About
I build spatial installations and live audiovisual performances. Working with light, generative image, sound and real-time systems, I make spaces designed to be felt physically in the room rather than built for a phone camera.
A lot of this comes back to walking through Richard Serra's giant curved steel sculptures years ago, when the walls leaned in and my balance completely went. That involuntary, physical reaction to space stayed with me. I chase that same presence in my own work: the flow state where your perceptions tune in, the room takes over, and nothing else outside matters. Depending on the piece, that can mean quiet focus, awe or physical unease.
That search runs through three threads in my work. Some pieces wire the space directly to the body, using breath sensors, brainwaves, motion capture or live voice to drive the room. Others use architectural light, lasers and 360-degree domes to shift how a space holds you. Recently, I have started taking the practice outdoors, tracking the Atlantic tide and capturing fragments of extreme landscapes from the Atlas Mountains to the Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram.
I work both solo and alongside vocalists, musicians, choreographers and researchers. Projects have been shown at MUTEK Montréal, the Société des arts technologiques (SAT), SXSW London, Seoul Light Hangang and the Athens Digital Arts Festival, and featured by the UN's AI for Good programme.
Born in the UK and shaped in the south of France, I now live and work in Bristol, where I also co-founded and direct studio rapt.
Portrait: stand-in, file to confirm
Selected works
2026 The Ninth Wave, Drop Everything, Inis Oírr. With Kev Freeney
2025 Rapid Eye Movement, MUTEK Montréal, SAT. With Harry Yeff
2025 Resonance, CULTVR Lab, Cardiff
2025 Echo, SXSW London
2023 Altar, Seoul Light Hangang
2023 Decypher, Glastonbury, Arch 444 and The Cause, London
2022 Changing Pace, The Beams, London. With LUCEO
2022 Rain, Fulldome UK, Plymouth. Shown again as Flow at Athens Digital Arts Festival, 2025
2020 Quasar, House of Vans London. With L.E.G
2018 Capsule*4, House of Vans London. With L.E.G
Performances
2025 Rapid Eye Movement, MUTEK Montréal
2024 Live visual performance, Monument Festival, Norway
2024 Walking the Knife Edge (Resonance), Fulldome UK, Cardiff
2021 Rapid Eye Movement preview, Fulldome UK, Plymouth
2019 Corps en Immersion, Constellations de Metz
2018 Closing performance with Reeps One, World Economic Forum, Tianjin
Talks
2025 Masterclass with YeffYeff, MUTEK Forum
2025 AIxVOICE panel, MUTEK Forum
2019 Arts and technology, Constellations de Metz
2019 Round table with Marc Sciamanna and Olivier Ratsi, BLIIIDA, Metz
Residencies and support
2026 Macon Film Festival, official selection
2026 MIFF Fulldome Showcase, Melbourne Planetarium
2025 Catalyst 360º residency, CULTVR Lab, Cardiff, with support from the Arts Council of Wales
2025 AI for Good Artistic Intelligence Visionary Initiative, ITU, featured artist
2025 SAT Montréal, Satosphère residency and co-production
2020 Music Tech Fest, Berlin
2019 Factory Berlin
Press
2026 District Magazine, The Ninth Wave
2025 AI for Good / ITU, Entangled with technology, interview
2024 A.I.V.I. S2 Ep4, 5 questions with Bertie Sampson
Press kit
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One line
Bertie Sampson builds spatial installations and live audiovisual performances with light, generative image and real-time systems.
Short bio
Bertie Sampson builds spatial installations and live audiovisual performances using light, generative image, sound and real-time systems. Designed for physical presence in the room, his work spans responsive environments driven by breath, brainwaves and live voice; architectural light, laser and 360-degree dome works; and field research captured from the Atlantic coast to the Atlas Mountains and the Baltoro Glacier. His work has shown at MUTEK Montréal, SAT, SXSW London, Seoul Light Hangang and the Athens Digital Arts Festival. Based in Bristol, he co-founded and directs studio rapt.
Full biography
Bertie Sampson is an artist building spatial installations and live audiovisual performances with light, generative image, sound and real-time systems. Across dark-room environments and outdoor sites, his work is designed to provoke an immediate physical response in the room rather than serve as a backdrop for cameras, pulling audiences into a state of narrow, heightened focus.
His practice approaches spatial perception from three interconnected angles: wiring environments to the human body, reshaping architectural space with light and scale, and capturing raw data from the natural world. In his live and sensor-driven works, the body acts as the instrument. Working both solo and alongside vocalists, musicians, choreographers and researchers, he has built rooms at SXSW London where a visitor's breath pulls live global weather data, EEG-driven dome performances where brainwaves steer sound and image, motion-capture dance works, and 360-degree vocal and dream performances at MUTEK Montréal and the Société des arts technologiques (SAT).
In his architectural works, Sampson uses high-powered light, lasers and immersive projection to alter balance and spatial awareness, from sixteen-laser structures over the Han River for Seoul Light Hangang (later featured by the UN's ITU AI for Good programme) to warehouse-scale light installations at The Beams and Glastonbury, and fulldome works at the Athens Digital Arts Festival. Recently, his research has moved outdoors, holding a single laser line against the six-hour Atlantic tide on Inis Oírr and capturing Gaussian splats and field recordings in the Atlas Mountains and on the Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram.
Born in the UK and shaped in the south of France, Sampson lives and works in Bristol, where he is also co-founder and creative director of studio rapt (formerly immersive-me).
Photos
Selection to confirm
Enquiries