Jeremy Knowles

Werke

Dark Sky City

Dark Sky City is an ongoing art and research project which explores the changing margins between light, sound, technology, and ecology. The aim of this investigation is to bring greater awareness to the impacts of artificial light at night upon humans and our environment, and to engage a wider audience with the issue of light pollution in general - a growing concern that demands our immediate attention. The core outcome of this project is a two-channel video and sound artwork (Sprichst du Licht?), which documents the 1-hour and 18-minute public intervention I performed in Berlin in October 2022. In the video, the camera follows my journey with an unknown sound-making device from Lichtenberg, which lies just outside the public transport ring in Berlin, to the unofficial city centre of Alexanderplatz. This concept is expanded in the form of a group workshop (the Sound Safari) in which participants discover new tools in order to reveal a hidden soundscape within the city. Both outcomes have the same intention - to prompt us to question the passivity of our sensorial experience of the urban environment at night.

Sound Safari

The Sound Safari was first held in 2022 on Martinstag - an event which is celebrated each year in Germany on 11th November, predominantly by children and their parents. Traditionally, Martinstag is observed in the acts of creating homemade paper lanterns that house tealights and then walking in procession through the neighborhood at night. Though its historical context is Catholic, Martinstag for Berliners is viewed in a largely secular way and is more often referred to as Laternenfest (Lantern Festival). It is a celebration of hope and generosity in hard times (the winter), represented by light in the darkness. It is within this context - a context in which light is accepted as a metaphor for good - that we lent our ears and eyes to the city at night in order to become more aware of the presence and effects of urban street and commercial lighting. As a group, we explored the neighborhood according to our desire to listen to, and categorize, different sources of light. We learned about the effects of light pollution on human health, biodiversity, our environment and changing climate, and our ability to view the stars.

Bats in the Belfry

‘Cities are more taxing than they seem. Psychiatric disorders and anxiety are 34% more common in urban areas, and growing up in one at least doubles the chances of developing schizophrenia. Urban living actually changes the biology of the brain.’ - Michael Bond, ‘Wayfinding’, 2020 Bats in the Belfry was a VR experience created for the 2022 program of 48 Stunden Neukölln in Berlin. During the opening times, guests visiting the courtyard at Polymedialer Ponyhof were asked to put on VR headsets, leave the city, and enter a simulation of my own private space. During the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, the spaces I occupied in Berlin contracted. My bedroom in Lichtenberg became the control centre for the most pressing concerns of my life: work, exercise, creativity, communication, free time, nutrition and, of course, sleep. It was simultaneously an office, gym, studio, cafe, cinema, bar and bedroom at any given time of the day. A city contained within a room. Sometimes I wonder how to reconnect my control centre with the Berlin it once simulated. How do we memorialize the spaces we elevated to the status of ‘city-like’ over the course of the pandemic?

Pressing Matters

Pressing Matters was a participatory street workshop and art installation featured in the 2021 program of 48 Stunden Neukölln in Berlin. The theme of the festival this year was Luft (air). Pressing Matters was realised from outside of ReTramp Gallery, on Reuterstraße, over the festival weekend in June (18th - 20th). The aim of Pressing Matters was to both re-imagine and re-contextualise a number of the lasting social impacts of the COVID-19 crisis: loss of closeness, connection, and physical touch. Over the festival weekend, participants from the community in Neukölln, and many other visitors to the festival from elsewhere, volunteered to scan parts of their bodies by pressing against a flatbed scanner outside of the gallery. The workshop was concluded after the window space of ReTramp Gallery was filled with the resulting black and white prints.

Eckdaten

https://jeremyknowles.co.uk/

Fotografie, Installation, Klangkunst, Medienkunst, Performance

Jeremy Knowles (b. 1992) is a multidisciplinary British artist, cultural worker, and photographer based in Berlin. His projects range from participatory community actions and sound installations to photography series and investigative writing.

Jeremy moved to Berlin in 2016 at a time of fraught political shifts in both the UK and Germany. In the wake of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, and against the backdrop of growing nationalism in Europe, Jeremy is motivated in his artistic practice by his intrigue as an outsider, non-citizen, or guest in the places he lives and visits. He explores questions of belonging and civic participation, often embarking on in-depth, research-driven enquiries.

Vita

/Education
2022 - (Current) - M.A. Raumstrategien, Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin, DE
2012 - 2015 - B.A. Photography, Camberwell College of Arts (UAL), UK
2010 - 2011 - Foundation Diploma, Art & Design, Oaklands College of Art, UK

