Artist Sahjan Kooner has been appointed to a first-of-its kind, part-time, six month residency, embedded between The Raspberry Pi Foundation and Wysing Arts Centre.

Drawing on ancestral and migratory knowledge to speculate about the future, Kooner’s practice combines social gathering, technology and imagination to create dialogues across different places, times and people. Their work unfolds through film, sculpture, installation and video games using materials including clay, essential oils, 3D imaging, and neural networks. Projects are frequently created with others from technologists and bioscientists, to other artists, school children and even their mum.

From February 2025, the artist will be embedded within the two organisations. The partnership will provide Kooner with the opportunity to experiment with new approaches, materials and technologies without the expectation of developing new work and with the freedom to push boundaries. During the residency Kooner will also have the opportunity to work directly with young people already engaged with both organisations.

Selected from 200 applicants via an open call and following a highly competitive round of interviews, the residency continues Wysing Arts Centre’s mission to provide meaningful opportunities, new structures and improved remuneration for artists. In 2021 the organisation launched the Donna Lynas Residency, a three year, £16k per year residency programme awarded to Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom and supported by Wysing Arts Centre, South London Gallery, Modern Art Oxford and Somerset House in memory of Wysing’s influential former Director Donna Lynas. Through this new partnership with Raspberry Pi Foundation, Sahjan Kooner will receive a fee of £13,260 for the part-time six month residency, as well as additional budget for research, production, travel and public engagement, as needed.  

This opportunity emerged through Create Cambridge: a new Cultural Compact for the Cambridge City Region.  

Sahjan Kooner says: “This residency provides an extraordinary opportunity to evolve my work through a focused development period and by engaging young people with technology, cultural histories and futures.”  

Rosie Cooper, Director, Wysing Arts Centre, says: “I’m so excited to be working with Sahjan and the brilliant team at the Raspberry Pi Foundation on this residency, which I am convinced will provide learning and growth for all of us. Sahjan’s deeply imaginative approach, and commitment to youth voice, made them the perfect candidate and I can’t wait to get started.” 

Phillip Colligan, Director, Raspberry Pi Foundation, says: "I am absolutely delighted that the Raspberry Pi Foundation will be supporting Sahjan Kooner as the inaugural Artist in Residence in our new partnership with the Wysing Arts Centre. We are all trying to make sense of a world that is being transformed through increasingly powerful technologies and we believe that art is a uniquely powerful way to engage young people in these questions. We are all excited to work with Sahjan in this next phase of creative exploration."  

Sahjan Kooner: 
sahjankooner.com

Sahjan Kooner lives and works in the Midlands, UK. Selected projects include dankEconogy1_ALIENVillage, Kunsthal Gent, Gent; Incidental Artists, Doings, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (both 2024) and HONEY + danknessarchive, UP Projects, London (2023).

They are currently part of Syllabus VII, a collaboratively produced alternative learning programme convened by Wysing Arts Centre, Eastside Projects, New Art Exchange, PS2, Spike Island and Studio Voltaire.   

Wysing Arts Centre  
wysingartscentre.org

Wysing Arts Centre is based in rural Cambridgeshire, UK, ten miles from central Cambridge. Set across 11 acres and comprising studios, accommodation, fields, a woodland, ceramics and recording facilities, Wysing supports artists through an internationally-facing programme of residencies and commissions, engaging publics of all ages through workshops, learning, events, online activity and gatherings. Wysing supports artists at critical moments in their careers, and who often do not receive support and opportunity elsewhere.

Wysing's vision is to cultivate the freewheeling imagination; it supports ideas and practices that shape the world. 

The Raspberry Pi Foundation   
raspberrypi.org
 
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a global nonprofit with the mission to enable young people to realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies. We achieve this through supporting schools to introduce computing and computer science, inspiring millions of young people to create with technology through non-formal learning experiences, and undertaking original research into the teaching and learning of computing and how to create with technology.   

Create Cambridge 

Create Cambridge was initiated by a group of cultural organisations based in and around the city along with Cambridge’s Universities. It is a voluntary collaboration between individuals and organisations committed to supporting the development of a thriving cultural sector in the Cambridge City Region. 

Organisations involved include Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge City Council, Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination, Cambridge Junction, Collusion, the University of Cambridge, the Fitzwilliam Museum, King’s College, Raspberry Pi Foundation, and Wysing Arts Centre.