Blog on Antonio Roberts

What happened to me?

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As a follow up to my previous blog post about what happened to my website I wanted to write a bit about what has been happening to and with me. After a peak in creative activity in 2019 a few things happened which greatly affected my ability to be creative.

2019 was good!

If you have been following my work for a while, or if you’ve read any of my Year in Review blog posts you’ll have seen a steady increase in creative activity over the years. The peak of this was probably 2019. I felt very much at a high point in terms of creative activity and general enthusiasm for life. Highlights of this year include my solo exhibition at Czurles-Nelson Gallery in Buffalo, an Algorave performance at SXSW, the British Library and Corsica Studios, and being in conversation with the amazing Howie Lee at HKW in Berlin. 2020 also got off to a great start with badcirculation doing a performance at ICLC in Limerick and then I did a performance at Cafe Oto.

Algorave Cafe Oto. Photo by Seth De Silva

From there, though, everything got worse. On a global level of course lockdowns and the pandemic started. It should go without saying that this was a terrible time for so many people. On a personal and creative level things started to go downhill.

NFTs, bro

The first hit to my creativity was NFTs. In 2020 I witnessed a fracturing of the digital art community due to the sudden popularity of NFTs. I’m actually no stranger to blockchain and NFTs. I had contributed some art to the Plasma Bears NFT project in early 2019, and had toyed around with the idea of blockchains being useful for copyright around 2016: Digital images, which can be infinitely duplicated, cannot easily base their value on their scarcity. So, a unique “non-fungible token” representation can hold the financial value. Similar to how a signed copy of a print can have more value than an unsigned print.

However, on an implementation level I felt and still feel that NFTs are just terrible! Beyond a few more community-focused initiatives e.g. hic et nunc all I could see in the NFT space in the early 2020s mirrored bitcoin, blockchain, and the NFT space more broadly: exploitation, opportunism, theft, and hoarding of resources.

Seeing artists you know and respect go all in on blockchains and NFTs was tough to see. Perhaps naively I thought that because we shared common interests around open source software, creative coding, and glitch art, we would also be wary of NFTs and tech bros.

With that said I was somewhat envious of the enthusiasm and energy that formed around the more community-focused NFT spaces. People posting “gm” and “wagmi” was a bit cringe, but artists were also excited by digital art again. People liked sharing and collecting NFTs from their peers. Sure, the amounts they were being sold for were in the $10s - $100s range, but people were happy. There was a sort of mutual support.

There were even some artists who were making significant amounts of money. A well-known artist (who I won’t name) who has been practising since the 90s chimed in to say that, because of NFTs, for the first time in their career they were finally earning a living. Who was I to challenge this, especially when the alternative was to continue struggling, and especially at a time when so many people were losing their jobs.

The debates carried on and I overall I felt demoralised and demotivated. So, I took a step back and for the most part I stopped making digital art. I wanted to do a monthly set of gif packs but, alongside my own poor planning skills, I just didn’t want my work to be associated with what I saw as a very toxic and volatile environment.

A GIF from September 2021’s GIF Pack

Down with the sickness

As the world slowly started to open up in mid-to-late 2021 and the NFT hype died down I started to get back into making art again. Then, in May 2022 I got quite ill. I lost a lot of weight and was admitted to hospital for a few days. I’ve been open about this with friends but I don’t really want to go into all of the details on my website and have a permanent public record of it.

The next two-to-three years of recovery were some of the toughest years. A lot of hospital/GP visits, medications and rest. I’m very thankful to all those family and friends close to me for taking care of me during this time.

Photo taken after a performance at the Control Shift Algorave in 2023

These photos were taken just after performing at the Control Shift Algorave in 2023. You might think everything looks normal here but I personally think I look, well, kinda frail.

In a way I’m lucky that the majority of my work can be done from home. In the few hours that I was awake each day I could find the energy to make an animation or set something to render and then go back to sleep. Projects like Hyper Object, my Mondo Radio show, the Disruptive Frequencies artwork, and being a judge on the Small File Photo Festival were all projects done in the spaces in between feeling ill.

