KMA is a collaboration between UK media artists Kit Monkman and Tom Wexler. Their work is primarily focussed on illuminating, encouraging, and developing, interactions between people in public spaces using digitally-controlled projections.
Uniquely in the history of creative urban lighting, KMA choose to prioritise the illumination of people and their relationships over the lighting of buildings and edifices. Rejecting the historical notion of the citizen as a passive spectator, KMA’s work celebrates the dynamics of human movement rather than the facets of historic buildings.
Kit and Tom have also collaborated with other prominent artists on a wide range of projects in theatre, tv, film and academia.
These massive engagements in social play generate diverse audiences, free from social barriers. The participants take ownership of the work and the environment in which it is staged, creating a sense of event that in itself informs and illuminates the public space.
Whilst KMA’s work has dramatically transformed famous iconic spaces, such as London’s Trafalgar Square, it has proved equally successful in more intimate environments, for example the Renaissance Courtyard of the Palazzo Spada in Terni, Umbria. Through a diverse range of commissions, including those from the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Royal Opera House, and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, KMA’s work has consistently received extensive national and international press attention.
KMA’s most recent work Congregation was nominated for a Northern Art Prize and a Prix Ars Electronica and was chosen to represent the UK on National Day at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.
As a direct result of KMA’s unique experience within the public-performance realm, Kit and Tom have also collaborated with other prominent artists on a wide range of projects in theatre, film and academia. Recent work includes interactive video for Prince’s 2011 Welcome2America Tour, video art for DV8′s To Be Straight with You, video design for Paolo Nutini (2011), the opening sequence for The 2007 Bollywood Oscars, video design for Darshan Singh Bhuller’s Find Me Amongst the Black and his ground-breaking Eng-er-land, and ongoing performance research projects with the University of Leeds.
We don’t have a mailing list as such, but if you’d like to keep up to date with KMA’s work, please join our facebook group or follow us on Twitter
Videos of recent works are available here