Split Screen - An evening with Maria Sappho

Split Screen with Maria Sappho

Step into the future of performance! Split Screen explores how Digital Innovation and Artificial Intelligence are reshaping theatre, dance, music, and live performance. Whether you're an artist, performer, technician, educator, or creative producer, Split Screen empowers you to experiment, innovate, and tell stories in entirely new ways.

During the Split Screen events, we bring together some of Scotland's most talented artists, creative organisations, and digital experts to explore how technology can open up fresh ways of making and sharing performance.

This mixer event will provide a platform for knowledge exchange, peer networking, and expert talks and provocations from leading voices in the community. We aim to take attendees on a journey of discovery, where you leave feeling inspired and connected.

We are delighted to welcome Maria Sappho to share an evening with us, featuring a live performance and discussion around her research exploring techno-social communities, experimental instrument-building, and artificial intelligence in creative practice.

Split Screen is led by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in partnership with Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, Citizens Theatre, CodeBase, Techscaler, Creative Glasgow, and anam creative.

Supported by the Scottish Government Ecosystem Fund.

Keynote Speaker [Maria Sappho]

Maria Guerra Sappho is an artist and researcher exploring techno-social communities, experimental instrument-building, and artificial intelligence in creative practice. Her work navigates diaspora, ecology, cultural memory, and postcolonial histories through posthuman feminist and techno-moral lenses.

She is Postdoctoral Research Fellow on Digital Playgrounds for Music (DPfM) at the University of Huddersfield, where she also completed her PhD within the ERC-funded Interactive Research in Music as Sound (IRiMaS) project. She is also a lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and supervises postgraduate research at the Institute for Contemporary Music Performance, London.

Maria currently leads the Syzygy project (Immersive Arts UK funded), a Mixed Reality-based ecological storytelling installation, and is Composer-in-Residence with the Bahué Duo (USA), developing new work on diaspora and land. She co-founded Chimère Communities, establishing grassroots AI art hubs across Lesotho, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK.

Internationally recognised as a composer and performer, she has performed with Mogwai, the International Contemporary Ensemble (USA), and is a long-serving member of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. Her recent works include The Tentaculae (Creative Climate Award nominee, NYC), The Ostoyae (UNESCO Week of Sound), and Zemi (Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival).

Her awards include the BBC Daphne Oram Award (UK), the AiiA AI Prize (Switzerland), and the MANE Emerging Composer Prize (Australia). She is co-author of New Directions in Musical Collaborative Creativity (Oxford University Press, 2025), and her research has been published in leading journals across music, technology, and critical theory.

To find out more visit mariasappho.com

Fireside Chat Host [Dr Una MacGlone]

Dr Una MacGlone is the Head of MA Creative Arts Practice and Arts Leadership and Fundraising at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is an improviser working across genres and disciplines. Her ongoing research is focused on issues related to improvisation, music education, music psychology as well as access to and inclusion in careers in the creative arts.

Una is an adaptable and creative double bassist, performing in different genres and across artistic disciplines. She is founder member of Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and uses improvisation as a tool for devising music and collaboration. She has an international profile as an improvisation teacher and has given workshops, performed and lectured across Europe and North America.

To find out more visit unamacglone.co.uk