Media Artists Gabriella Presnal and Chipo Mapondera selected for Recoding Realities Residency

The Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland is delighted to announce that Gabriella Presnal and Chipo Mapondera have been selected for the Autumn 2026 Recoding Realities Residency together with the Helsinki-based Art and Media Culture Agency M-Cult and Arebyte Digital Art Centre in London.

The residency programme is designed to help facilitate the reimagining of more equitable worlds, where humans have agency over technology and connect with and care for their environments. The programme opens questions such as: How can people’s lives be reorganised to be more sustainable? What can humans learn from alternative ways of existing? How can individuals achieve technological agency?

Gabriella Presnal is a Finnish-American multidisciplinary artist having previously lived in Sweden, Canada, Denmark, and the US. Conceptually, they draw upon philosophies surrounding spatiality and cultural memory. Their approach to media works have been influenced by nomad art described by Deleuze and Guattari’s where they apply the characteristics of spatiality to textile methods. Gabriella combines 360 video, photogrammetry, and hand drawn animation to warp flat representations to then become multidimensional planes where storytelling and memories can permeate. Previously, they have produced multiple community-based projects surrounding queer multicultural youth, sustainability, precarity, and utopias. Gabriella Presnal will participate in the Recoding Realities Residency at Arebyte in London in October 2026

Chipo Mapondera is a Zimbabwean artist and creative technologist whose practice reimagines AI and immersive technologies through Indigenous knowledge, ritual and ceremony. Working across immersive installation, film, sound and interactive media, Chipo creates embodied experiences that explore water, climate, cultural memory and alternative technological futures rooted in care, reciprocity and ancestral ways of knowing.

In Helsinki, Mapondera will continue developing KUCHEMA, a multi-country artistic research project exploring Indigenous water knowledge and alternative AI design. The residency will provide an opportunity to learn from Sámi culture and consider how Indigenous knowledge systems can inform more relational climate and technological futures. Chipo Mapondera will participate in the Recoding Realities Residency at M-Cult in Helsinki in November 2026.

About the Recoding Realities Jury

Jussi Koitela Director, M-Cult, Pita Arreola Head of Programmes, Arebyte Digital Art Centre, Sara Kärpänen Arts and Society Programme Director, Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland

About Art & Media Culture Agency M-Cult

Founded in 2000, M-Cult develops and presents art and media culture, with a focus on the social and political dimensions of media and technology. We connect artists and local communities to global concerns, operating through art commissions, residencies and learning programmes.

About Arebyte Digital Art Centre

Arebyte Digital Art Centre in London explores how technology shapes contemporary culture through exhibitions and public programmes. Founded in 2013, arebyte works with artists across emerging technologies, including AI, game engines, and virtual environments, supporting the production and presentation of critically engaged digital art. Its programme spans international exhibitions and collaborations, alongside studios, residencies, workshops, and artist development opportunities, creating a space for research, public engagement, and new ways of experiencing digital art.

About Finnish Institute in UK and Ireland

The Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland supports the internationalisation of Finnish and Finland-based artists, researchers and social actors. As the leading expert on Finnish culture and society, the Institute enables societal change through art and culture, empowering diverse perspectives and fostering a more inclusive cultural landscape for all. Founded in 1991, the Institute is a non-profit, private foundation funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.

Image: Arebyte Digital Art Centre