Phil Kieran: The Strand Cinema

A selection of videos created for Phil Kieran's "The Strand Cinema"

In March 2023, Phil Kieran released his album 'The Strand Cinema'. For the album’s launch, Kieran collaborated with a diverse range of artists from different disciplines. Drawing inspiration from animation, film, architecture, art, dance and computer science, Kieran and the artist’s explored the relationship between nature and technology, as well as the past, present and future. The launch show displayed the films these artists created, accompanied by Kieran and the Ulster Orchestra.

These heady topics were explored through the famous East Belfast Cinema and Arts Centre as a thematic lynchpin. Kieran, whose recording studio is in the cinema, describes how the pandemic inspired his approach to the subject: “I was interested in how the essence of the building as a communal space with its own daily rhythms was changed during the COVID lockdown. I reflected on how much film theatres worldwide have changed since my childhood and what the future might bring, not just for cinema, but for humanity.”

This collection gathers six of the project's films in one place and communicates some of Kieran’s ambition behind the project.