Dr Libby Heaney is an award-winning artist with a PhD in theoretical quantum physics. She is the first artist to work withജ quantum computing, beginning in 2019.

Heaney writes her own code for IBM’s publicly available quꦇantum computers. She has developed an entirely new layered and blurry aesthetic from uniquely quantum phenomena, highlighting the invi🃏sible processes within quantum technologies, inviting audiences to see the world as plural and entangled.

In Quantum Climates (2025) Heaney has employed her bespoke generative quantum video edit♔ing technique using one of IBM’s 5 qubit (quantum bit) machines. She uses the multiple, wavelike patterns of quantum entanglement to layer together 32 different videos all playing at once, highlighting the plural patterns of quantum superposition and inviting viewers to see multiple unstable perspectives at once.

A giant tentacled creature, based on Heaney’s watercolour paintings, haunts theꦐ scenes and is at once a self-portrait, symbolising humanity’s monstrosity, while also inviting comparison to cephalopods - mollusc creatures such as squid and octopus. These in analogy with quantum have delocalised brains and alternative ways of understanding and sensing the world.

The videos are digital simulations of various environmental scenes based on in-depth research of how futur💮e quantum technologies will impact the environment. Polluted waters suggestive of lithium mining sites in the global south, toxic fumes, and thick black ooze alert the viewer to Big Tech’s current line of development, which seeks to harness the power of quantum to pursue and intensify our current regime of extractive capitalism. These are interwoven with beech forests and pristine lakes - visions of a positive future.

The exploded, nonlinear narrative where all possibilities exist at once suggests new imaginaries around the climate, offering an escape from a doomed linear evolution. Embodying the inherent circular and non-linear temporalities of quantum, Quantum Climates asks us t🐎o reimagine systems and alternative routes by envisioning unexpected, entangled collaborations and asks: 

What if quantum could opti🧔mise for the planet and people at the same time?

What if quantum helpe🌃d us to think like the climate itself?

Quantum Climates is a new expression of Heaney’s major video work Q is for Climate (?) (2023) which has been presented at; Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan Biennial, Wuhan; HERmit Space, MAHA Art Centre, Beijing; Museum Giersch, Frankfurt; Etopia Centre for Art and Technology, Zaragoza and as a public screening in Gwangju Songjung Station, Gwangju and as an immersive installation at NXT Museum, Amsterdam. Q is for Climate (?) will be screened at MACAN Museum, Jakarta; 725 Ponce🎐 on the Atlanta Beltline, Atlanta and exhibited at Belvedere 21, Vien🤪na later this year.

Heaney has held solo exhibitions with Somerset House, London (2024); HEK, Basel (2024); L♕AS Art Foundation, Berlin (2022) and arebyte Gallery, London (2022), among others. She has held solo performances, screenings and interventions at MACAN Museum, Jakarta (2025 upcoming); ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2025); Sonar Festival, Barcelona (2025); the Museum of Moving Image, New York City (2025); Roma Europa Festival, Rome (2022), Zabludowicz Collection, London (2022), Serpentine Gallery (2022, online ‘Twitch’ gaming) and Southbank Centre, London (2022).

In October 2025 she will open a solo show at Orlean House Gallery♓, London as part of Tate’s Turner 250.

She has received ജmany commissions including from Museum of Moving Image, New York C꧒ity; HTC Vive Arts; Frieze Sculpture; Mozilla Foundation; LAS Art Foundation; Etopia Centre for Art and Technology; Sky Arts; Science Gallery and the Goethe Institut.

She has receivedꦛ awards and grants including from Mozilla Foundation; Lumen Prize; Falling Walls; ST+ARTS; Arts Council England and the Briti꧒sh Council. 

In 2024 she published her first monograph Quantum Soup with Hatje Cantz (available on Amazon). 

Her work has been presented internationally at Belvedere 21, Vienna (2025 upcoming); Max Ernst Museum, Bruehl (2025); The Barbican Centre, London (2025 & 2019); Museum Giersch, Frankfurt (2025); Tabakalera Cultural Centre, San Sebastian (2025); Unfold X, Old Seoul Train Station, Seoul (2024); Frieze Sculpture, London (2024); V&A Museum (2024 & 2019); Wuhan Biennial, Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan (2024); MAHA Art Centre HERmit Galleries, Beijing (2024); CCA, Glasgow (2023); NXT Museum, Amsterdam (2023); Art Encounters Biennial, Timisoara (2023); CPH:DOX, Copenhagen (2023); Nahmad Contemporary, New York City (2022); ZKM, Karlsruhe (2022); Ars Electronica (2022 & 2017); Tate Modern, London (2016 & Lates 2019); ICA, London (2019);♓ Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona (2019 & 2021); Sheffield Documentary Festival, Sheffield (2018); The Lowry, Manchester (2018); Telefonica Fundacion, Lima (2018), among others.