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Nestor Pestana

@pes_nes

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#educator #researcher @rcaied & @cva_bartlett speculative designer & artist creating #parallelworlds exploring the zeitgeist of our #technological age
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Call for participants! The Bats Project: Videogame Batwalks & Workshop Days: Tuesday 25, Wednesday 26 & Friday 28 August Applications close: Friday 21 August Link in bio for more information & registration form 🔗 Bats in videogames are often portrayed through horror, fear, or as monsters to be exterminated. Can you imagine different kinds of encounters? Join artist Nestor Pestana @pes_nes for this three day workshop exploring how bats are represented in videogames. You will go on a videogame batwalk, and then create a physical artefact, imagining a new encounter between bats and players. Selected outputs will be part of New Dark Aesthetics: The Bats Project exhibition, opening in May 2027. This workshop is part of Nestor’s New Dark Aesthetics: The Bats Project, a project kindly supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Images show WIP outputs from previous workshop participants: Arrddon (Kiryung Nam) @arrddon Shuoyuan Cao @shore.tsao Ivan Silva @_ivan_bezerra Sohum Sharma @bum_bum_2.0 Talisa Rubina @tali.scraps Tamaki Miyase @tamaki.o0 Bats in the videogames Death Stranding and Elden Ring 🦇 by @pes_nes
5
2 months ago
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So very excited to share that I’ve been awarded a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Exhibitions Fund, to support the development and exhibition of ‘New Dark Aesthetics: The Bats Project’. The Bats Project will explore the portrayal of bats in Western popular culture, drawing on cinema and videogames. These portrayals often privilege horror, fear and extermination while overlooking ecological relevance. The work envisages a new aesthetic genre more attuned to the habits of these species. A safe haven for the othered. The monstered. My investigation will involve workshops with young people, collaborations with ecological experts ( 🙏@stephanieholtnaturalhistory ), visually impaired audiences, and sound experts and creatives ( 🙏 @davemeckin ). The exhibition will take place next year across the woodland and gallery spaces of Orleans House Gallery. This Project has taken some time to evolve, building on support from the Royal College of Art, Richmond Council and the Henry Moore Foundation 🙏 🦇🦇🦇 The picture that you can see here shows a small scale prototype of a larger sculpture, intended to function as a maternity roost for pipistrelle bats. It will be one of the outputs of the exhibition next year, and will be installed in the woodland at Orleans House Gallery. Very exciting! @fcgulbenkian @orleanshousegallery @royalcollegeofart @henrymoorefdn_grants by @pes_nes
60
3 months ago
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In Other Worlds: Beyond Measure Features work by MA Information Experience Design students at @royalcollegeofart This weekend: Opens Friday 15 2pm - Closes Monday 18 1pm Private view Saturday 16 2pm @pes_nes @rcaied The works in this exhibition were developed in response to a brief and open call titled In Other Worlds: Beyond Measure, delivered in September 2025 by our Tutor and Researcher Nestor Pestana. Worlds aren’t fixed, they unfold in the spaces between what we see and what we miss. But what happens when the grid loosens? When attention drifts beyond what can be counted, measured, or controlled? In these openings… neglected ecologies speak back hidden systems of power surface embodied experiences unfold through time and gesture new futures and new ways of knowing begin to take shape Artists include: Avik Chamoli, Jung Min Yoon, Kaiyi Chen, Kunhao Shen, Lotem Rozen, Mai Anh Bui, Salma Kabil, Shuoyuan Cao, Siyuan Wang, Sohum Sharma, Talisa Rubina, Tamaki Miyase, Wei Tan, Wenjie Chen, Xiaoyi Sun, Xingyu Fan, Xinping Li, Yejin Seo, Yiran Liu, Zahra Baqer Image: Xingyu Fan by @pes_nes
0
5 months ago
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I’m very excited to share the new exhibition at @orleanshousegallery, “In Other Worlds: Beyond Measure”! From May 15–18, feel free to visit! The works in this exhibition were developed in response to a brief and open call titled In Other Worlds: Beyond Measure, delivered in September 2025 by our tutor and researcher @pes_nes The exhibition features video games, performances, films, and installations by students from the MA Information Experience Design programme. Welcome to experience my crystal game project—an immersive experience developed in UE5 that reflects on crystal consumerism and capitalism. It combines real-world data from the crystal industry with a fictional meditative space, revealing the capitalist and ecological forces behind spiritual consumption. Across three levels, players take on different roles within the crystal industry, exploring how “crystal energy” becomes financialised and commodified alongside market data. Grounded in research on mining pollution, labour issues, and spiritual consumerism, the project questions whether the healing and wish-fulfilling powers attributed to crystals truly exist—or are shaped by capitalist systems. Opening Times
Friday 15 May, 2:00–4:30 pm
Saturday 16 May, 10:00 am–4:30 pm
Sunday 17 May, 10:00 am–4:30 pm
Monday 18 May, 10:00 am–1:00 pm A Private View will take place on Saturday 16 May, with a performance starting at 2:00 pm, followed by film screenings and visits to the installations. If you’d like to visit, please feel free to contact me in advance! taken in Orleans House Gallery by @pes_nes
0
5 months ago
