Projects per year
Personal profile
Research Interests
Sculpture, installation, participative practices, immersive technologies, studio-led research methodologies, artists’ writing, destruction art, experiences and perceptions of breaking. the fragment, risk in making artwork and extreme sports, the experience of injury/illness, violence and gender, destruction of the environment, trees, relationship of self and environment (SelfScapes), and immersive technologies for health and wellbeing.
Biography
Jo is Assistant Professor in Fine Art teaching on the BA (Hons) Fine Art course and an ASPiRE research fellow affiliated with the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities (CAMC).
Jo is an artist working across a range of media including sculpture, installation, participative practices, immersive media and drawing. Her artwork and research interests are centered on how making sculpture can explore perceptions and experiences of breaking. This line of enquiry was initiated when, over the space of a year, she broke her wrist, her hand, several ribs and then her collarbone three times whilst mountain biking and when she returned to her studio to make sculpture she found she could only relate to her previous work by breaking it. This led her to explore the relationship between a broken body and an aesthetic preference for breaking. The research interests listed above all stem from here.
Jo doesn’t just break things herself but also provides opportunities for the audience to participate in breaking. Through her sculpture installations she explores audience participation as a means for viewers to reflect on their individual agency and its impact on the environment. Jo’s most recent solo exhibition was Dust at Platform A Gallery in 2023. She has published several book chapters on breaking as making, breaking as a methodology, artistic research, sculpture and an exposition for VIS journal, The Risk of Breaking, on risk-taking in art and extreme sports. Jo is one of the lead organisers of SelfScapes which explores the relationship between self and its environment and partnered with Forestry England. The aim of this research cluster is to investigate both the body and place as sites for interconnected experiences.
In 2019 Jo was commissioned to create an augmented reality app, Reciprocity Forest, for NetPark and Forestry England which launched in 2022 in app stores. The app explores trees and our relationship to them and involves the community in creating a virtual forest artwork. The app was part of a research project with METAL, the University of Kent and University of Essex, funded by EIRA. The aim was to increase our understanding of how Augmented Reality (AR) apps could be used to change the way we perceive our surroundings, encourage us to spend more time outdoors, and increase wellbeing.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Sculpture, Degree, Norwich University of the Arts
Sculpture, Doctorate, Breaking as Making: In what ways can making sculpture contribute to understanding perceptions and experiences of breaking?, University of the Arts London
Sculpture, MA, Winchester School of Art
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 1 Finished
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Reciprocity Forest Portfolio
Sperryn-Jones, J., 1 Apr 2022Research output: Practice-Based and Non-textual Research › Software
Open AccessFile1 Downloads (Pure) -
Introduction
Sperryn-Jones, J., Aug 2020, 50 Women Sculptors. London: Aurora MetroResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
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Open Access
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The Risk of Breaking
Sperryn-Jones, J., 24 Jan 2019, In: VIS – Nordic Journal for Artistic Research. 1, 3.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Flowering to silence
Sperryn-Jones, J., Jun 2018, Forestry England.Research output: Other contribution › peer-review
Open Access
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Dust - Solo exhibition Platform A Gallery
Sperryn-Jones, J. (Reviewer)
29 Jun 2023 → 10 Aug 2023Activity: Other
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Reciprocity Forest Drawings at Dalby Forest 2 (Solo exhibition)
Sperryn-Jones, J. (Reviewer)
7 Jan 2023 → 13 Feb 2023Activity: Other
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Reciprocity Forest Drawings at Chalkwell Park (solo exhibition)
Sperryn-Jones, J. (Reviewer)
1 Apr 2022 → 1 May 2022Activity: Other
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Reciprocity Forest Drawings at Dalby Forest (Solo exhibition)
Sperryn-Jones, J. (Reviewer)
26 Nov 2021 → 14 Feb 2022Activity: Other