Monthly Archives: February 2017

Black Hole Club 2017 launch, 3rd March

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Black Hole Club officially returns on March 3rd with a takeover of Digbeth first Friday’s event at Vivid Projects. The night will feature the work of members both new and existing.

The Black Hole Club returns with a night of experimental new work in progress featuring performance, video, slides and assemblages. Focusing on the world around us, the works explore brutalism and taxonomies of the city ; ritual assemblage and incantations; states of mind; narratives of water and the body … and a golden glitter bath.

Featuring: Pete Ashton, Alex Billingham, David Checkley, Elizabeth Cuffley, Ferric Lux, Patrick Goodall, Barry Griffiths, Jaime Jackson, Sian Macfarlane, David Poole, Kate Spence and Sarah Walden.

I’ve been running Black Hole Club since 2015 and have organised events for it including I Am A Strange Loop, a Dirty Video Mixer workshop, a visit to Interact Labs at Phoenix in Leicester, various Crit Clubs, and more!

There’s still time to join this year. Contact antonio@vividprojects.org.uk for more information.

The Arts in a Digital World Summit, 15th – 17th March

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From 15th – 17th March I’ll be in Montreal, Canada to participate in the The Arts in a Digital World Summit.

Digital technologies have a major impact on how we work, communicate and engage with our community, with citizens, with the world , and the arts sector in Canada is no exception. How can the arts be amplified, adapt and thrive in the digital world? The Canada Council for the Arts is organizing The Arts in a Digital World Summit to answer these questions and more.

The Summit will initiate a series of crucial conversations within the arts community. To get the conversation started, we have invited some 250 artistic and administrative leaders in the Canadian arts sector, as well as digital experts and strategic thinkers, to represent the vast diversity of the sector and to contribute to the testing and understanding of our new Digital Fund for the arts.

Participation in the event is by invite only (soz) but some of the events will be streamed via the Summit’s website.

Art and Tech Social: Command-line image manipulation with ImageMagick, 7th March

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On 7th March I’ll be delivering a short workshop at BOM on using ImageMagick for image manipulation.

Join us for local food and drinks from Southside and get hands-on making with a bunch of like-minded folks interested in art and tech. This new monthly event aims to inspire emerging creatives and offer peer-to-peer tech support in a friendly, collaborative environment. Each workshop is different, featuring a different guest speaker and activities.

ImageMagick is a suite of command-line utilities for manipulating images. Most of its capabilities can be found in programs with a graphical user interface (GUI) such as GIMP or Photoshop. ImageMagick differs in its ability to use algorithms and programming to quickly batch process a number of images, add effects, convert between common and uncommon file formats, apply filters, generative special effects, and more!

In this workshop Antonio Roberts will introduce you to the using the terminal to perform tasks usually carried out by GUI programs. By the end participants will have learnt:

  • how to install ImageMagick
  • How to convert between file formats
  • How to view advanced metadata
  • How to apply a variety of effects to images
  • How to optimize files for print and internet
  • How to create animated gifs with only a few keystrokes

The workshop is free to attend. To take part you should bring a Mac or Linux computer. ImageMagick does 100% work on Windows but the way the terminal/command line works is very different from Unix systems. For those without a Mac or Linux computer please contact louise@bom.org.uk. If you’re feeling brave you can install ImageMagick prior to the start of the workshop.

Steve Davis DJ Set- 4th March

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On 4th March Steve Davis – yes, the six-time Snooker world champion – will be doing a DJ set at Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath, Birmingham and I’ll be providing his visuals 🙂

Steve Davis – the legendary sporting phenomenon from the 80s who took snooker to new heights and as presenter of The Interesting Alternative Show on Pheonix FM brought prog and jazz oddities to his cult audience, now turns his hands to the decks. As a hobby which he claims has spun out of control, his notorious 2016 Glastonbury set at the 500 capacity Stonebridge bar was mobbed by a curious turned shocked and enthralled crowd. With a packed out DJ diary since, Steve has continued to woo party goers from Bluedot to Bloc Festival. Drawing from an eclectic array of influences: Magma, Caravan, Oscar Perry, Soft Machine and Gong to name but a few – Steve spins together a unique set in his quest to deliver the music he loves to lovers of the party.

Support comes from Graham Dunning. Tickets are only £15.

Algorave Nottingham, 12th February

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On 12th February I’ll be on visuals duty for an Algorave taking place at Rough Trade in Nottingham as part of the Festival of Science and Curiosity

“The scene at an algorave is often what you’d expect from any good techno night – a dark room, engaging visuals, a decent, bass-heavy speaker set-up, and lots of people ready to dance… performers at algoraves respond to each other and the audience in real time, often projecting the lines of code onto the walls as they type. It’s coding as improvisation and experiment…” – The Wire magazine

Reaching over 40 cities over the past couple of years, Algorave is an “algorithmic rave”, where music and visuals come from code, constructed before your eyes. Originally coined in Nottingham, Algorave returns after 6 years, replenished and resplendent with a roster of exciting new algorithmic performances.

The event, running from 15:00 – 21:00, will feature Calum Gunn, ALGOBABEZ, Anny, Belisha Beacon, Heavy Lifting, Qirky and Littlelifeform, with myself and Rumble-San on visuals.

Tickets are only £5. Y’all can read an interview with anny if you need further convincing that Algoraves are awesome

Short Circuit – Terminal 2 – 10th February – 9th March

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After appearing first at Stryx in September 2016 the Short Circuit exhibition will be making its way to A plus A Gallery in Venice from 10th February – 9th March.

Short Circuit is an ambitious international touring group show devised by British independent curator, Aly Grimes, and consists of nine new media artists and collectives in an attempt to re-assess the archetypal framework of a travelling exhibition. It proposes a new experimental model of display realised in three different locations across Europe to include Birmingham, Venice and Copenhagen. The project’s structure aims to investigate new ways that exhibition spaces can present touring shows in the Digital Age and will manifest as a highly experimental research project susceptible to failure. It might glitch, trip, malfunction or ‘short circuit’.

This iteration will have updated versions of Unauthorised Copy and Exposed, both of which appeared the first exhibition.

Exhibiting artists include myself and Emily Mulenga, Juneau Projects, The Cool Couple, Kensuke Koike and Ryts Monet, Honey Biba Beckerlee, Johan Knattrup Jensen, and David Stjernholm.