Installation, Performance & Digital Practice

Jonathon
Harris

UK-trained, Naarm/Melbourne-based. Live performance, installation, and lens-based work exploring memory, queerness, and the body — increasingly folding in AI-assisted image-making as another material to work with.

Based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia Trained in Brighton & Colchester, UK PhD Candidate, Federation University (2026–29)
Highlights

Fifteen points across the practice, oldest to most recent.

The Untitled Series1999–2004

24 live performances produced with The Mercury Theatre Colchester, The Outhouse, The Lakeside Theatre, Croydon Council, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

Holiday — It Would Be So Nice2007

Digital film produced with Purple Performance Company (UK), presented at Door 3 Studios (AUS).

Dawn the Crying Door2009Best in Show

Digital images, film, soundscape and projection at Door 3 Studios, Daylesford.

Composite Feast2010

Web-based project and digital images, exhibited at Door 3 Gallery and online.

Stuck On You2013

Digital film commissioned by MeJaneMusic (Jane Badler).

So She Said2014

Digital film, slideshow and projections, shown at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Stockholm.

The Original Memory2016

Installation, performance and soundscape at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

The Disemblance of Breath2022

Performance at The LON Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne.

Peregrination RE-UP2023

Performance with Sarah CrowEST at the National Gallery Victoria, Naarm/Melbourne.

Prompted Peculiar — International AI Prize2023Finalist / AI

Finalist, Ballarat Foto Biennale.

The Dissemblance of Breath2023

Video performance shown internationally — Mykolaiv ART Week (Ukraine), Tegelscenen (Stockholm), Long Gallery (Hobart), and Radius Gallery (Hepburn).

The Assumption of Memory2023

Solo exhibition and performance at Radius Gallery, Hepburn.

The View From Here Thinking About There2024AI reconstruction

An AI reconstruction shown at Radius Gallery, Hepburn, as part of the Swiss Italian Festival.

Your Nostalgia Is Material for Clowns2024

Solo show at Off The Kerb, Naarm/Melbourne.

The Realness of Your Biology Covers Me With Glitter2025

Shown at The Octagon, University of Melbourne, alongside Sublime Realism.

Current Research

Part of the PhD at Federation University (2026–29): a working question, not a settled answer — where does performance art's liveness actually overlap with what AI systems do, and where does the comparison break down? This grew out of the 2022 "AI: The End of the Lens?" symposium, a 2023 AI Prize finalist listing, and a 2024 AI-reconstruction piece — three small, real touchpoints, not a finished theory.

Liveness
PerformanceExists once, in a room, then is gone — the body is the only record.
AI systemsEach output is generated fresh, never identically repeatable, yet nothing is technically "lost."
Indeterminacy
PerformanceImprovisation means the performer doesn't fully know the outcome in advance.
AI systemsGeneration is probabilistic — the system doesn't "know" its output before producing it either.
Documentation vs. the real thing
PerformanceVideo documentation is always a lesser proxy for having been there.
AI systemsA reconstruction is presented as equivalent to a record, but it's synthesised, not witnessed.
Authorship
PerformanceAuthorship sits with the performer even when the piece changes each time it's shown.
AI systemsAuthorship gets contested — the prompt, the model, and the artist all have a claim.
Feedback Loops
PerformanceAn audience's live reaction changes the piece in real time, night to night.
AI systemsHuman feedback reshapes future outputs too — just on a training cycle, not a single night.

These are open comparisons being tested through the PhD, not conclusions — several may not survive contact with the actual writing. Scroll to see all five →

Selected Shows, 2022–2026

Full exhibition history from 1999 onward is on the CV page. This is the recent stretch — scroll to see all five →

2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 The LON Gallery Naarm — The Disemblance of Breath National Gallery Victoria Naarm — Peregrination RE-UP, w/ Sarah CrowEST Radius Gallery, Hepburn AI Reconstruction & Sublime Realism Berry Campbell Gallery New York — Postcards From The Edge, Visual AIDS Linden New Art Naarm — Linden Postcard Show
About

Jonathon Harris trained in theatre and visual practice in the UK — a BA Hons at Brighton, an MA in Contemporary Theatre Practice at Essex — before building a practice across installation, performance, and lens-based work in Naarm/Melbourne.

Recent work sits at the intersection of memory, queerness, and the body, with a growing interest in AI-assisted image reconstruction as one more tool in that vocabulary.