The Imaginary Project

Surrender to a New Way of Experiencing Art

The Imaginary Project exhibits online and in real space locations – the former guiding viewers through virtual galleries and cinemas, enveloping them into a surreal art experience.

Each exhibition is designed as a module which features photography, fine art, music, film, and the written word, culminating in an interconnected platform of experiential, creative immersion.

The architecture of the galleries, cinema and screening room have been created from images taken from around the world, photographed specifically for The Imaginary Project’s virtual spaces.

Art-lovers visiting the website are encouraged to explore The Imaginary Project’s virtual exhibitions, comprising works by a collection of artists, musicians, photographers, filmmakers and writers, often accompanied by voice overs from the artists themselves.

The Imaginary Project works closely with Rocks International Film Festival, allowing them to feature winning short films from around the world.

The website’s cinema screening rooms are platforms for art house films and music videos, including Faith and the Mystic, A Distant Murmur: modul 2.2, and Crowman: modul 2.1.1.

Mark Nelson, Founder of The Imaginary Project

Mark is the founder of the First Light Gallery in the heart of Brighton’s Lanes, and is a photographer and filmmaker who began his career as a fine art printer for some of Britain’s best-known photographers in the 1980s.

Mark’s photography career saw him creating exhibitions in Berlin and at his hometown in Brighton’s University Gallery, exhibiting a large-scale retrospective of works with other First Light photographers.

In 2008 Mark’s filmmaking developed, culminating in a film made in India about Buddhism and the Untouchables for National Geographic channels worldwide, which was shown on main channels throughout India and China.

Following his Berlin stills exhibition, Mark worked on Berlin Alexanderplatz, a film that won Best Film at the Brighton Rocks Film Festival in 2016 and was shown at festivals and venues across Europe.

As the pandemic took its toll on in-person events, Mark, like other creative artists, adjusted by working on virtual exhibitions. This inspired him to design and trademark The Imaginary Project.

As the exhibitions expanded worldwide, suddenly in 2022, concurrent real space shows became possible. Already scheduled is an installation in a church crypt in Hastings, Sussex in April 2022 alongside the online virtual experience. Titled ‘Of Ghosts and Angels’, the installation will feature images, film, surround sound and projections.

Mark’s next film for The Imaginary Project is set in New York and is a contemporary appreciation of the abstract expressionist movement born in New York in the middle of the last century. Titled, A Place About 50 Miles West of Here (A New York Abstraction), the film is approaching the film editing stage – and an early trailer is unique to Home House.

Here, Mark delves into the themes behind his films and explores the personal journey he has undertaken through his work.

Your films often involve a journey. Why is this?

We are all moving forward through time and space, and I guess this is acknowledged through the spiritual content of my films. My New York film will examine more of an inward journey through contemporary abstractions in photography and film, shot at the home of, and influenced by, the original abstract expressionist movement in New York.

What has been your favourite location for working?

Certainly New York is up there. I often stayed in New Jersey and commuted into the city after a morning gorging on books by Walker Evans, Edward Hopper and Paul Strand.

It seems in your latest works you are investigating human movement through space and time and conveying what that really means. Why does this idea appeal to you?

It’s true that in the new film on New York there is often a sense of movement. I am trying to capture what the eye sees in a second as you look, look away, and then look back again in a flash. It’s as if your brain has captured an imprint of the movement of a subject, of something we, as humans, experience all the time.

Are you exploring something of a personal journey through this film?

I think it’s more like a journey that involves my personal set of skills as a filmmaker, developed over the last 30 years. I was pleased to find upon beginning shooting that my artistic, native instinct was guiding me, along with a creative eye. From there I worked with cameras that could capture this imaginative landscape and help me with an interpretation of my mind’s eye.

The Imaginary Project’s film, A Place About 50 Miles West of Here (a New York Abstraction) is scheduled for completion in Autumn 2022.

The Installation ‘Of Ghosts and Angels’ is on Friday/Saturday 2223 April 2022 at St Mary’s in the Castle Hastings and is part of the Hastings Rocks International Film Festival.

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