Biography

Jen Southern is an artist and PhD student in Sociology at Lancaster University, where she is affiliated to the Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe) and mobilities lab. Her recent fieldwork has taken her out walking with ramblers groups and footpath societies, on a flight with a flying instructor, and to meet a researcher who uses GPS to track reindeer. Her art practice is collaborative, process based and participatory, working with audiences to explore movement and sense of place through mobile technologies and locative media. She works across the disciplines of participatory art, sociology and mobile application design, and has contributed to international projects and workshops funded by NESTA, BBC, Arts Council England and Sagasnet.

She has has exhibited her solo and collaborative work both in Europe and Internationally. Most recently her collaborative work with Chris Speed has been exhibited at Futuresonic Festival, Manchester and ISEA09, Belfast; and with Hamilton, Southern & St Amand at Fabrica, Brighton, UK; Hannah McClure Gallery, Dundee, Scotland; Bildmuseet, Umea, Sweden and MOCFA, San Francisco, USA.

Jen’s research is currently exploring how the use of GPS changes perceptions of sense of place, particularly in relation to embodied practices of navigation and the GPS as a device for seeing from above. Her research takes place through socially engaged art practice and speculative mobile application design.