Scotland’s longest-standing artist-run gallery, established in 1983
In Walking on the Moon Diggle will edit, live in the gallery during the exhibition, two printouts of published work using drawing and digital updates, which will then be displayed on the gallery walls. Diggle will also make one or two performative Moon walks at sites in Glasgow (for the duration of the original Apollo 11 Moon walk), using images from this and other media to develop a daily Instagram post of the new narrative work as it evolves.
Diggle will be working alongside, and in artistic dialogue with, John Baldacchino’s exhibition: The Nostalgia of the Present: Sketches of Belonging. Both exhibitions will close with Diggle and Baldacchino taking part in a public symposium hosted by philosopher and Transmission Trustee John Donaldson.
An early adopter of computer graphics and coding in the late 1970s, Diggle has worked for nearly five decades as a multimedia artist and painter. The origin of Diggle’s practice is rooted in an analogue world building upon visceral physical experience of stories formed in a predominantly pre-computer machine age and Diggle’s experiences of being an artist throughout the transition from the space-age to the digital-age.
In Nostalgia of the Present: Sketches of Belonging, Baldacchino presents a loop of projected images from his published work alongside sketches on paper. Through the images, text, and speech Baldacchino explores ungrounding, unlearning, indirectness, and autonomy.
Baldacchino will be working alongside, and in artistic dialogue with, Jeremy Diggle’s exhibition: Walking on the Moon. Both exhibitions will close with Baldacchino and Diggle taking part in a public symposium hosted by philosopher and Transmission Trustee John Donaldson.
A specialist in art, philosophy, and education, Baldacchino is Professor of Art and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has held positions in universities in Scotland and England. Baldacchino has authored nearly twenty books, including Easels of Utiopia (1998/2018), Avant Nostalgia (with Jeremy Diggle, 2001), Makings of the Sea (2010), Art’s Way Out (Sense, 2012), Art as Unlearning (2018), Lessons of Belonging (Brill, 2023), and Hope in Groundlessness (forthcoming 2026).
Our best scientific models divide reality into distinct “levels”, including the microphysical, chemical, biological, psychological, and sociological. Each level is composed of entities peculiar to that level, such as atoms, molecules, cells, minds, and societies. But how are we to understand how these levels fit together? If everything is ultimately made up of subatomic particles and forces, why do we need anything other than physics to model reality? And what even is a “level of reality” exactly? These and many other questions are of keen interest in the philosophy of science. When those questions are addressed, visual representations are sometimes used to convey the idea of what a level is, or this or that philosophical problem that arises when the nature of levels is investigated. One example is William Wimsatt’s sketch, pictured below.
However, such examples are relatively limited in number and artistic scope. The Levels of Reality funding call is for artists who are interested in producing artistically ambitious work which explores, in a philosophically and scientifically informed way, levels of reality.
Timeline: application deadline Friday 9th of October; outcome communicated to artists by 23rd of October; Levels of Reality exhibition in Transmission from February 20th to March 13th 2027; publication TBD.
Support available (dependent on number of artists selected and scope of work proposed): honorarium of minimum £500 up to £1000 per artist (for between 3-6 artists); material and fabrication costs covered up to £500 (though this may be negotiable in exceptional cases); access to the gallery space and use of wood workshop during making of work or related activities; publication costs associated with the exhibition fully covered by Transmission.
Curation and collaboration: the conceptual and visual content of the exhibition will be curated by John Donaldson & Kimia Witte who will also be available to collaborate with artists in the development of their work for the exhibition, upon request.
Constraints and possibilities: proposals will be assessed in terms of their conceptual quality and artistic ambition. Any artistic medium will be acceptable as a proposal. Depending on the concepts developed throughout and during the exhibition, we are open to offering a solo exhibition, at a later date, for an exhibiting artist, backed by more substantial financial support.
Ideas: though this should not be taken to be prescriptive in any way, the following may be of use to artists in the process of application. We are intrigued by the possibilities of:
(1) a large (i.e. room-sized) sculpture or installation that creatively represents a significant range of levels of reality;
(2) work that explores the nature of different scientific equations used to describe distinct levels of reality, such work could use visual, poetic, or other representations of those equations;
(3) how performance, music, and sound in general could be used in the exhibition;
(4) work that focuses on the boundary between particular levels, such as psychological-neurobiological or the boundary between non-living (e.g. molecular) and living levels (e.g. cellular);
(5) work that explores the different ways in which we can come to know about levels, such as the difference between empirical and non-empirical methods;
(6) work that demonstrates creative engagement with central philosophical problems that arise when considering how levels hang together, such as the causal exclusion problem, the truth of reductionism versus non-reductionism, or the nature of inter-level phenomena like realisation or emergence;
(7) work which illustrates, engages, or critiques the ideas, metaphors, analogies, or other aspects of Eddington’s Two Tables;
(8) work which illustrates, engages, or critiques the standard account of material coincidence;
(9) work which illustrates, engages, or critiques cutting edge work on the nature of levels, such as Leuenberger’s recent contribution or those found in Robertson and Wilson’s Levels of Explanation.
