Valeria Ceregini is an Italian Irish-based curator and art historian with over a decade of experience curating international contemporary art exhibitions. Her research focuses on ecology, post-humanism, and trans-cultural narratives. She is the founder of MISCIA, a platform supporting artists through mentorship and European collaboration. Recent curatorial projects include This Too Will Pass (Galway International Arts Festival 2025), Future Fragilities (Turin, 2024), Prototypes for Cyborgs (Zeitgeist Irland24), Periodical Review 14 (PP/S, Dublin), and Towards Super-Connection (Villa Croce, Genoa). She has curated projects with IMMA, RCC Letterkenny, Hugh Lane Gallery, and Interface Inagh, and has held residencies at ZK/U Berlin, SEA Foundation (Netherlands), and PP/S Dublin. Her work is regularly supported by Culture Ireland, the Arts Council of Ireland, Creative Ireland, and European cultural bodies.

Synthetic Clairvoyance” is an interactive AI-based sculpture that reimagines the ancient crystal ball through contemporary technology. At its core, a Raspberry Pi “brain” transforms touch, voice, and light into a dialogue between human curiosity and machine intelligence. When a viewer touches the glowing orb, it listens, transcribes their question through Whisper, and responds using ChatGPT’s playful imagination—its voice emerging from within like a digital oracle.

The work merges sensory wonder with critical reflection on how artificial intelligence shapes the next generation’s belief, knowledge, and storytelling. Built from reused materials—a cardboard cookie box, upcycled glass sphere, and recycled components—the piece also questions sustainability in the age of intelligent machines. Synthetic Clairvoyance invites children and adults alike to explore a poetic encounter between the mystical and the synthetic, where light, language, and code intertwine to form an evolving conversation between human and algorithmic consciousness.

‘Everything is Fine’ reflects on the systems that shape human perception and belonging in the age of AI powered Algorithms.

Combining the philosophical lens of Plato’s allegory with the intimate realities of raising a family, it examines how the technological systems of influence blur the boundaries between truth, entertainment and control.

Set within the Amphitheatre’s immersive architecture the work invites its viewers to inhabit a space that feels both recognisable and disorientating.

This installation examines how contemporary systems of influence blur the boundaries between truth, entertainment, and control.

Drawing from the language of everyday media, it explores the quiet mechanisms through which technology mediates perception and shapes collective belief.

The work invites viewers to slow down inside the digital noise, to recognise how easily attention becomes captivity, and how chaos online is rarely accidental.

Ultimately, it asks what agency remains when choice itself has been designed, and whether awareness alone can fracture the cage that convenience built.

Hey, I could do that!? Yes, you could – but it couldn’t.

This project confronts the growing fears and anxieties among people
about whether AI-generated art will supersede human-made art. The
installation of collaged artwork and the accompanying digital text
expresses the value and beauty of the handmade and the power of
nature.
The ten pieces are crafted from predominantly synthetic matter found
washed up on beaches around Skerries in North Co Dublin. My process
involves discerningly searching for and selecting materials that I find
intriguing. These materials – such as plastics, metals, and fabrics have
changed from their original forms and show signs of deterioration,
distortion, and discolouration caused by erosion, weathering, and the
corrosive effects of saltwater.
The statement and claim, “hey, I could do that,” is often spoken by people
(including myself) when viewing conceptual or abstract art. When the
question is posed, “but could you really?”- how deeply do we need to
reflect before we respond with yes or a no?
And now, as we encounter the AI revolution and the words “AI could do
that” have infiltrated the Arts, we are asked to examine and investigate a
whole new set of questions about what it is to be human and to create
with our head, heart, and hands.

Exploring the “hand/finger” as both subject and symbol-contrasting AI’s flawless, clinical precision with the human hand’s irreplicable uniqueness. AI is great for science, precision, but why in art? Human hand carries emotion, nuance, and power that machines cannot reproduce, and I want to highlight imperfection as a form of value rather than flaw.

I would like to juxtapose the act of ‘making’ something with human hands, the skills and personality of it with the idea of  the bionic AI touch, a tool, which is so precise but clinical and detached.

I am not trying to juxtapose AI and the human hand as perfect versus imperfect. I know that AI is complex and not ‘perfect’.  Rather, I was thinking to explore the dichotomy of perfection and imperfection and suggest that in humans (or human hands) these two opposing concepts complement and enhance each other and one is not without the other.

The human hand is strikingly  unique and can be used in stuff like forensics with a large degree of precision so it is a ‘tool’ that AI can work with but AI can never fully reproduce what human hand does because the human hand is imperfect and creates a ‘crooked’ line.

An effort to portray a perception of AI’s intrusion into your or our art world. AI is I suspect one of the major cultural events of at least this generation, AI doing art is based on computer code and binary numbers. Its effect will reach far into the future. It will be the ground on which my grandchildren will tred, and not at all like the solid ground of my past. All I can do is look on with all our history behind us and the young happily racing into their future. The numbers in computer speak each represent a letter of the alphabet, put together they say” Art is the most important thing in life ” I don’t think so, the AI is patronising us, life is the most important thing.

“Creating AI” is a work presented in the form of a playful experiment — a visual joke that raises serious questions about the future of art and authorship. It explores the possible disappearance of
the artist in the age of artificial intelligence and the role of non-artists in shaping this shift.

The project consists of two collages, each created from small artworks of identical size made by members of the Scéal arts community. One collage was assembled by a human artist — myself — while the other was generated with the help of ChatGPT.

During the exhibition, visitors are invited to vote for the artwork they prefer. Through this participatory act, “Creating AI” invites reflection on perception, authorship, and authenticity in

contemporary art — and on how we define creativity in an era increasingly shared with
machines.

Faded 51 are a rock band featuring…..

Sam Cohen – vocals and bass guitar

Louis D’Souza – lead guitar

Jack Joseph O’Neil – vocals and rhythm guitar

Andrew Keegan – drums and backing vocals.

Faded 51 are an emerging band that have entertained audiences in North County Dublin with a mixture of cover and original songs.

A solo live music performance

BHAILIÚ, an Irish ballad and traditional group ( Joe,Ray,te) performing live!

Headlining in The Warehouse with a solo live performance!

Live in The Warehouse with a solo performance!

Solo performance live in The Warehouse

To close out the How It’s Made Festival – Join Mursheen Durkin Balladeer and Sweet James into the night!

How It’s Made was co-created by Eamonn Donlyn, Chairperson of SCÉAL Collective along with Curator and Art Historian Valeria Ceregini in 2023.

The series brings artists and researchers together to learn about the world and provide creative experiences in a multi-disciplinary fashion.

A symposium occurs each year for shared learnings with a focus on the process instead of the output and artists are encouraged to determinne themselves if they have a reaction to the learnings and in the format of their choice.

Foudational concept: The arts and creative endeavours serve as a mirror to society, with the ability to reflect the past and present and imagine a variety of futures.