Rate My Professor Aisling O'Beirn

Dr Aisling O'Beirn is Senior Lecturer at the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University, where she serves as Associate Lecturer in fine art sculpture. She holds a BA in Fine Art (Sculpture) from the University of Ulster awarded in 1990 and a PhD from the same institution awarded in 2005. Her sculptural practice explores space as both a physical structure and a political entity, creating and animating forms drawn from observed and theoretical structures studied by contemporary astronomers and physicists. This work extends earlier investigations into the politics of place and tensions between official and unofficial information, while also addressing themes of entropy, order, disorder and balance, and how non-specialists engage with scientific and mathematical concepts. Recent projects have been supported by Armagh Observatory and Dunsink Observatory. O'Beirn's practice encompasses sculpture, installation, animation and site-specific projects, with national and international exhibitions including Northern Ireland's participation in the 51st Venice Biennale. She collaborated with Dr Martin Krenn on the TRACES project (2016–2019), a Horizon 2020-funded initiative on transmitting contentious cultural heritage through the arts. In 2026 she received the inaugural AICA Ireland Annual Honorary Prize for her 2025 exhibition We Lose Sight of the Night at The MAC, Belfast, which examined the environmental and cultural implications of artificial light and the loss of dark skies through an interdisciplinary lens connecting art and science.

O'Beirn contributes to practice-based research supervision and interdisciplinary approaches that link creative practice with scientific inquiry and environmental awareness. Her outputs include numerous exhibitions, artefacts and contributions to publications and conferences. She has received additional recognition such as the Awards for Artists 2020 Scheme and a shortlisting for the MAC International 2018 Artist Prize. O'Beirn is based in Belfast and continues to develop work addressing ecological themes and humanity's relationship with the natural world.