How to apply: submit a short proposal via the following link:
https://forms.gle/yc9VdjmyDphQeYiP6
Topics include: the inner workings of large language models, unintended consequences of AI, missing and invisible data, surveillance, mapping and power, environmental and cultural impacts of digital technologies, the role of storytelling in shaping how we understand both history and technology, and how AI influences the stories we tell about ourselves, our communities and our futures.
Note this is a call for participation in a collaborative project, in which the artists will be one person on a three-person team creating the relevant work (there will be 1-3 such groups, submission dependent). The three-person teams will be comprised of one artist, one philosopher, and one scientist.
Attendance at the following is required:
(1) the Lovelace-Hodgkin Symposium on 13th October 2026 at Glasgow University Union (tickets will be supplied);
(2) and potential subsequent day-exhibition at Transmission, on the 14th.
Timeline: application deadline Friday 2nd of October; outcome communicated to artists by 9th of October; Making the Invisible, Visible exhibition in Transmission from January to 18th to February 8th 2027; publication TBD.
Support available: Support available (dependent on number of artists selected and scope of work proposed): honorarium of minimum £500; material and fabrication costs covered up to £500 (though this may be negotiable in exceptional cases); access to the gallery space and use of wood workshop during making of work or related activities; publication costs associated with the exhibition fully covered by Transmission.
For one artist, there will be a Transmission residency possibility in conjunction with the Scottish Association of Marine Sciences, at Oban – dependent on the potential of the work.
Curation: the conceptual and visual content of the exhibition will be curated by John Donaldson, Kimia Witte, and The AI Commons Glasgow.
How to apply: submit a note of interest via the following link:
https://forms.gle/vMas5WsFz6BuEX5T9
Special guests from the University of Glasgow: Prof Stephan Leuenberger (Philosophy) and Dr Ciorsdaidh Watts (Chemistry).
If something in either call has sparked your interest, but you’re not quite sure how to approach it, this session is for you. You might have questions about the themes, be wondering how your own practice could connect with them, or simply want to explore some of the possibilities before deciding whether you would like to apply.
We appreciate that some of the language and concepts in the calls related to philosophy, science, and technology might be a hurdle for the uninitiated. So we want to stress that you don’t need specialist knowledge in any of these areas to take part. We’ll bring together people from the different disciplines involved in the calls to open up the ideas through conversation, answer questions, and help artists explore how their own ways of thinking and making might connect with them.
After short introductions to the two calls, there will be plenty of space for questions and an informal workshop where we can talk through ideas, make connections, and explore possible approaches and collaborations. It’s also an opportunity to meet others interested in the calls and, where relevant, begin conversations around teaming up.
You’re welcome whether you already have an idea, have submitted an application, are only beginning to think about what might be possible, or are simply curious about the conversations these calls are opening up. There is no expectation that attending means you have to apply.
Come along with an idea, a question, a half-formed thought, or just your curiosity.
Drinks and snacks will be provided, and the introductory presentations will be recorded and shared for anyone unable to attend.
1. Levels of Reality
2. Making the Invisible, Visible
Alongside installations by
No Transmo, no party.
Haleh Fotowat is an Iranian-Canadian neuroscientist and artist based in Boston. Through scientific research at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and abstract painting in her studio, she explores self-organisation and emergence in living systems. Her paintings embrace improvisation, movement, and expressive colour to explore how complex forms emerge through interaction and change.
The show is about emerging forms, in living or non-living matter. Flow, movement, decisions to change course, and the structures that emerge. Paintings fill the main floor, while the basement turns to living forms with projections and sound from her scientific work.
This performance is for anyone who is curious to hear new music, see new paintings, and even for those who aren’t, but may find themselves nearby anyhow. Those with a taste for improvised music especially welcome.
the escape ethereal // literal head detached from body // the space in the middle // self referral of brain licking // de-compartmentalisation of head & body // syntax, enunciation, etymology, diphthong, pronunciations, parts of a voice box.
Note: show also went by the name “head[ae]scape” in some promotional material.