Quays Culture proudly present four commissions at BEYOND Festival in MediaCity on 23-25 November 2026, as part of the UK’s leading conference on research and innovation for creative industries.
Noctilucent by Nurul Wardani is an installation that explores the perception of volume in space through light, atmosphere and movement. Using projected light within haze, the work creates shifting forms that occupy space, inspired by natural patterns and atmospheric phenomena. The installation invites visitors to experience light as a physical presence within the environment. Noctilucent is developed through Light Up the North’s SHINE programme.
Noctilucent will be activated by a special live performance, Positions of Ease, on Monday 23 November 2026, bringing live sound and movement to the installation. Across 15 minutes, dancer and choreographer Rosie Terry Toogood and musician Johanna Leung respond to the shifting light through fluid choreography, composition and experimental improvisation. Drawing on ideas of care, breath, support and ‘positions of ease’, the performance explores how we hold ourselves and one another through moments of tension and uncertainty.
Standing Wave by FENO is a living sonic altar. A column of microbial batteries holds mud and sediment from the River Irwell. As the bacteria live and feed, they generate faint electrical signals. These signals feed the light in the head of the piece. It glows and shifts above the column. Water rests in shallow bowls at its base. When visitors touch the work, the water trembles into cymatic patterns. The form echoes a bacteriophage, a meeting point of the living and the machine. The head holds the light, the column holds the life. Standing Wave asks us to listen to the smallest life, and to the river that carries it. Standing Wave was commissioned by Quays Culture, in partnership with Salford City Council, the University of Salford, Lowry and the University of Salford Art Collection. Originally produced for BEYOND 2026 at MediaCity, through the CreaTech Artist CoLab artist development programme.
About the Artists
Nurul Wardani is a lighting designer working across theatre, live events and installation. Trained at Rose Bruford College, her work draws from both architectural and theatrical approaches to lighting, with a particular interest in atmosphere, temporality and site-responsive experiences. She co-founded Slice of Light, a multidisciplinary design collective specialising in lighting, projection mapping and video visuals for stage.
Johanna Leung is a Manchester-based creative, actively performing across the UK since graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2021. Blending original composition with improvisation and advanced clarinet playing technique, field recording and object playing, Johanna’s art practice looks extensively into the translation between different art disciplines, exploring the nature of life, human insecurity and connection. Johanna is particularly interested in experimental music and multi-media art collaboration. She has been collaborating with various artists of different disciplines such as spoken word, poetry and video. As a multidisciplinary collaborative creative and the core member of UnHeard Mcr, Johanna has performed in various high-profile festivals including HOME: PUSH LAB 2024, The Sound of Contagion (collaborative project between the University of Oxford and the University of Arts, Berlin) and Manchester International Festival. Johanna has performed internationally in Berlin, Reykjavik and Keflavik.
Rosie Terry Toogood has worked as a dancer with choreographers including Jérôme Bel, Simon Fleury and Léa Tirabasso. She has Co-Choreographed and Directed participatory dance and visual art piece ‘Sobject’ with artist Kathrin Doppler touring Cuba, & Switzerland. She is co-artistic director of Basel dance collective Bufo Makmal winner of the ‘YAA!’ award including a Japan residency. In ‘23 choreographed IWF’s Eurovision Parade of 150 volunteers, asylum seekers and refugees. In ‘24 she co-created ‘Neon Snake’ a Dance/Sound/Light immersive installation with Berghain resident light designer and DJ Grinderteeth. Culture Liverpool and LEAP dance commission winner for durational dance and sound work, ‘Gotas Del Mar’. She is also a 2023-24 recipient of Arts Council England’s DYCP grant for her latest solo choreographic research on Access/Fluidity/Body. In winter ‘24 Rosie was commissioned for a street performance ‘Peace, & Choosing Not To Fight’ a dance theatre loop to promote non-violent communication supported by Kindred, Liverpool. Rosie has most recently choreographed and danced for music videos: The Blossom’s ‘I Like Your Look’, ‘Joke About Divorce’ and ‘Meet Me in Love’ ft Maya Jama, and The Wombats ‘Blood on The Hospital Floor’, Mile’s Kane’s ‘Electric Flower’ and Ladytron’s ‘I Believe’. Rosie also teaches Pilates and movement coaching as ‘Studio Fluid’ and is studying physiotherapy.
FENO (Freddy Mendoza Noto) is a Venezuelan-born interdisciplinary artist based in Salford. He works with bio-sonification, biomaterials, and living-systems installation. His practice is built on “material listening.” He treats technology as a way to rejoin living systems, not to extract from them. He builds with microbial batteries, river sediment, moss, and biomaterials made from coffee, eggshell, and fruit peel. Trained as an architect in Venezuela, FENO is a Castlefield Gallery Associate and a Factory Academy alumnus. He works from a studio at Islington Mill and is a member of IMAA.
BEYOND Festival is presented in partnership with MediaCity, GM Business Growth Hub, the University of Salford and Salford City Council, with support from the UK Government through the Economic Development and Regeneration Flexible Grants (EDRFG) programme distributed via the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Salford City Council, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Image by Joe Smith Photography featuring Portal of Reflection by Tom Lambert at Hologon
