watershed in Bristol, UK. In 2024, she left Anagram to be Lead Curator of Undershed and work on the strategic development of immersive exhibition in the UK, always holding the values of artistic excellence alongside care for the process and the people in mind.
Alex Rowse
Executive Producer | Mashmallow Laser Feast
Alex Rowse is a producer of multi-disciplinary artworks, immersive theatre and innovative experiences. For over 15 years she has worked at the intersection of art, technology and public engagement, producing internationally acclaimed work with Marshmallow Laser Feast, Punchdrunk and Dreamachine. At Marshmallow Laser Feast she works strategically across business development, brand strategy and creative production.
Nicola Triscott
Director/CEO | FACT Liverpool
Nicola Triscott is a cultural leader, curator and researcher specialising in the intersections of art, science, technology and society. She is Director/CEO of FACT Liverpool, a major UK centre for digital and screen arts, internationally recognised for groundbreaking commissions and critically engaged exhibitions. Previously, Nicola was founding Director of Arts Catalyst (1994-2019), dedicated to ambitious artists’ commissions and cross-disciplinary art/science projects. From 2017-2019 she was Principal Research Fellow at the University of Westminster. As curator and scholar, Nicola examines art’s engagement with science, technology and ecology. Recent research focuses on cultural institutions’ responses to technology’s societal impacts, critical engagement with AI and genetic technologies, and digitally-enabled storytelling approaches to biopolitics and identity. She has edited books on the culture of physics, Arctic art and technology, art and space, and ecological art.
