Emelye Barlow - BA (Hons) Fine Art
My practice explores the emotional and aesthetic impact of digital life, focusing on the blurred boundaries between the virtual and physical. Through video, sound, and immersive installation, I examine how online experiences—shaped by social media, technological absurdity, and globalised trauma—are absorbed and reflected through the body, particularly in dance. I use editing as a central expressive tool, treating it as a form of digital archaeology: unearthing, reassembling, and rhythmically cutting found footage to echo the overload and repetition of internet culture.
Drawing from early YouTube archives and contemporary TikTok trends, I contrast the raw, participatory messiness of the early internet with today’s polished, performative content. Dance becomes a universal motif in my work—a site of both collective joy and homogenised expression across global platforms. My installations use sound, repetition, and spatial design to shift viewers from passive spectators to embodied participants, echoing the tension between interaction and observation that defines online life.
Alongside my art practice, I’ve developed skills in coding, projection mapping, and spatial planning, allowing for increasingly complex and immersive AV environments. I’m interested in how technological tools can deepen artistic expression and continue to explore the intersection of art and software. My work aims to hold space for reflection within the digital chaos—to reveal moments of connection, absurdity, and loss in the rhythms of our shared online existence.
