Julian Priest is an interdisciplinary artist and academic currently living and working in Denmark. He works with participatory and technological forms exploring themes including infrastructures, time, energy, security, gravity, environment, networks, space and the sea. His early work was with community free wireless networks, open radio spectrum and network politics. Later works have focussed on remote environments including an orbital satellite artwork, The Weight of Information (2011-2019), Sink (2013) a work about ocean acidification and Atlantic Blue (2022) about the colour of the oceans. He is currently working with satellites at Aarhus University and IT University of Copenhagen with the Danish Student Cubesat project (DISCO).
During the residency Julian will be part of the Ohanda.One team which is a speculative design project for an ocean going sustainable passenger transport. During the residency they will be discussing aspects of the vessel design, planning their next prototype and most importantly imagining Ohanda.One in the setting of a real voyage on board Godzilla.
“I have had a long relationship with the sea from early childhood in england, sailing in many different places and types of vessel, living on boats and even working on commercial ships. I don’t like to live to far from the sea and currently I’m based in Copengahen and Gilleleje on the North tip of Sjaelland by the Kattegat. I’ve sailed to quite a few of the Danish islands, up the coast to the Gothenberg archipeligo and even throuh Limfjord, out into the Vesterhav (the North Sea) and beyond to the Atlantic. I always think that maritime countries like those around the Baltic only really make sense from the sea. The placement and relationship of the cities has grown up over centuries based on the sea routes and navigability of the waters. The old networks of trade and communication become obvious again when seen from the deck of a boat.”