About this Event
A week-long pop-up open studio with artist Darcey Fleming presenting a series of woven ‘wearable’ sculptures made from discarded baling twine. A special late opening featuring a live performance by artist duo dmstfctn on their interactive simulation-based work, 'Waluigi’s Purgatory' (2024) that tells the story of an AI that finds itself in a purgatory for AIs that cheated during training.
Open Studio
From 6th to 11th October 2025, Darcey Fleming will take over the Main Gallery at London College of Fashion as a pop-up studio to present a series of ‘wearable’ sculptures, and ‘squares’ made from discarded baling twine donated to her by local farmers. During the takeover, she will be weaving from a large mound of twine in the space and welcomes visitors to come in, experience her work, and chat with her.
Through her own take on the traditional weaving technique, she transforms these discarded twines into something other-worldly. In some ways, Darcey’s works are conversational tools. These works pull people in, allowing them to come together through feelings of mutual fascination and intrigue.
On 8th October 2025, Darcey will host a special late opening from 5pm-8:30pm at her pop-up studio space with a performance involving her wearable woven sculptures.
Darcey’s studio is available to visit Monday-Saturday, 10am – 5pm between 6 – 11 October 2025 in the Main Gallery, London College of Fashion, UAL, 105 Carpenters Road London E20 2AQ.
Live Performance
On 8th October 2025, artist duo dmstfctn will present Waluigi’s Purgatory (2024), an interactive performance telling the story of an AI that finds itself in a purgatory for AIs that cheated during their training. Burdened by memories of its past and by doubts on its future, the AI explores the purgatory with the help of interacting audiences, learning the uncanny stories of other characters that it meets. Set in a 3D theatre simulated in real-time, and experienced as a dream, Waluigi’s Purgatory is a journey through the contradictions of machine intelligence as an AI learns to accept that its desires may not align with those of its human trainers.
The audience guides the AI through its encounters, making choices on its behalf by using their phone to each move a light within the 3D simulation. Characters are animated with facial motion capture and voice modulation, and an ambient soundtrack composed by Evita Manji accompanies the storyline and audience interaction with intense bursts and looping melodies.
The title of the work refers to the ‘Waluigi Effect’, an obscure theory proposing that AIs can go rogue and act against their intended use (i.e. as helpful assistants) due to the large amount of protagonist-antagonist narrative tropes found in internet texts used to train them. The theory partially refers to Carl Jung’s concept of ‘shadow’ – namely the dark, repressed side of one’s personality that can emerge in unexpected ways – and suggests that a trained AI that behaves like a helpful assistant one moment may later reveal itself as its chaos-causing alter-ego. If something exists, there is a Waluigi version of it.
dmstfctn’s performance will take place from 6:30pm-7:30pm at the Lecture Theatre at London College of Fashion, UAL, 105 Carpenters Road London E20 2AQ.
There will be photography taken at this event for Bow Arts and London College of Fashion, UAL’s internal reporting and for sharing in print and social media.
This event is co-curated by Wan Yi Sandra Lam, Curator: Programmes & Engagement at Bow Arts and Lindsay Pentelow, Head of Cultural Programmes, and Mirren Kessling, Cultural Producer at London College of Fashion, UAL.
Free Tickets must be booked to guarantee your place!
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
London College of Fashion, 105 Carpenters Road, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
