An expansive enquiry into freedom of movement through the lens of the river Forth in a seven screen projected moving image work.
Right to Roam is an expansive enquiry into freedom of movement through the exploration of water, with focus on the river Forth, by artist Sarah Calmus. A seven screen projected moving image work, Uisge, will launch on Inspace City Screens this February, viewable along Potterrow in the City of Edinburgh, followed by an extended immersive installation in May 2026.
Right to Roam: Uisge
An exploration of the voice of the river Forth
A key driver for Uisge, is giving space to reflect on ideas of water as a living body by exploring the voice of the river Forth, where changes relating to the climate crisis incrementally affect interconnected ecosystems, both environmental and human.
Gathering water samples from the Forth, Calmus uses microscopic imagery to reveal the inner worlds of the river, alongside foraged moving image, and text. Here, creative exploration of environmental data and technology asks us to consider what we can learn through deep listening. What does water teach us as it moves beyond borders, and what does it mean to consider the Right to Roam as more than a human policy, but as a natural state?
This is part of an ongoing body of work by Calmus, asking us to consider incremental effect with regards to environmental concerns, locally and globally.
Exhibition details
Inspace City Screens
Dates: 9-22 Feb, 2026
Times: 17:00 – 1:00 Daily | Free/Street viewing daily
Location: Inspace City Screens Exhibition, Potterrow, Edinburgh
Artist Talk and Reception
Join us for this Artist Talk and Reception to mark the launch, of Right to Roam City Screens showcase, the first iteration of this new body of work by Sarah Calmus.
Date: 12 Feb 2026
Times: 18:00-20:00 (2hrs) | Free/Ticketed
Location: Inspace, 1 Crichton St, Newington, Edinburgh EH8 9AB
Audience: General public
Venue Access features: Accessible toilets, Assistance dogs welcome, Baby changing facilities, Seating, Step-free access, Wheelchair accessible
If you have any enquiries about Inspace programming and the venue, please contact us at designinformatics@ed.ac.uk.
Sarah Calmus, Right to Roam project lead, is an interdisciplinary artist, programmer, and creator of large-scale immersive installations and provocations, working across a multitude of mediums such as light, sound and print. Accessible, multisensory, sustainably produced experiences are central within Calmus’s practice, where works often draw focus on environmental concerns that build equity for participators and critique and explore ecosystems of varying scales. Interested in building spaces to connect and reflect, her practice is intentionally interdisciplinary and participatory, viewed as a series of experiments underpinned with explorations into interaction.
Project Support
Ray Interactive is a specialist design studio, leveraging a passion for creative tech to help artists and organisations deliver engaging experiences for their audiences. Brendan McCarthy and Sam Healy are the core duo behind Ray Interactive. Working at the increasingly complex intersection of computation and creation, they assist artists and organisations to bridge gaps between art, design and technology. Through installations, innovative data visualisation and bespoke software, they push on the ever-blurrier boundary between art and science, while questioning the role of tech in society.
ASCUS Art & Science is a non-profit organisation bringing together art, science and beyond. They host Scotland’s first publicly accessible art-science lab providing training to help artists work on their independent creative art-science projects and exhibitions through providing affordable lab access. ASCUS has facilitated projects at the intersection of art and science by both UK and international artists.
Right to Roam is a project by led by Sarah Calmus, funded by Creative Scotland and supported by Inspace and the Institute for Design Informatics.
Supported by
