What happens in the life span of an image before it momentarily
appears on our screens? Upstream Image has been developed from fieldwork
and photographic documentation gathered from data centre sites across Europe.
Highlighting the growing dependency of digital image production on hyperscale
data centre infrastructure, Upstream Image invites an engagement with the
digital image as directly connected to the geopolitics of energy and finite
material resources. In using 3D modelling and real-time computer simulation
Dolan re-renders these locations, engaging with the hidden sites of production and
material cost of digital images.
For Gallery North, Upstream Image will be expanded as an immersive installation that experiments with the potential of re-purposing excess computer heat to germinate plants. Through reconfiguring and amplifying the direct and indirect functions of image making technology, Dolan both recognises the environmental footprint that underpins the technology and proposes new ecological solutions for the re-application of these capacities.
Paul Dolan is an artist
living in Newcastle Upon Tyne. He is an Assistant Professor in Animation at
Northumbria University and a member of the Cultural Negotiation of Science (CNoS) research group.
A panel discussion between Paul Dolan and Pete Howson, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science will take place in Gallery North on Tuesday 18th October 1-2pm, expanding on the geopolitical context and interdisciplinary research methods used in the production of the work.
Upstream Image is the second exhibition in Gallery North’s Autumn season of exhibitions curated around the theme of Constructions.
Gallery open:
Thursdays and Fridays 12 – 4, Saturday 10 – 2 and by appointment.
Contact: Matthew.j.hearn@northumbria.ac.uk
Page last updated 11/12/25
