Sheffield Hallam partner with Treatment Studio for No Bounds Festival

Artist-researchers from Sheffield Hallam University are collaborating with award-winning creative agency Treatment Studio to create new installations for this year’s No Bounds Festival

Press contact: Emma Griffiths | e.griffiths@shu.ac.uk

Sheffield Hallam’s programme, titled switch room, showcases installations across two very different venues for 2025; the basement at Castle House and the brand new ‘Igloo’ 360 immersive suite, part of the South Yorkshire Institute of Technology based in the new Strines building at Sheffield Hallam University.

Researchers from Sheffield Hallam’s Creative Industries Institute feature in a diverse curation by Amy Carter Gordon, produced by Lauren McConnell, that includes very special collaborations with Damian Hale (Treatment Studio, London).

Drawing inspiration from the festival themes of ‘grit and graft’, switch room delves into the debris of continuous urban regeneration and reveals itself through the beauty of light and optics, mechanised through sculpture, movement and projection.

Expect premieres, re-works and decontextualised pieces bound in electronic, acoustic and ambient soundscapes in an exploration of two rarely glimpsed spaces.

Amy Carter Gordon, curator of the programme from Sheffield Hallam University, said: “ We are now celebrating our third year partnering with No Bounds festival and it has been a dream to curate Hallam’s first venture with industry-leaders Treatment Studio and to exhibit Damian Hale’s animations and collaborations in both Castle House and the Igloo. The talent of Hallam researchers and partners, our alum metic., and Sheffield electronic duo Curtain Twitcher combine into a rich investigation of place, industry, botany, light and sound.

“The name switch room, inspired by original, wonky signage I found in Castle House basement, speaks to the inner workings  - the grit and graft- of the building but wider that this, to explore human relationships to industry, technology and the environment so that we may investigate organic and societal endeavour and the joy of shared experiences.

“Excitingly, Hallam is part of a network of Institutes of Technology so, for this year’s festival we are screening switch room content in new venues and to new audiences in Igloos across the region – sparking possibilities for future collaboration.”

Castle House will host the title work of this year’s programme, switch room, an interactive collaboration between Damian Hale, Creative Director at Treatment Studio, artist-researchers from Sheffield Hallam University’s Creative Industries Institute and their collaborators.

Inspired by No Bounds 2025’s themes of grit and graft and drawing inspiration from mythology, switch room, plays with Sheffield’s topography and architectural heritage using reworked archival footage and referencing the remains of Sheffield’s cultural landmarks including the Tinsley Towers. 

Damian Hale, Creative Director at Treatment Studio, said: “I’m incredibly excited to be part of switch room at No Bounds. The process of collaborating with the staff and academics of Sheffield Hallam University has been a complete pleasure and hugely inspiring too.  

“The two venues, as different as they are, have pushed the work in different directions and it has been a lot of fun to balance the sleek, modern aesthetics of the Igloo with the beautifully ramshackle, basement party atmosphere of Castle House. Since the work is exploring the balance of digital and organic, decay and destruction with rebirth it really couldn’t feel more perfect. We scanned details of Castle House which are incorporated in the pieces as textures, so it ended up very literally defining the look.

“It is always a special thing working with others who fire up the imagination, and I’ve been lucky to work with Project Female and Will Dutta for some time, and it is always a pleasure. For No Bounds I can’t believe my luck as I’ve also been let loose with the Simple Symmetry’s Gilgamesh which I’ve been itching to visualise for years, the incredible Curtain Twitcher’s Underground Genius representing Sheffield music production in the 21st Century, and The Forgemasters Track with No Name which is like the holy grail of bleep and genuinely on the record that made me do what I do in the first place.”

Also based in Castle House, GRIT: Germinate and Reclaim Industrial Terrain, focuses on the plants that thrive in rubble and ruin. Colourful projected AI videos will light up seed-paper drawings of poppies, dandelions, and bindweed, which will later be recycled into a post-industrial meadow.

The third installation in the basement will be Reveries by metic., a Sheffield-based artist and Hallam graduate. A multisensory experience which uses a kinetic light sculpture and archival film records of Sheffield, Reveries is a homage to the grit and graft of Sheffield’s history and the resilience of the flora and fauna around us. 

No Bounds will also be the first art installation and public premiere of the ‘igloo’ immersive suite, which features a high resolution 360-degree screen, in the South Yorkshire Insititute of Technology based at Hallam. 

The igloo will screen a curated programme of work throughout the festival, featuring:

Bloom in 360, a 360-degree reworking of three pieces from an ongoing audiovisual project between Damian Hale (Treatment Studio), pianist and composer Will Dutta and electronic duo Plaid, which allows the audience to be situated at the heart of the performance. 

Storm-Cloud 360: Fragments in Connection (reimagined and designed by Jake Goodall, Sheffield Hallam University), following Thrown into Form at No Bounds 2024, Jake Goodall presents a new decontextualisation of Tom Payne’s Storm-Cloud in a 360-installation connecting John Ruskin’s 1884 warnings with climate activism today.

In the Flame We Reveal Ourselves (Professor Virginia Heath, Sheffield Hallam University), a documentary-poem in four verses that draws on myth, memory, and music to explore the beauty and fragility of nature. 

Aftermath (Genevieve Carter, poet, and Anne Doncaster, Sheffield Hallam University), an immersive exploration of the iconic Hope Works venue, and birthplace of No Bounds, that honours the deep impact of the club on global communities and cultures. 

Cradle of Fire (Carolyn Waudby, Sheffield Hallam University, and Diana Scarborough, artist-engineer), a film featuring poetry, rap and song that reimagines the story of Vulcan, Roman god of fire, forges and volcanoes, and symbol of Sheffield. 

Augury (Professor David Cotterrell, Sheffield Hallam University), a quiet contemplation of an environment once shaped through the labour and industry of the world’s busiest docks, yet now defined by its near-silent, melancholic beauty.

Roger Bateman, Director of Sheffield Hallam’s Creative Industries Institute, said: “I am absolutely delighted that Sheffield Hallam University’s Creative Industries Institute are once again partnering with No Bounds Festival. This ongoing collaboration reflects our shared commitment to innovation, inclusivity and creative experimentation. The 2025 programme, with its focus on transformation, regeneration and community, resonates strongly with our mission to connect research, education and practice in ways that shape cultural dialogues across the region.

“Festivals like No Bounds provide a vital platform where students, academics, artists and audiences come together to imagine new possibilities, and we are proud to be part of this exciting journey.”

A detailed programme of events is available here.

Founding partner of Treatment, Willie Williams, is Honorary Professor at Sheffield Hallam in recognition of his contribution to the creative arts. Damian Hale is a Creative Director at Treatment and has produced a wide variety of video and animation content for global artists such as Ed Sheeran, Sigur Rós, Pet Shop Boys, The Rolling Stones, Jay-Z, Muse and George Michael.