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In Other Worlds: Beyond Measure A group exhibition at Orleans House Gallery featuring videogames, performance, films, and installations by students from the Information Experience Design MA at the Royal College of Art. All works were developed in response to a brief and open call titled In Other Worlds: Beyond Measure, delivered in September 2025 by RCA tutor and researcher Nestor Pestana. Private View will be on Saturday 16 May at 14:00, with a performance at 14:00, followed by film screenings and a visit to the installations. (Booking link in bio) Exhibition dates: Fri. 15 May 14:00 -16:30 Sat. 16 May 10:00 -16:30 Sun. 17 May 10:00 -16:30 Mon. 18 May 10:00 -13:00 • Private View (free): Sat. 16 May at 14:00 (Booking link in bio) — Worlds do not arrive fully formed. They unfold in the gaps of what we notice and what we overlook. They are held in place by grids of infrastructure, measure and control, organising movement, perception and value. But they can change when a story leans a little differently, when a thought takes an unexpected turn, when attention drifts towards what refuses to be counted. Here, the grid hesitates. Those neat lines of measure loosen, and other shapes begin to appear. Shapes that do not ask to be efficient, profitable, or absolute. In these openings… Neglected ecologies begin to speak back. Environments and more-than-human relationships emerge as active participants in shaping shared worlds. Hidden infrastructures of power surface, revealing the quiet systems through which we are often unknowingly controlled by. Embodied experiences inscribe themselves onto the self, unfolding through gesture and time. Speculative worlds emerge, different logics take hold, as the terms of reality are redefined. Together, the works we present in this exhibition ask what worlds become possible when we step, however briefly, beyond measure. Text by: Talisa Rubina Image by: Xingyu Fan Exhibiting Artists: Avik Chamoli Ivan Silva Jung Min Yoon Kaiyi Chen Kunhao Shen Lotem Rozen Mai Anh Bui Salma Kabil Shuoyuan Cao Siyuan Wang Sohum Sharma Talisa Rubina Tamaki Miyase Wei Tan Wenjie Chen Xiaoyi Sun Xingyu Fan Xinping Li Yejin Seo Yiran Liu Zahra Baqer by @pes_nes
6
5 months ago
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Happy new year from Madeira island! From me and David XXX All good things XXX by @pes_nes
3
9 months ago
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Such a pleasure to meet Professor @takayuki_ikegawa last night! Really enjoyed our conversations, as always! We first met during my research residency in Japan back in 2018/19, while I was working on a research project at Kyoto Institute of Technology with Casio. The outcome of that residency was "Art, Crime & Algorithms", a short film and a series of cute little robots exploring a technology Casio was developing at the time (more on my website). • Thanks for getting in touch Ikegawa-san! And hope we can continue our conversations soon (hopefully in Japan =) by @pes_nes
0
a year ago
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If you are in London tomorrow Sat 2 Aug, join me at 2pm at @orleanshousegallery for a conversation I will moderate. Guests: my collaborator @stephanieholtnaturalhistory and poet @brihughespoet. We will delve into themes around darkness, bats, and poetry. All this accompanied by poetry reciting from Briony and a short story from @noamtoran AND! Some amazing tunes from @ronnieism This is a free event, and you can get your tickets (and more info) by following the link in my bio Illustration by @uttupiii 🦇 see you there 🦇 by @pes_nes
3
a year ago
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Come along to our event on Saturday at @orleanshousegallery exploring our project Bats: A New Dark Aesthetic! (see my linktree for full details and booking) #Bats #ArtAndScience taken in Orleans House Gallery by @pes_nes
0
a year ago
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Join us 2 August for the Bats Project, a conversation on darkness, bats and poetry 🦇 Part recital, part lecture, and part conversation, this event is an invitation to creatively and critically reflect on our relationships with darkness and bats. Artist Nestor Pestana will moderate the event with contributions from writer Noam Toran (@noamtoran), poet Briony Hughes (@brihughespoet), sound artist Ronnie Deelen and bat expert Stephanie Holt (@stephanieholtnaturalhistory).  This event is part of New Dark Aesthetics: The Bats Project, a research project created and led by @pes_nes. The project is kindly supported by @royalcollegeofart, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and @henrymoorefdn_grants.  Book for free via the link in our bio 🔗 Illustration by Utkarsh Pathak (@uttupiii) #FreeEvent #ArtandNature #CulturalReforesting #LondonExhibition #DiscoverLondon #RichmondUponThames Encarved in a black background we see few baths flying from a tree, towards us. taken in Orleans House Gallery by @pes_nes
0
a year ago
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Pictures from a sculpture prototype I've been working on - Ovum. Currently on display at @orleanshousegallery . 🦇 This is a prototype for an architectural sculpture that I am designing for and with bats in mind. The final sculpture would be 5-ish meters high and stand in the Orleans House Gallery woodland. Ovum is not only an artwork, but realised in its full size, would function as a maternity roost for female pipistrelle bats and their pups. 🦇 To ensure the design meets the needs of these bats, I've been collaborating with bat expert @stephanieholtnaturalhistory from the Natural History Museum. The black half shows the exterior, the wooden half the interior. • This project has kindly been suported by the @royalcollegeofart , @henrymoorefdn_grants , @richmondcouncil 🦇 #bats @batconservationtrust #pipistrelle @natural_history_museum • Pictures by: @wizxerophyte by @pes_nes
22
a year ago
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In Other Worlds: Futures Forgotten Exhibition currently on at @orleanshousegallery until Monday 21 Private view: today Sat. 19 at 14:00 All invited! • Here you can see pictures of some of the works that my wonderful @rcaied students are exhibiting! • All pictures taken by @wizxerophyte by @pes_nes
2
a year ago
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