Two new exhibitions have opened at Edinburgh Futures Institute, inviting staff, students and visitors to explore how technology can offer us new ways to connect with historic collections and reimagine the way we experience time.
Touching the Collection, crafted and developed by Martin Parker and Henry Martin, is an interactive sound installation at the Anthea Bond Exhibition Room that gives visitors hands-on access to recordings of rare historic instruments. It runs from 2 November until 8 December 2026.
On the Portal Screen on Level 2, Infinite Order by designer Leigh Bagley transforms the graphic structure of a classic perpetual wall calendar into a new moving-image artwork. The digital artwork was installed on 30 October and will be on display until 29 January 2027.
Both exhibitions are free to visit, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Touching the Collection
Touching the Collection actively encourages visitors to touch the items on display. Most of the metal elements in the room trigger a sound, and visitors are invited to pick up and move the tools around to change the harmony and create musical gestures.
The installation is inspired in large part by the collection of historic instruments at the University’s St Cecilia’s Hall, and partly by the looping turntablism of artists Philip Jeck and Janek Schaefer. The project team created a sample library from baroque flutes, lutes, guitars, horns, keyboards and a sideless violin, which visitors can explore directly through the installation.
Many of these instruments are simply too old or fragile to be touched or played. Using a range of machine learning systems, the project offers changing and dynamic ways to hear instruments that would otherwise be completely inaccessible.
The room is filled with an assemblage of gilded, Baroque-like debris and everyday tools crafted by sculptor Henry Martin, a reminder that musical instruments are tools too. In the same way, AI and computer software are tools without intentions of their own: they need human touch and agency to give them purpose.
The sounds in the collection archive were performed by Dr Richard Craig (flutes), Dr Jenny Nex (sideless violin and some keyboards), Eric Thomas (lute and decacord), Marlowe Parker and Calum Campbell (keyboards) and Andy Saunders (horns).
The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and BRAID UK (Bridging Responsible AI Divides), and was made possible by the team at St Cecilia’s Hall, who enabled access to the collection and care for these rare instruments for future generations.
Infinite Order
What happens when a graphic system designed to organise time becomes a way of generating the experience of time itself? That is the question at the heart of Infinite Order, a new moving-image artwork by East Lothian-based designer Leigh Bagley.
Inspired by French designer Jean-Pierre Vitrac’s iconic perpetual wall calendar, Bagley has transformed the calendar’s graphic structure into a chronographic animation that explores pattern and rhythm.
Bagley’s practice spans limited edition prints, textiles and digital work. Working with geometric abstraction and colour, he creates visually precise compositions inspired by 20th-century modernist architecture and design, translating these influences across media, interiors and public art.
Infinite Order was co-commissioned by Aberdeen Performing Arts, Edinburgh Futures Institute and New Media Scotland’s Alt-w Fund, with investment from the University of Edinburgh, as part of the Alt-w Cycle 16 Production Awards.
After its run in Edinburgh, the artwork will move to the Music Hall in Aberdeen from 30 March 2027.
Visit the exhibitions
Touching the Collection
- Location: Anthea Bond Exhibition Room, Edinburgh Futures Institute
- Dates: 2 November – 8 December 2026
- Opening times: Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm
- Admission: Free
Infinite Order
- Location: Portal Screen, Level 2, Edinburgh Futures Institute
- Dates: 30 October 2026 – 29 January 2027
- Opening times: Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm
- Admission: Free
