CU Soon

'CU Soon' is a performance work for humans and satellites. A series of electronic ‘postcards’ encoded as radio signals were sent to satellites orbiting the planet. These messages travel out into space and return, scrambled, reassembled into something new.

For this print collection the images are presented in pairs: the original postcard that was sent into space and the modified image returned by the satellite. Each diptych forms a narrative of before and after. They show the postcard image’s transformation through their encounter with the satellite, and the noise and glitches acquired during this epic journey into space and back.

About Nye Thompson

Nye Thompson (she/her b. 1966) is an artist turned software designer turned artist. Her work spans image-making, video and sculptural installation, film-making, archiving, mapping, experimental software architectures and process-based performance.

UK and international exhibitions include Tate Modern, The Barbican, The Lowry, The V&A, ZKM Karlsruhe, Chronus Art Center, Ars Electronica and The Louvre. Her work has been featured on BBC, Radio 4, Channel 4 News, CNN, Flash Art, the Guardian and Wired. Thompson has made a horror film for a machine audience and transmitted postcards for satellites out into space (the satellites responded in kind). Her very first solo show in 2016 - described by C4 News as “too shocking to broadcast” - became global clickbait and triggered an international government complaint. She has been called "a contemporary Jacques Cousteau" (Bob & Roberta Smith) and "the new Big Brother" (Vogue).

Thompson and UBERMORGEN were recipients of the Lumen Prize Gold Award 2021 for their short film UNINVITED. She was also a finalist for the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2023. Her work is included in the V&A Museum National Collection, as well as international and UK private collections. Following a Fine Art degree from YBA-era Goldsmiths with a career in software and human-machine interface design, Thompson returned to artistic practice with an MA in 2013. She is based in the UK and operates between London and mid-Wales.