Stefan’s five year-residency pays off as art project lands international award

A University of Northampton academic is celebrating after his art project, which was five years in the making, won a prestigious international award.

Stefan Gant’s piece, Phygital Palimpest, has received the People’s Choice Award at the Lumen Prize – a competition which celebrates very best art created with technology.

The work – pictured above – created by the Senior Lecturer in Drawing & Digital Practice, translates field archaeologists’ trowelling actions in a trench from conventional drawing studies into a highly complex digital drawing, informed through digital spatial archaeology.

The artwork was created through a residency with the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, at an iron age excavation site at Moel y Gaer, North Wales, between 2013 and 2018.

Stefan said: “It is an incredible honour to receive this award through a global public vote. It’s simply overwhelming and my thanks in the first instance go to all those who voted for the work.”

The work was first exhibited in Rhych (2018), at Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw, in collaboration with artist Simon Callery and Professor Gary Lock, University of Oxford. The work is currently exhibited at the Director’s Showcase, The Lumen Prize, Cello Factory, London, with a new residency at Blenheim Palace, between 2019 and 2023, extending the practice.