The Ring: Conversation through Projection

Abstract

The Ring emerged as an online art collective during the 2020 pandemic, formed by four artists—Katerina Athanasopoulou (UK), Robert Seidel (Germany), Brett Phares (USA), and Ian Gouldstone (UK)—forging connections in an isolating time. All working with the animated moving image, their practices span fine art, practice-research, festival directing, computer simulation, and curation. This diversity of perspectives shaped the collective’s experimental approach into expanded animation. Meeting fortnightly on Skype, members shared and discussed their work, fostering a supportive yet critically engaged environment.

 A core aspect of The Ring’s practice involved disrupting traditional screen-based engagement. Between meetings, members submitted moving image work to each other, which was then projected onto unconventional surfaces. These interventional exchanges were not merely acts of display but became integral to the artistic process, reframing animation as a site-specific and materially embedded experience. By removing moving images from their default flat-screen digital context and placing them within new spatial and physical environments—The Ring sought to challenge habitual viewing practices and reveal latent qualities in the moving image work that might otherwise go unnoticed. The projections were documented and formed the ground for further in-group discussion; several works were further developed and exhibited in public events, including Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach, Florida (2021), LUMA projection arts festival in Binghamton, New York (2021), and Phantom Horizons at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2023).

This approach speaks to larger conversations about audience engagement with screen-based media. While the default mode of screen consumption often positions the viewer as a passive observer, the collective’s projections activated space in ways that demanded new forms of attention. The re-staging of the animation in unexpected settings recontextualised the work and created hybrid encounters between the moving image and real-world materiality. In doing so, The Ring experimented with new forms of collective and individual engagement—bringing together installation, performance, and animation. Equally, it posed fresh questions on ephemerality, documentation, and virtuality as ‘the unexpected version of reality, the horizon of possible projection’ (Silberman-Keller 2009: 184).

 This paper takes the form of a conversation between the four founding artists that took place in February 2025. Through persisting with its dialogic process, The Ring is situated within broader debates on the transformation of screen-based experiences, hybridity in contemporary moving image practices, and the ongoing redefinition of audience engagement in an era of evolving screen technologies. With artistic collaboration as a catalyst for transforming limitations into opportunities for innovation, the collective reimagines the screen and the ways we interact with it.