ABOUT | URBAN PROJECTIONS | Artist Rebecca Smith

Urban Projections is the work and collaborations of artist Rebecca Smith. Her practice explores how immersive technologies can shape how we relate to each other and the spaces around us. Her work is built to be experienced together - site-responsive environments shaped by shared experiences.

Artist Rebecca Smith (Urban Projections) stands in autumnal woodland, looking down to her side.

"I'm interested in how technology can offer ways of exploring the sometimes complex relationship between people, place and environment."

Rebecca’s projects have been presented in venues including the Saatchi Gallery, Tate, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as in public spaces and unexpected outdoor locations. Influenced by 90s club culture and a long-standing interest in abandoned and overlooked sites, she often works with existing environments as a starting point.

Her practice centres on creating shared experiences. Work is developed through collaboration, often with underrepresented voices, and shaped through co-creation. Using light, projection and emerging media in dialogue with physical space, she creates immersive environments that bring different perspectives into conversation.

With over twenty five years of experience as an audio-visual performer, Rebecca has developed projects, installations, performances, workshops and talks across commercial, educational and community contexts. Alongside this, she continues to support artists working with immersive and digital practices, and advocates for greater representation within the arts and technology sectors.

Rebecca’s creative journey began in the late ’90s, working as a sound engineer in a local recording studio. Drawn to electronic music, she moved into music production and turntablism, later founding a DJ collective that ran events and technical training. Alongside this, her interest in visual art and her background in graphic and video design began to shape her live work.

“Back then, technology in club culture was evolving in a way that naturally combined audio and visual elements. Moving from vinyl to digital formats on a laptop meant I could bring everything together - performing both sound and visuals live, using my production skills in a way I hadn’t experienced before.”

Over time, this developed into a distinct visual approach shaped by UK club culture and the post-industrial landscapes she grew up around. As the work expanded, she built skills across animation, 3D, projection and moving image, leading to projects across theatre, festivals, fashion, public art and the music industry. These contexts became a testing ground for early projection mapping, which went on to form the basis of her large-scale architectural work and immersive installations.

Collaboration has remained central to the practice. In 2009, she formed Stylus with mural artist Peter Barber, exploring the relationship between spray paint and projected light through live performance. The project gained international recognition for its projection murals. This period also led to the development of The Light Cycle, a mobile projection system used to bring digital work into public and unexpected spaces.

Rebecca is now based at the Harley Foundation on the Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire. The studio supports ongoing experimentation, collaboration and production. Her work continues to explore immersive and site-responsive approaches across projection, light and emerging media, often focusing on how people relate to place, memory and shared experience.

"I try to explore the spaces that exist between People, Place & Technology"