Introducing our Studio Light Moves – Open Futures curators: Laura Murphy and Jürgen Simpson.
Laura Murphy is an award winning choreographer and dance artist based in Ireland. Rooted in the female experience, her work expresses emotional, physiological and existential experiences in contemplative, intellectual dance. With her trademark all female casts, her work has been described as gentle and eccentric. Laura has developed a multi-disciplinary dance practice, working in collaboration with artists from other arts disciplines. She works in stage performance, film, installation and large scale, socially engaged projects. Laura’s recent screen work This Is It | 8 dance portraits premiered at Dublin Dance Festival in May 2024, and has since been shown at Triskel Arts Centre for Cork Midsummer Festival, Mermaid Arts Centre, Wicklow and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen.
Jürgen Simpson has been exploring sound and live electronic music since the mid-1990’s, working across diverse areas that include dance, film and opera. He has written extensively for film including six works with director Clare Langan (including Metamorphosis which received the principal award at the 2007 Oberhausen Film Festival) and seven screendance works with director Mary Wycherley, including the feature length film In The Bell’s Shadow (2015) with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. His opera Thwaite received the Genesis Opera Prize in 2004 and his third opera Air India [redacted] premiered in Vancouver in 2015 with Turning Point Ensemble. He was accordionist with Irish rock band The Jimmy Cake and produced and recorded their highly acclaimed third album Spectre and Crown. His works for gallery include Within You, Without You with architects O’Donnell & Tuomey and digital artist Nicholas Ward for the 2008 Venice Architectural Biennale, and Quartet for Four Parallel Planes for New Music Dublin 2019. He is the director of the Digital Media and Arts Research Centre at the University of Limerick and co-founded Light Moves Festival Limerick in 2014.
