Link Tree ART by antonyhall - July 15, 2026July 23, 20260 Instagram: @tonazoid Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antony-hall/ Substack: https://substack.com/@antonyhallart Cryptogamic Oracle 2026: An urban eco-technological oracle for noticing moss, infrastructure and more-than-human life:Cryptogamic Oracle Moss WorldsMossWorlds is an interdisciplinary project based at the University of Manchester, which investigates the historical, contemporary and future importance of mosses in the Greater Manchester area. https://mossworlds.co.uk Dorkbot #10 (event details TBC) http://dorkbotmcr.org
Cryptogamic Oracle ART Events / News Research Work in progress Workshops by antonyhall - June 13, 2026June 13, 20260 Very pleased to finally launch Cryptogamic Oracle, a new project emerging from my exploration of ponds, non-human computing systems, and urban moss ecologies. Building on my moss walk workshops, the project expands into more eco-technological territory through the use of an app for reflection, image-making, and slow observation. The app invites participants to notice overlooked urban ecologies and explore new ways of reading the city through cryptogamic life. Find out more here: Cryptogamic Oracle... Card example Card example composite image Upload screen Card gallery Reading phase
Oracles and AI ART Notes and writing by antonyhall - June 13, 2026June 13, 20260 A reflection on AI and oracular practices in relation to the Cryptogamic Oaracle Project.The Cryptogamic Oracle draws on recent work that frames AI and algorithmic systems as oracle-like interfaces: tools that produce signs, prompts and patterns, rather than fixed truths. St. Lawrence describes technomancy as a form of algorithmic divination, where platforms become part of how signs and meanings are produced (St. Lawrence, 2024). Prock et al. frame AI-assisted tarot as a practice of resonance, randomness and negotiated meaning (Prock et al., 2026), while Schroeder et al. describe AI as a hermeneutic technology, where meaning emerges through interpretation rather than machine authority (Schroeder et al., 2025). For me, this positions the oracle as a reflective form: not something that predicts,
Cryptogamic card deck (updated 11 June 2026) ART Notes and writing Research by antonyhall - June 11, 2026June 15, 20260 These cardes are embeded in a data base within the cryptogamic oracle app - cureerntly there are 72. They are a work in progress. New cards are addedd removed as the project develops....In the app each user generated reading binds a new image to the cards and the full deck of cards with images can be seen in the app. Back to Cryptogamic oracle page here.. Up load screen Up load screen Reading phase Card gallery Card example Cryptogamic life The Spore Descriptor: Potential carried beyond its point of origin. Tags: dispersal, emergence, propagation Notice: What small sign of possible growth first drew your attention in this image? Relation: How might this site carry life, matter or influence beyond its immediate surface? Unresolved: What future condition is suggested here but not yet
Entangled Light (Helen McGhie+Antony Hall) ART by antonyhall - June 6, 2026August 20, 20260 Entangled Light: Soil, Photography and the Garden as Studio by Helen McGhie and Antony Hall Entangled Light is a collaborative project with Helen McGhie, developed at the garden at Islington Mill, Salford. I am working as co-investigator, bringing my ongoing experiments with soil-powered and moss-based microbial fuel cells into the project (more information here). The work asks how a garden might become a more-than-human studio, where soil, microbes, plants, light, energy and people all take part in making an image. My contribution focuses on building small microbial batteries using soil gathered from Islington Mill and Incredible Edible Salford’s community garden, alongside found and low-cost materials. These soil-powered cells generate tiny amounts of electricity through the activity of microbes. When connected together, they can
CRYPTOGAMIC ORACLE v1 ART Research Work in progress by antonyhall - December 13, 2025June 13, 20260 App development using Base44 - output image composites from version 1 See Crptogamic oracle 2026
