Voidspace Dispatches 2025: round up
Interactive arts
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IMPORTANT
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2025 has been an incredible year for the Voidspace, and for grassroots immersive and interactive art all round.
Festivals first
Voidspace Live
Our proudest moment this year was bringing Voidspace Live back with a bang. We expanded to a whole weekend and filled Theatre Deli with interactive art. We were thrilled to draw together incredible artists and the most up for it audience we have ever seen. Thank you everyone! Indulge your nostalgia here
Side/Step
Our favourite festival newcomers this year (and we can’t believe it’s only been a year!) is Side/Step, an interdisciplinary grassroots festival that popped up in Upper Street in February and at Colab Tower in September
Side/Step introduced us to Voidspace faves Uncle Barry, hosted a Voidspace anthology night and a workshop from Void Truly and introduced us to some amazing work from other artists, interactive and otherwise.
Read our interview with Artistic Director Dominika Ucar
One of our favourite finds was SCAPE by Kyndall Sillanpaa - a show about a young woman who communicates with her deceased father through old VHS camcorder footage. Beyond the technical wow, this show is a poignant mediation on memory, grief and our relationship to time.
We were lucky to get to speak to Kyndall about this piece (and the very personal kernel at the heart).
Read our interview with Kyndall.
Others
We also brought a very different festival - VPN - to Colab Tower in October. Supported by our friends at the Immersive Experience Network, the day before their annual conference, this was a great opportunity to share some of our favourites with a different audience. A super fun day.
2025 also brought us an invitational festival from COLAB and a brilliant immersive offering as part of Croydonites. In the wake of the loss of VAULT festival, it’s fantastic to see the small festival landscape flourishing.
Conversation and more
This year saw us publish the first two volumes of Voidspace in Conversation, an anthology of interviews with creators and essays about interactive arts.
It was brilliant to get a hard copy launched, and your Void in Chief and fellow editor Neil Willcox had a lot of fun answering Adrian Hon’s questions.
Watch the Q&A: part 1 part 2 part 3
We also published a special edition of the online zine: The Voidspace TTRPG Special
And let’s not forget our Scratching the Void scratch nights in February and online in July, our interactive fiction workshops in April and September, and many chances to meet and chat at Voidspace Meets.
Thank yous!
Massive thanks to Hazel Dixon (who keeps the Dispatches listings alive); Neil Willcox (co editor of the anthology who typeset like a pro as the project grew and grew); Jet Vellinga, Tonvanne Wiswell and Vicky Back who were the backbone of VSL; Artemis and [] whose editing of Conversations has been invaluable and necessary, and the squad of Voudunteers who have lent a hand to keep things running through the year.
The Void very much loves you!
Next year
2026 is going to be a very exciting year in the Voidspace. We are gearing up for Voidspace Live 2026 and have other tricks up our sleeves. Watch this (Void)space...
Check out the VSL 26 open call
And finally…
Finally, we want to offer our heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you who have stayed with us through such a busy year.
We wish you a restful end to the year and look forward to coming back swinging.
The Void loves you!
It's exactly how you turn 'leaving Substack' into an ownership upgrade instead of a scary platform jump.
Out of curiosity, what tipped you over the edge... the product direction, the age‑verification mess, or just a sense that your work deserved a home that can’t be rewritten by someone else’s roadmap?