Galway Culture Company, Galway City of Film, and Ardán are delighted to welcome Cordula Hansen and Diego Hernandez to Galway for their Virtual Production Creative Residencies. These artists will be hosted and supported by the University of Galway, Cue One, and CT Solutions. 

This initiative utilises the UNESCO Creative Cities Network to connect with Virtual Production practitioners from outside of Ireland, inviting them to Galway to take up residency positions. 

The goal is to facilitate the sharing of expertise between Virtual Production filmmakers in Ireland and abroad, to encourage collaboration between these practitioners and to facilitate networking, and to facilitate creative and professional development for the artists involved. 

Both creative residencies will allow these digital artists to produce a creative work using the virtual production process, while also providing learning opportunities for locals to Galway. 

“We are delighted to welcome these Virtual Production filmmakers to Galway. This initiative underscores our commitment to fostering international collaboration and innovation in the arts. By connecting local professionals with international experts through this residency, we aim to create a vibrant exchange of knowledge and creativity that will benefit our sector.“ Marilyn Gaughan Reddan, CEO at Galway Culture Company 

“This initiative is a great opportunity to bring esteemed international Virtual Production filmmakers to Galway where they can create work and share their knowledge and experience with local professionals interested in the area of VP.” Alan Duggan, CEO at Ardán/ Manager at Galway City of Film 

Cordula Hansen – XYZ Technical Art Services  

Cordula Hansen, co-founder of xyz technical art services and based in Germany, will join us in July alongside her business partner Shay Gilna, hosted by the University of Galway.  

Cordula and Shay are co-founders of XYZ Technical Art Services GmbH, a production studio specialising in environments for virtual production and XR applications. With a previous background in education and research, Cordula also works as an Unreal Authorised Instructor, specialising in world building and virtual production. She was a mentor on the 2023 EMEA Unreal Worldbuilding Fellowship, and the 2023 Unreal Animation Bootcamp at UT-HUB in collaboration with INCAS. She was a fellow on the 2023 EMEA Unreal Animation Fellowship. 

Shay is an environment artist specialising in visualisation and rendering with over 20 years of experience in traditional and digital painting. He worked at NCAD as the digital image librarian from 2005-2009, where he acquired a passion for hardware and digitisation tools. 

“We’re looking forward to meeting film makers and artists with a passion for realtime technology at the virtual production residency.” – Cordula Hansen & Shay Gilna 

Cordula and Shay will host a series of six open studio sessions and workshops. The first (free) workshops take place this Wednesday, July 3rd, at the University. Find out more details here. 

Diego Hernandez – Argonauts XR  

Diego Hernandez, CEO of Argonauts XR and based in Spain, will join us in August, hosted by Ryan McKenna (Bored Ape Productions) and Cue One, with technical support provided by the University of Galway and Creative Technology (CT) Solutions.  

Diego Hernandez is an architect who decided to change gears to 3D content creation back in 2016. From that moment he spent his time both teaching Unreal Engine as an official instructor for Epic Games and creating real time projects for cinema, broadcast and VR devices (theargonautsxr.com). He had the pleasure to create the first VP Short film in Spain: “SILENZE”. 

“I’m looking forward to the residency in Galway because it is a great opportunity to meet great Irish professionals and create something beautiful using cutting edge VP technology.” – Diego Hernandez

• 22nd of August 7pm – 8:30pm: LED WALL Virtual Production & Game Engines – Residency Lessons Learned at CREW in Galway.
• 28th of August 3pm – 4pm: Virtual Production Open Studio Demonstration Afternoon in Studio@5 by CUEONE in Claregalway.
• 28th of August 6pm – 7pm: Virtual Production Open Studio Demonstration Evening in Studio@5 by CUEONE in Claregalway.

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The Galway VP Creative Residency 2024 is an initiative of Galway Culture Company, Galway City of Film, and Ardán, with the support of University of Galway, Cue One, and CT Solutions.