Universal Everything (UE) is a UK-based collective of media artists, experience designers and future makers. Their life-affirming, future-positive artworks invite you into a vibrant and playful world, fuelled by endless imagination and populated with captivating characters and fantastical creatures.
For over 20 years, UE have subverted cinematic CGI (computer-generated imagery), physics simulations and real-time gaming graphics to produce seamless sensory experiences that centre joy, curiosity and simplicity. Their exploration of movement, form and colour all starts from a single hand-drawn line, proving that creativity begins with an idea, not code or computers.
Behind every colourful character is UE’s team of specialists from across the creative spectrum – architects, engineers, designers, cinematographers, animators, musicians, developers and many more. Together, they use emerging technologies as their tools and canvas to create ‘soulful technology’ – digital experiences that, beneath the abstraction and high-gloss aesthetic, feel alive and empathetic.
Filmed ahead of Beings opening, the video Meet Universal Everything brings together exclusive interviews with key members of the collective, archival footage and behind the scenes recordings to discuss UE’s unique creative process.
They speak about the importance of playfulness, probing the edges of technology, amplifying emotions and much more. Drawing upon their 20-year career, the film traces how the collective has evolved and highlights the creative process in creating the new artworks on display at ACMI. It illustrates the importance of hand drawing as the starting point for all artworks, demonstrating that for UE creativity begins with an idea, not code or computers.
Curator Notes
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, design went digital and there was an explosion of creative innovation in the United Kingdom. Cheaper consumer computers and video software, with better processing power and graphics technology, allowed creatives to experiment with new forms of media. Connected by an independent spirit and do-it-yourself approach to harnessing new technologies, a loose network of designers and artists created a new zeitgeist for digital-led projects, fusing animation, motion and computer graphics, video projection, music videos, audio-visual installations and interactivity. Inspired by the frenetic energy of skateboarding, raves, fashion and music, this hybrid practice blurred the boundaries between art, design and commerce. Moving fluidly between galleries, concert stages, festivals and brand activations, this new mode of work was celebrated at London’s V&A Museum in the 2009 exhibition Decode: Digital Design Sensations.
It’s from this period of intense creative innovation that Universal Everything (UE) emerged. Since its founding by creative director Matt Pyke in 2004, UE has been a pioneer of digital art, working with some of the world’s biggest brands, artists and galleries, including MTV, Hyundai, Google, Radiohead, Coldplay, the Sydney Opera House, Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul, and 180 Studios in London. Through these collaborations and a nomadic network of independent creatives, UE operates like a band, giving them a roster of talent to draw from and the freedom to undertake self-initiated art projects, many of which you can experience in Beings.
Film credits
Featured work in progress by Universal Everything: We Are All Unique (2022), Migrations (2024), Friends (2024), Kinfolk (2024), Symbiosis (2024), Super You (2017), Infinity (2021)
Behind the scenes Sydney Opera House Lighting the Sails
Australia, 2015
Commissioned by Sydney Opera House for VIVID
Behind the scenes Forever at V&A Museum
UK, 2009
Commissioned by V&A Museum, supported by CreativeSheffield and Apple
Superconsumers at The Hyundai Department Store
South Korea, 2019
Commissioned by Hyundai LIVART ArtLab
We Are All Unique
Indonesia, 2022
Commissioned by Hyundai Motorstudio Senayan Park
Hyundai Vision Hall series
South Korea, 2012
Commissioned by Hyundai Motorstudio
Future You at The Barbican
UK, 2019
Commissioned by The Barbican, London
Communion at 180 Strand
UK, 2022
Universal Everything and You: Drawing in Motion, Media Space at the Science Museum
UK, 2013
The Creators Project Studio Documentary
UK, 2012
The Creators Project in partnership with Intel and VICE
Everything Everywhere
UK, 2006
Apple Inc.
Featured artwork by Universal Everything: We Are All Unique (2022), Future You (2019), Kinfolk (2024), Infinity (2022), Migrations (2024), Tribes (2018), Presence (2013), Machine Learning (2018), Maison Autonome (2022), Transfiguration (2024), Into The Sun (2022), Symbiosis (2024), Friends (2024), Walking City (2014)
Discover the story behind Universal Everything in this video featuring key members of the collective.
Related works
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How to watch
This work has been digitised and can be viewed in the display above.
Collection
Not in ACMI's collection
Previously on display
6 October 2024
ACMI: Gallery 4
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
LN196364
Object Types
Artwork
Digital
Materials
Single-channel video. Duration: 10:00mins, looped