In June 2022 I should have been at AMRO with Maria/badcirculation but illness kept me at home. Thanks to Flok I was still able to perform from my bed in the UK with Maria on stage at the festival in Linz. Looking back I find it kinda funny that after the performance ended I literally just rolled over and went back to sleep!

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badcirculation performance at AMRO 2022. Note that I’m absent

Otherwise most of my activities from 2022 - 2025 were performances and workshops. These were relatively short activities that required me to do something intense for a day or two and then I could spend a few days recovering.

I was still able to complete some visual arts projects, but this was at a much slower rate and output than in previous years. For example, the A Boy is a Gun exhibition should have taken place in 2023 but Vivid Projects were understanding of my situation and so let me postpone it to 2024.

A Boy is a Gun exhibition. Photo by Angela Grabowska

(Algo|Afro) Futures continued during this time, albeit with a break in 2024. I am fortunate to have had assistance from additional mentors Alex McLean, Gary Stewart, and Tyger Blue during this time.

Also in 2024 I did a series of workshops with Site Gallery’s Society of Explorers which culminated in the Cyber Cafe exhibition.

Cyber Cafe exhibition. Photo by Laura Merrill

Cyber Cafe exhibition. Photo by Shared Programme

In general, though, I just didn’t have the energy to put into lots of small projects, applying to open calls, or writing project proposals. I relied heavily on people reaching out to me with proposals. There were a few invitations which would have been amazing but I outright declined because I couldn’t find the head space to do it. If you’re reading this from one of those projects I turned down get back in touch!

There were otherwise definitely times that I pushed myself too hard and I suffered as a result. For example I enjoyed performing at DA Z in Zurich in October 2022 with my Algorave friends, and then going to Piksel In Bergen to teach Hydra, but a week away living out of a backpack across two countries took a toll on my health, especially so soon after falling ill.

Similarly, going to Adela festival in 2023 to do a badcirculation performance should have been a chance to celebrate and bring the energy that I couldn’t at AMRO. Instead I spent every moment outside of performing in the hotel bed. The hosts were very caring and understanding about this <3.

I also feel a sense of regret about the activities I did take part in where I wasn’t able to be at my best. For example, I had big aspirations for my Pattern Club residency but illness struck again. Sure, I was ill so can’t be too hard on myself but I wish I could do it all over again.

I probably should have done less and focused on recovering but I also needed to attempt to maintain my practice and, y’know, earn a living!

My health slowly improved and by Summer 2025 I was finally approaching something resembling normal. I wrapped up (Algo|Afro) Futures, spent two weeks in June teaching at NØ SCHOOL NEVERS and then in October I spent two weeks in Argentina for Festival Tormenta and Algoraving with GEIKHA, irisS, munshkr, and more.

It’s too damn hot in Tucumán!

Teaching Hydra at Festival Tormenta

Teaching Strudel at Festival Tormenta

Performing at Festival Tormenta

These were amazing opportunities to meet old friends and make new ones, and to travel the world, but also it was really amazing to not have my health get in the way. After 3.5 years I could just be normal.

Move fast

As 2025 drew to a close I began to make plans for how I could spend 2026 fully getting back into my practice. This process involved a lot of reflection and considering my place in today’s art world. I’ve had a professional art career dating back to at least 2008 (as evidenced by my projects and events listings) and a lot has changed in that time.

Digital art is definitely more widespread than in the early 2000s and there’s better provision for it in education, contemporary galleries, and in more traditional galleries and museums. This wasn’t the case when I first started my practice, where sometimes even trying to exhibit a video felt like an uphill struggle! I’m glad to see this has changed and that there’s a lot of energy and excitement around digital art.

On the downside things move so much faster on the internet now. The internet of the 2010s was a lot slower, and you could have faith that if you invested days or weeks writing a blog post, creating an artwork, or creating a video it would be seen by your peers. The best example of this was my Databending in Audacity tutorial, which was the output of months of research and testing. It went on to have a lifespan of many years and introduced me to the global glitch art community.