The Cave ART Research Work in progress by antonyhall - November 18, 2025December 11, 20250 Plato’s Allegory of the Cave offers a metaphor for the limits of human perception. Plato describes a group of prisoners in a cave who know the outside world only through shadows projected on a wall in front of them. Similarly, LLMs don't learn about the world from direct experience, but from “shadows” in its training data: billions of sentences written by people, describing things, events, and our conversations about them. It is trained to predict the next word in those texts, not to build an accurate picture of reality. Jan Kulveit suggested that an LLM is like a ‘blind oracle in yet another cave, who only hears the prisoners conversations about what they see. I thought It would be interesting to simulate a version
Moss worlds ART Events / News by antonyhall - November 13, 2025November 13, 20250 MossWorlds: The Exhibition is now on! National Trust Castlefield Viaduct 22 Oct 2025 – 1 Feb 2026 Step into the lush, layered world of moss a quiet hero of Manchester’s past, present, and future. Through immersive art, music, poetry, and hands-on activities, MossWorlds re-stories moss as more than a plant: it’s resilience, intelligence, and wonder. From lowland bogs to railway embankments, community parks to viaduct gardens, moss has always been part of Manchester’s evolution See more info on exhibition here See more about the project here: https://mossworlds.co.uk/
Remember Nature 2025 (with Yu-Chen Wang) ART Events / News Work in progress by antonyhall - November 4, 2025November 4, 20250 I am taking part in Remember Nature 2025 Here is the information...I will be at hulme GHarden centre making Microprotests (see generator above built in p5js click to re-generate).... A Nationwide Day of Artist‑led Action to Stand Up for Nature NATURE REMEMBERED Communal Walk: 4 November 2025 (12.30–3pm)Meet at Manchester Art Gallery, Derek Jarman Pocket Park, M2 3JL.Tickets (Free) Gathering: 4 November 2025 (3–5pm)Hulme Community Garden Centre, M15 5RG.Tickets (Free)In 2015 artist Gustav Metzger called on art schools and students of all disciplines to “Remember Nature” and “make a stand against the ongoing erasure of species”. Tuesday 4 November 2025 marks a decade since that call, and partners across England are coming together, bringing ethics into aesthetics, for Remember Nature 2025. You can find out more about
Cryptogamic oracle v1 ART by antonyhall - November 4, 2025June 10, 20260 Cryptogamic Oracle is a practice-based research project exploring how walking, photography and app-based image compositing can support more-than-human attention in urban space. Developed through moss walks and ecological workshops, the project invites participants to notice cryptogamic life, mosses, lichens, algae and ferns, in relation to the technological and infrastructural systems that shape the city. Rather than treating moss as a sign of nature within the urban environment, the project approaches cryptogams as indicators of dampness, shade, leakage, repair, neglect, maintenance and material design. The app functions as an urban probe, asking participants to photograph organisms, surfaces and infrastructures before recomposing these images through an oracle-like interface. These readings do not provide answers, but generate prompts for reflection, relation and uncertainty.
Micro protest workshop ART Events / News Research Workshops by antonyhall - September 3, 2025September 11, 20250 The Micro-Protest Workshop explores the power of gentle protest through small, situated acts of resistance. Participants use a process of ‘diffractive mapping’* to co-create protest signs and slogans that draw on perspectives from ecology, art, and activism. Rather than large-scale statements, these micro-signs give voice to overlooked or more-than-human worlds, transforming protest into an exercise in empathetic imagination. Drawing on Corbett’s idea of gentle protest (Corbett, 2017) and the Situationist practice of détournement (Debord & Wolman, 1956), the workshop uses humour, play, and re-appropriation to show how media objects, even modest ones can disrupt dominant narratives and open space for critical reflection.
