Ryan Heath
Gongoozler, 2025
Gongoozler is the culmination of an artist residency with Open Doors. Inspired by the Newark Museum's collection, it aims to examine the district’s historical relationship with water and envisions an optimistic and speculative future.
In this game world, players explore a semi-aquatic zone known as The Silt, where rising water levels have dramatically reshaped the landscape. Instead of fleeing, the local community has adapted to this new environment, seeking symbiosis rather than fighting to dominate their habitat.
Download and play the experience for Windows and Mac here.
The 3D models made as part of this project are publicly available here.
Ryan Heath - Design, Programming, Art
Score - Written and performed by Tom Goodwin and Heather Perkins
Additional audio written and performed by Les Reid.
Special thanks to Katy Culbard, Tom Cable, Glyn Hughes, Miles Herbert, Denise Greaney, M. Pindar and Ruth Terry.
Open Doors, The National Civil War Centre, Newark and Sherwood District Council, and Arts Council England kindly supported this project.
Solid State Drive, 2023
An existential arcade machine: a non-game, a relic of retail and a new interactive work of fiction.
A retro racer, born in the golden age of brick-and-mortar arcades, now adrift in an increasingly digitised world. No longer bound by competition, the vehicle veers off-course, deep into the back end of its own software. As it roams these cavernous networks, the program delivers a monologue—questioning its purpose, its function, and the experience it was designed to provide.
Music by Bradley Cook, Heather Perkins, and Jack Wright.
Voiceover by Oona Evergreen and Rob Mann.
With thanks to Arebyte Gallery, Lee Nicholls, Unity & Adventure Creator.
Ritual Practice, 2021
Artcore Gallery, Derby City
Single Channel Video / 08:39
A satirical exploration of the privatization of public space and the shifting tactics of brick-and-mortar redevelopment, in which a millennial mystic and a junior designer converge in a Zoom séance, seeking to cleanse the unseen forces lingering around Derby's Osnabrück Square, a space surrounding the gallery.
Creature Design by Artcore's Youth Group
Editing by Matthew Goward
Performance by Sam Hulmes and Ryan Heath
Set Design by Oona Evergreen
The Thinning, 2019
Broadway Gallery, Nottingham, Virtual Reality
This ongoing work takes inspiration from the apotropaic graffiti or ‘witch marks’ of Creswell Craggs, an enclosed limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. The cliffs in the ravine contain several caves housing ritual protection marks dating back hundreds of years. The artist re-imagines such a phenomena in post-industrial Britain. Visuals are drawn from the artist’s interest in contemporary symbology, found in the urban environment. Through the use of these symbols, Heath considers how the unknown plays a role in the construction of narrative and examines how we seek meaning in an increasingly complex world. Heath borrows from the historical, semiotic and occult to illustrate these very human traits.
The work was shown on Friday 07 - 14 December at Broadway Gallery, Nottingham in 2019. This installation was produced with the generous support of Broadway’s Near Now and The University of Nottingham. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Score by AJA Ireland
Opening Night Performance by Dean Morris