Mary Agnes Krell

I am an artist, a Professor of Creative Media and a leader. I have worked widely in commercial and art contexts (creating interactive projects for digital media and installations) since the early 1990s. My work has been shown on multiple continents and in a wide range of contexts. Many of the projects I have been involved with have received awards and other major forms of recognition.

  • Halo Halo is my latest project. Currently in development, it is shaped by collaborative work in three countries (Japan, the USA and the UK). It explores co-creative methods in creative practice and making. Part of this work has included taking part in the Shiroishi Zao Residency in Japan.
  • Digital Ghost Hunt (A ground-breaking fusion of Augmented Reality, coding education, and immersive theatre project for which I am the Principal Investigator) was twice funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of their New Immersive Experiences scheme. In 2019 it was also featured at SXSW as part of a joint cultural mission by the British Council and the AHRC.
  • Some Assembly, a collaborative project with Palmarin Merges, was selected as one of the “top 5 gallery openings” when it premiered in Portland, OR in 2018.
  • My project Traces of Lee Miller: Echoes from St Malo, an interactive project exploring Miller’s time as a war photographer during WWII, was shown at the V&A in London and internationally alongside retrospectives of her work.
  • I have also been an associate member of Forced Entertainment as a digital author. With them, I created a number of interactive works that were exhibited around the world at venues including ZKM (in Karlsruhe, Germany) the ICA (in London) and The Art Institute of Chicago. Nightwalks, an interactive virtual reality piece I created in collaboration with the company won the Transmediale in 2000. I also performed in the inaugural tour of The Voices.

I am currently the Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor for Education in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences at Northumbria University, Newcastle. Prior to that, I was the Associate Dean for Education in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities at the University of Sussex. I am also a Strategic Reviewer for the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and I have been a board member for arts and community organisations for two decades. One of the groups I chair is in receipt of a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, “the MBE for voluntary groups”. I am also one of the core team behind the multi-award-winning GNUF.

Detail from Chorus – one of the pieces included in Some Assembly, a major collaborative project with artist Palmarin Merges.