Moss workshop ART Workshops by antonyhall - September 1, 2025June 13, 20260 The Moss workshop explores the overlooked ecologies of the city. Equipped with ecological ‘probe kits’, participants move slowly through the city exploring damp walls, gutters, and cracks, using microscopes and cameras to encounter mosses and other life forms, usually hidden from view. The process of looking closely and documenting these organisms invites reflection on the more-than-human world and the ways in which our tools; lenses, photographs, notes enhance our perceptions and mediate what we see and value. By shifting attention from fast, screen-based media to the intimate scale of moss, the workshop creates a space to question how visibility, evidence, and care are distributed across environments and societies. By combining hands-on ecology with reflective media practices, the moss workshop asks us to consider how slowing
Springtails under microscope ART Research Work in progress by antonyhall - August 2, 2025August 2, 20250 https://youtube.com/shorts/vO5B57RXVLM?si=xADWZH7ghxTv58Z3 Progress on generative film composition using touchdesigner. This uses a series of Caches and composite overlay (set to difference) a basic patch but the effect perfectly fits what I was looking for. Very much inspered by the work of experimental cimtograpers (Tschekassky, Smith, Brakhage etc)
Self Portrait (Film stills, Nerf) ART Research Work in progress by antonyhall - June 14, 2025June 14, 20250
Portrait: Lex ART by antonyhall - June 14, 2025June 14, 20250 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Antony Hall (@tonazoid)
Minute to Midnight – Exhibition Gallery Oldham ART Events / News Notes and writing Residency by antonyhall - June 12, 2025June 12, 20250 It’s not often I get to opportunity show my work in an actual gallery these days such is the plight of the socially engaged / process based artist, and it makes me remember how much I love the process of developing a dialogue with other artists and the space of gallery. And it is a delight to be showing along side some amazing artists. @verdant.city @adelecjordan@mishkahenner and @rebeccachesneyartist @galleryoldham A Minute to Midnight December 7 - March 1, 2025 So how does moss relate to climate change? Here are some interesting facts I put together for @sparkartistsnetwork and the forthcoming panel discussion: Moss is under threat: According to the 2023 IUCN Red List of the of moss in Britain , 19% are
States of being ART Events / News Research Work in progress by antonyhall - June 12, 2025June 18, 20250 Microphotography from inside thawing ice block. Sound from hydrophone – visual controlled with TouchDesigner.
Biokinetic Mantra for the Evocation of the Animistic Matrix ART Events / News Research Work in progress by antonyhall - June 10, 2025June 13, 20250 live performance with Maya chowdhry and Chris Gladwin. "This 30min live electronic music performance will feature organic components (mushrooms, moss, terrariums, water) being brought into contact with the ecstatic technology of dance music."I have recently returned to performing live and reawakened a part of my brain that had been dormant for a while. I'd forgotten how much I absolutely love the focus and intensity. The excitement of not knowing what's going to happen, or indeed sometimes wondering what is happening when something completely new emerges. Working with new collaborators has pushed me to explore new methods, leading to a number of fresh works in progress. Last month, I performed with Chris Gladwin and Maya Chowdhryat DVRK MASS II | Sonic Transformations: Ecosystems (organised by
Electronic Music Ensemble at Chorlton Arts FestivalElectronic Music Ensemble at ART Events / News Research Work in progress by antonyhall - June 10, 2025June 10, 20250 I performed as part of a line up from SODAs electronic music ensemble (which comprises of students, alumni and staff) at Chorlton Arts Festival, in Wilbraham St Ninian’s Church. I performed again alongside Maya Chowdhry continuing the ‘Biokinetic Mantra for the Evocation of the Animistic Matrix’ project - bringing together bioacoustics filed recording live electroaccoustics, and techno. This involved Darkling beetle larvae and rehydrating moss on hydrophones… Image: Neil Spencer Bruce SODAs electronic music ensemble 5691
Morecambe Bay walk ART Events / News Research by antonyhall - June 9, 2025June 13, 20250 Photographs and film taken during a walk with friends and artist Debbie Yarr at Morecambe Bay
Boundary detector drawing ART by antonyhall - July 6, 2024July 6, 20240 Boundary detector, drawing 2024 Drawing of Boundary detector device, developed to accompany text for forthcoming publication with Glassball studio: Follow the development of this work here... https://antonyhall.net/blog/guideline-micro-commission/
Moss identification card deck ART Events / News Workshops by antonyhall - July 6, 2024September 11, 20250 This card pack was developed for a moss walk for the Eco pedagogies Symposium 2024. The walk traced a route between the Firs Botanical Gardens and Manchester Museum. In this iteration of the moss workshop, I discussed my emerging "methodology of moss" and the role of art as a perception-changing device. To develop the card pack I photographed each species of moss I found along the route and created a card for each one, including information on the numerous biomes encountered. These cards not only aid my learning and memorisation of moss species but also include prompts, instructions, texts, and readings that will enable others to facilitate their own walking and moss workshops in the future.
