29 Jan 26 — 30 Apr 26

Double Agents: Play and Performance in Digital Worlds

Name: Double Agents: Play and Performance in Digital Worlds
Start: 2026-01-29T17:30:00+00:00

FACT and Manchester Metropolitan University’s School of Digital Arts (SODA) are delighted to announce Double Agents: Play and Performance in Digital Worlds, a new series of monthly evening seminars exploring the social, political and cultural impacts of working with advanced digital technologies.

Running from January to April 2026, the series brings together artists, curators and researchers from across FACT and SODA’s programmes, creating a space for critical exchange between Liverpool and Manchester and strengthening connections between two of the UK’s leading centres for digital art and research. Hosted at SODA, the seminars reflect a shared commitment to collaboration, knowledge exchange, and supporting both emerging and established practices across the North West.

Thursday 29 January 2026, 17:30-19:30: Nina Davies

Thursday 26 February 2026, 17:30-19:30: Milia Xin Bi with Jan Zuiderveld

Thursday 26 March 2026, 17:30-19:30: Rachel Maclean

Thursday 30 April 2026, 17:30-19:30: Sahjan Kooner

On 26 Feb 2026, 26 Mar 2026, 30 Apr 2026

School of Digital Arts (SODA), Manchester Metropolitan University
14 Higher Chatham St, Manchester M15 6ED
View on Google Maps

Bookings

Milia Xin Bi with Jan Zuiderveld — FREE

Thu, 26 Feb

17:30

Rachel Maclean — FREE

Thu, 26 Mar

17:30

Sahjan Kooner — FREE

Thu, 30 Apr

17:30

Each seminar pairs an artist with a curator or academic to spark conversations around agency, storytelling, and the performance of the self in digital and online environments. Across the series, participating artists explore technologies such as game engines, artificial intelligence, and social media platforms, using play to examine power, identity, and existing societal structures.

Featuring FACT exhibiting artists Nina Davies, Rachel Maclean, Jan Zuiderveld and Sahjan Kooner, alongside FACT Curator-in-Residence Milia Xin Bi and colleagues from SODA and FACT, the seminars examine the sociopolitical dimensions of digital practice, including questions of access, equity and representation. Drawing on FACT’s commissioning and curatorial expertise and SODA’s research-led teaching and critical engagement with digital practice, the series offers students and audiences in Manchester direct insight into contemporary artistic research happening at both institutions.

Nina Davies, MEET ME IN THE DIGITAL TWIN (2025). Installation view at FACT Liverpool. Photography by Rob Battersby.

Nina Davies

In conversation with Adam Cain from SODA

Thursday 29 January 2026

17:30 - 19:30

Book now

Nina Davies blends fiction and non-fiction in her work to help us see the world in new ways. In her current exhibition at FACT, she worked with young people from the Teenage and Young Adult Unit at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust to create a fictional podcast and film based on their experiences of living with and beyond cancer.

Vytas Jankauskas, LIFE FOREVER (2025). Courtesy of the artist.

Milia Xin Bi with Jan Zuiderveld

In conversation with David Jackson from SODA

Thursday 26 February 2026

17:30 - 19:30

Book now

Milia Xin Bi is currently Curator-in-Residence at FACT. Her exhibition Can Meeple Escape the Neurophoria? (Friday 6 February - Sunday 26 April 2026) investigates the evolving relationship between humans and AI. Drawing inspiration from tabletop gaming, the exhibition brings together interactive artworks that invite audiences to reflect on surveillance, climate anxiety and our complicity within digital systems.

Jan Zuiderveld is an artist, researcher, and technologist whose work features in Can Meeple Escape the Neurophoria? at FACT. His practice explores the intersections of technology and life, creating interactive works that make AI’s presence physically felt rather than intellectually contemplated.

Rachel Maclean, O, they serve you get (2026). Digital image. Courtesy of the artist

Rachel Maclean

In conversation with Adinda V’ant Klooster from SODA

Thursday 26 March 2026

17:30 - 19:30

Book now

Rachel Maclean is an artist known for her bold, satirical use of digital media to explore identity, power and contemporary culture. Her major new exhibition at FACT, They’ve Got Your Eyes (Friday 20 March - Sunday 16 August 2026), examines authorship and self-representation in the age of artificial intelligence, bringing together sculpture, generative imagery and film created using AI models trained on her own artworks and likeness.

Sahjan Kooner, dankEconogy1_ALIENVillage (2023). Installation view at Eastside Projects, Birmingham. Courtesy the artist and Eastside Projects, Birmingham. Photography by Stuart Whipps

Sahjan Kooner

In conversation with Chris Daniels from SODA

Thursday 30 April 2026

17:30 - 19:30

Book now

Sahjan Kooner is an artist and filmmaker who uses video and installation to create expansive worlds while questioning the technological, social, and racialised structures that augment life. For their exhibition at FACT (Friday 22 May – Sunday 16 August 2026), Sahjan collaborates with young people in Liverpool to position them as curators and storytellers, to reimagine the museums of tomorrow: places shaped by their identities, mythologies, and dreams.

Share: Facebook, Twitter