And to think it all started, as a child, with sticking cardboard boxes together…

Now, years down the line, a Lancaster University contemporary art researcher has been selected for several prestigious exhibitions.

Tess Baxter, aka Tizzy Canucci, is an AHRC funded PhD researcher who has recently been selected for the Anharmonic Online Film Festival, Supernova Digital Animation Festival in Denver and for the Woolwich print fair in November.

Tess, a printmaker, video artists, writer and photographer who lives near Ulverston in Cumbria, researches life and creativity in the online world ‘Second Life’, and has exhibited her work internationally throughout her PhD studies.

One of Tess’s creations due to go on show at the various exhibitions is the mesmerising and uplifting out of isolation came forth light

“At 37Gb of data, two pieces of music, 60 pieces of video equating to 120 edits in 10 minutes and 13 seconds, statistically this was one of the most intense works I’ve made,” explains Tess.

Her love of this media began in 2009 when, as a part of a degree course, she read an article that mentioned the virtual world ‘Second Life’. She investigated and became hooked.

Known as Tizzy Canucci, her ‘Second Life’ name came from the first name in a photographic project she had just finished and a second name from those on offer.

Tess started creating more visual images during 2012 (Flickr), began blogging in 2013, and made the move to moving image work (also known as machinima, or video art) in 2015.

“I produce work out of, rather than contained within, Second Life,” explains Tess. “Virtual worlds are separate spaces, but they are different from the usual games.

“In virtual worlds, individuals build their own space and things from their own creativity, and share it with other users or ‘residents’.

“Computer games, on the other hand, are usually a planned product of a games studio that sets the rules and conditions of users.

“I remain interested in expanding the possibilities of the artform, as video art or the moving image, but also to develop that into printmaking – a previously unexploited avenue.”

Supervisor and lecturer Dr Jen Southern said: “We are delighted that Tess’s innovative and extraordinary art practice will be seen by audiences nationally and internationally. Her timely work has particularly strong poetic resonances now that we are all spending far more of our lives online.”