Cian McCarthy

Cian McCarthy is a Dublin-based audiovisual artist and researcher whose practice explores the relationship between perception, technology, and the body. Working across sound, film, and installation, his work examines how flawed or obsolete technologies shape the way we sense and interpret the world.

Currently undertaking the Elevate Masters by Research Creation Bridges programme at IADT, McCarthy’s research project Resonant Perception: Flawed Technologies and the Sonic Body investigates how sensory error and technological distortion can be reclaimed as aesthetic and political strategies. Informed by disability theory, glitch aesthetics, and posthuman philosophy, the project reframes technological failure as a means of questioning ideals of clarity, optimisation, and normalcy.

McCarthy’s installations and sound works often merge degraded visuals with immersive, low-frequency textures, creating environments that evoke the instability of perception. His solo exhibition Flickering (Flux Gallery, 2024) and earlier work Echoes of Restoration (2023) used corrupted media and field recordings to explore fragility, decay, and the act of listening through error.

Performing under the alias Pesci Tooth, McCarthy also produces ambient and breakbeat compositions shaped by his experience of hearing impairment, privileging resonance and texture over volume. His broader practice advocates for accessibility, sensory diversity, and the creative potential of imperfection, proposing a space where flaw becomes a form of connection, and where the boundaries between body, machine, and environment dissolve into new forms of resonance.