Shane Finan and Jack Collum
Studio Artists 2026—2027
March 2026 — March 2027
Studio artist Shane Finan will present CPR at Beta Festival 2026. The festival explores how technology is reshaping how we sense, perceive and understand the world around us. Bringing together artists working across installation, performance, sound, games and digital media, the programme asks what happens when we de-centre the human perspective and begin to consider the intelligence of landscapes, plants, animals and machines.
CPR
CPR (2026) is an interactive installation about the Continuous Plankton Recorder, a device invented in 1925 on board the RRS Discovery by artist-scientist Sir Alister Hardy. The artwork tells a combined story of the history of the device and its continued use in plankton data monitoring today.
CPR is an artistic-research station, featuring an interactive installation with a seven-part poem with accompanying video, glass bottles with ocean debris, and a cone modelled off the CPR.
CPR will be exhibited at The Digital Hub in Dublin from 6-22 November 2026 and will tour with other related artworks to Italy, Austria, and Ireland in 2027. The SEED project is funded by a Research Ireland COALESCE Strand 2A grant. It is led by Dr. Trish Morgan from DCU’s School of Communications as Principal Investigator, along with Dr. Shirley Coyle from DCU’s School of Electronic Engineering as co-PI.
Beta
Beta is a platform for art, technology and society. Founded by Aisling Murray and The Digital Hub, Beta was established to create new ways for artists, researchers and audiences to engage with emerging technologies through creativity, debate and experimentation.
Since launching in 2023, Beta has grown from an annual festival into a year-round ecosystem supporting artistic development, public engagement and critical dialogue. Today, Beta works across exhibitions, performances, residencies, research programmes, public events, artist development initiatives and international collaborations.