/Exhibitions, Actions
2026 Oct - Wavematters - TAT, Tieranatomisches Theater, Berlin
2026 May - Nachhall 8./9. Mai - Museum Berlin-Karlshorst, Berlin
2025 May - Nachhall 8. Mai - (Public Space) Rudolph-Jungck Park, Berlin
2025 Jan - Räumen - HBK Braunschweig, Braunschweig
2024 Nov - and let no one be forgotten! - (Public Space) Karlshorst, Berlin
2024 Aug - Kiosk of Memory - GISELA Freier Kunstraum Lichtenberg, Berlin
2024 Jul - Mending the Void - Weißensee Kunsthochschule, Berlin
2024 Jul - Friction - Floating University, Berlin
2024 Feb - Radiant Opacity - Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Berlin
2023 Sep - Common Futures - Casa Zemstvei, Chişinău
2023 Sep - Open the Night - (Public Space) S+U Bahnhof Lichtenberg, Berlin
2023 Jul - Ongoing Strategies - Weißensee Kunsthochschule, Berlin
2023 Jul - Xposures - Kulturhaus Schwartzsche Villa, Berlin
2023 May - Settling Scores - (Public Space) Lichtenberg, Berlin
2023 Apr - Future Proof - Dot Gallery, Berlin
2022 Nov - Listening In - (Public Space) Friedrichshain, Berlin
2022 Oct - Sprichst du Licht? - (Public Space), Berlin
2022 Mar - Sensing the City - Zwitschermaschine, Berlin
2021 Sep - Wiedersehen - DISKURS Gallery, Berlin
2021 Jul - Obsessions - Tête Gallery, Berlin
2021 Jul - Routes - Scalo Lambrate, Milan
2021 Jul - Kreuzungen - LiTE-HAUS Galerie, Berlin
2021 May - YOU ARE HERE - DISKURS Gallery, Berlin
2020 Dec - Action on Hold - Green Hill Gallery, Berlin
2020 Dec - Novel (s) of Places - Rozenau Gallery, Kaliningrad
2020 Nov - Neukölln Stories - LiTE-HAUS Galerie, Berlin
2019 Oct - Blind Date - Fotogalerie Friedrichshain, Berlin
2019 Aug - Public, Private & In Between - Green Hill Gallery, Berlin
2019 Jul - Summer Mood - GRRL Haus Cinema, Berlin
2019 Apr - Anxiety & Minimalism - Liebig12, Berlin
2019 Mar - Stop, Look, Listen, Feel - Affordable Art Fair, London
2017 Nov - Unexpected - Hoxton Arches, London
2015 Jun - Degree Show - Camberwell College of Arts, London
2015 Mar - Art Academy Summer Exhibition - Today Art Museum, Beijing
2014 Oct - New State - Peckham Liberal Club, London
2014 Mar - UNIT - Cafe Gallery & Dilston Grove, London

/Residencies, Group Projects
2025 Oct - ONSITE Residency
2024 Mar - Co-Making Matters, Haus der Statistik, Berlin
2024 Jan - Overtoon, Brussels
2023 Oct - Endarken Design Lab - Floating University, Berlin
2023 Sep - Re-Routing Walking Weekend Residency, Berlin
2023 May - AudioLab: Common Futures, Berlin, Chișinău
2023 May - Lichtenberg Studios Residency, Berlin
2023 May - Hidden Statement - Kunstverein Wiesbaden
2021 Mar - Das Haus Project, Online
2020 Nov - In/Between #5 - Green Hill Gallery, Berlin
2020 Apr - Neukölln Stories - nomadicArt, Berlin
2019 Jun - In/Between #4 - Green Hill Gallery, Berlin

/Fairs, Festivals, Symposiums
2025 Nov - ONSITE Festival, Berlin
2025 Jun - Miss Read Independent Publishers Book Fair, HKW, Berlin
2024 Jul - Swamposium, Floating University, Berlin
2023 Dec - Noorderlicht Photo Festival, Groningen
2023 Aug - Lange Nacht der Bilder, Berlin
2023 Jun - 48 Stunden Neukölln, Berlin
2023 Apr - Lichtenberg Kunstmeile, Berlin
2022 Jun - 48 Stunden Neukölln, Berlin
2021 Jun - 48 Stunden Neukölln, Berlin
2020 Dec - Raum Space Festival, Kaliningrad
2020 Nov - Photo Kyiv, Kyiv
2020 Jun - ReA! Emerging Artist’s Fair, Milan
2019 Nov - Independent Photo Fair, Berlin
2015 Oct - Kiosk Book Fair, London

/Awards, Funding
2026 - Bezirkskulturfonds Lichtenberg (Nachhall 8./9. Mai)
2025 - SWS Awards, Honourable Mention (alnobf!)
2025 - Kulturprojekte Berlin (Nachhall 8. Mai)
2024 - DAAD STIBET Abschluss Stipendium
2024 - Bezirkskulturfonds Lichtenberg (alnobf!)
2023 - Draussenstadt - Call for Action (Open the Night)
2023 - Projektförderung 48 Stunden Neukölln (Aktuelle Reality)
2022 - Stiftung Kunstfonds, Neustart Kultur (Dark Sky City)
2020 - ReA! Art Prize, Winner (8am Walks)
2020 - Verzasca Foto Award, Shortlist (8am Walks)
2019 - Signature Art Prize, Shortlist (8am Walks)
2018 - BLOOOM Award, Shortlist (8am Walks)

/Publications
2026 - Building Spaces - EYESORE Magazine
2025 - Global Fascisms - HKW & Archive Books
2025 - Governing Görli Lightly - Urban Matters Journal
2025 - Nachhall 8. Mai - Self-Published
2024 - Blackout - Neuwerk Magazine
2023 - Re:imagine Your City - Shift Books
2023 - Outline - Self-Published
2022 - Freiheit und Widerspruch - URANIA Magazin
2020 - Fresh Eyes - GUP Magazine

/Lectures, Workshops
2025 Jul - Outside/IN - YouthLink (Coopera e.V), Berlin
2025 Jan - Dig Where You Stand - Warwickshire College, Online
2025 Jan - Listening In - Institute of European Ethnology, Berlin
2024 Jun - Open the Night - Kiezlabor (CityLab Berlin), Berlin
2023 Jun - Aktuelle Reality (AR) - Officina Neukölln, Berlin
2023 May - UrbanEyez - Dot Gallery, Berlin
2022 Nov - Listening In - Institute of European Ethnology, Berlin
2020 Oct - Common Ground - Georg-Weerth-Schule, Berlin
2019 Jun - Trea S c Ur lpture Hunt - Flash Palace, Berlin