MOSS IS NOT THE ENEMY ART Research Work in progress by antonyhall - November 14, 2023November 14, 20230 View this post on Instagram A post shared by GLINT (@glintproject)
Boundary detectors – mosscillator walk ART Notes and writing Research Work in progress by antonyhall - August 14, 2023November 14, 20230 A day of field work, walking and talking with @glassball.studio we walked across a segment of the Peak District national park boundary, connected our boundary detector up to a fence to create a strange radio like circuit (also connected with a bat detectors as signal transducer) we could hear strange sounds emanating from the either. Initially we discovered we could almost perfectly receive Radio 4. With some further tweaking / breaking we were able to get a multitude of voices - “Hello…Hello… “ one said as if speaking to us. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Antony Hall (@tonazoid)
SPARK#9 Moss Walk ART Events / News Workshops by antonyhall - March 14, 2023November 14, 20230 A couple weeks ago I took people on an urban moss walk for Spark#9 a monthly meeting organised by @sparkartistsnetwork @castlefieldgall . It was a short walk (only half of what I planned) mostly staring at damp walls under bridges. This particular bridge is host to an unusual (in an urban context) liverwort called Metzgeria furcate clinging onto existence in this cave like environment. Under another bridge just down the road, a more common but impressive Great Scented Liverwort - Conocephalum conicum grows in ring like formations over the walls (Liverworts are bryophytes like moss). We rounded up the walk at the recently reopened @mcrmuseum where we talked and made terrariums. It was heartening to have such a good turn out –
NOW IS THE TIME OF MOSS ART Notes and writing Work in progress by antonyhall - January 3, 2023November 14, 20230 NOW IS THE TIME OF MOSS. Found spirit bottle, pavement moss (from same site) wooden sign.
Glint- Instagram residencey ART Events / News Notes and writing Residency by antonyhall - January 3, 2023November 14, 20230 Instagram takeover October 2022
What is it that I do? ART Notes and writing by antonyhall - November 19, 2022December 14, 20220 The question, "But, what is that you actually do?" [1] was posed to me as an impressionable master's student [2] after having presented my entire portfolio of work; the question perplexed me because, at that time, my practice was still developing, and I still wasn't entirely sure what it was that I was doing. Later as an emerging professional artist discussing practice, this straightforward yet wise advice was given by a curator; 'Think of a thing that you do, and keep doing it' [3]. The thing was, even though there was clearly 'a thing that I did', having embarked on the foundational works that would inform my practice for many years to come, it took years to realise what it really was that I did. My Tabletop Experiments
DYCP – Funding 2022-23 ART Events / News Research Work in progress by antonyhall - October 14, 2022May 16, 20240 I am delighted to announce I was awarded a DYCP grant from Arts Council England to develop my creative practice, enrich networks and also undertake training. I plan to meet mentors and fellow artists for a series of creative collaborations and conversations. Here are some highlights from the project: Highlights will be posted on this page while a series of posts are listed on the following tag: https://antonyhall.net/blog/tag/ace-dycp/ View this post on Instagram Moss Walk for SPARK artists Network A post shared by Antony Hall (@tonazoid) Now is the Time of Moss 2022 - A series of 10 terrariums created from found materials
Imagine you are walking ART by antonyhall - June 24, 2022June 29, 20220 How long does it take to imagine an action? I have been thinking about motor observation and motor imaging as part of the Experience in Action project with BEAM Lab. How does imagining or observing an action affect how we later perform that action? I know that before I do anything significant I imagine it or visualise it, a mental simulation repeating over and over many times. I will plan to make something in my head, in my own personal imaginary 3-D workspace before making it. However, I have never thought about how long these things take to imagine. In the following visualisation activities - I became aware of how my thoughts cycle in loops at speed, often viewing the situation