Now, though, the lifespan of things posted on the internet can be measured in minutes. Algorithmic feeds encourage the constant publishing of “content”, with no guarantees that it’ll be seen by anyone. And it’s subsequently pushed so far down feeds that who knows if it’ll ever be seen again. It’s completely unrealistic to expect anyone to publish engaging work daily or weekly and doing so would just lead to burnout. It all just feels like a game where the rules aren’t clear and are changing every minute. I really don’t have the time or energy for that but it feels like the only way to be an artist today.

To add to this I am now seen as a mid-career artist. I think there is an assumption that artists/musicians who have had decades-long careers now have enough financial and institutional support and are somewhat stable or settled. Right now for me the opposite feels true. So many opportunities for funding and exhibiting prioritise early-career artists, without clearly defining what early-career is or why the opportunity excludes those not fitting that definition. This isn’t to say that early-career or young artists shouldn’t receive more support. In fact, I have been part of and delivered programmes and workshops specifically for these groups. The question I have is what support is there for those starting or restarting their career at a mid/later stage in their lives. After some time away from fully investing in my visual art/exhibiting career I feel like I am starting again and finding that support is limited.

So many applications!

So, with that assessment of the current situation I got planning and got active! I applied to quite a few large and small open calls. Many were rejected and a few were successful. It was tiring to invest so much creative energy and time only to be rejected but it was also a useful exercise to get back into writing applications and thinking about how I describe my practice and ideas.

I also took stock of what I have already achieved and what artworks, processes, and projects I can revisit or extend. A trap I have fallen into in the past is thinking that I need to have completely new ideas for each project. It took me a while to realise that it’s sometimes absolutely fine to iterate on existing ideas or even just exhibit completed works again. With this in mind I spent a lot of late 2025 and early 2026 cleaning up scripts, polishing processes, and revisiting projects. I posted occasional clips of experiments on Instagram and Mastodon in a very noncommittal way. It was encouraging to see how they were received and it gave me ideas for what I wanted to focus on going forward. Here’s a few of the things that I think I’m going to work on in the future:

PDF “glitching”

One of the first experiments I shared was my “pdf glitches” in December 2025. It’s technically not a glitch as there are no errors occurring, but the way that I have used the software to create these pdfs definitely counts as misuse. The result is these very dense and chaotic-looking documents.

My old livejournal posts

Instruction manual for the Neon C2370F TV and DVD player

Instruction manual for the Mainbow video synth

Instruction manual for the MPC Live II

These proved to be quite popular and I plan on producing a more curated selection of them at some point. I’d like to have them printed quite large.

Creating JPGs in Pure data

This was something that I started in 2012 and first exhibited with Some of my Favourite Songs. I think the methodologies for creating these images have other applications and so for about a year I have been creating some new images.

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Video created in Pure Data

JPG created in Pure Data

hellocatfood EP

I’ve been a performing musician since 2018/2019 and I think it’s now finally time to make some proper recordings. It’s a daunting and time consuming process but something which I know I’ll only get better at the more I do it. I have a few songs already written. Some are new but most are ones which I’ve played a lot over the years. Here’s one of my favourite live recordings which will hopefully give a sense of what’s to come.

I am considering whether to pursue releasing this on a label. I’ve witnessed how going through a label can be beneficial but can also introduce lots of delays and complications. I’m open to discussion on this but I may just go independent for this first release.

Databending

Databending is how my career started and so it feels fitting for me to revisit it to see what more can be done. I think the limit has perhaps been reached on what Audacity can do for databending, so I have been exploring other software with interesting results so far.

New databending experiments

Pixelated patchwork

Perhaps I’m in an algorithmically curated rabbit hole, but I have noticed a resurgence of pixel art imagery over the years. In particular people making pixelated images using tiles from computer games. I used to do a bit of this in 2012, in particular with this image series. I never did much with it beyond a few posters, and even more recently with the Algorave BMAG poster.

I have been combining this process with some patchwork-like techniques to create these images. They’re really fun and I would like to explore using these with textiles or other printing methods.

Copyright Atrophy

Although the Copyright Atrophy project is from 2013 I don’t consider it completely finished. I started making a video combining all of the logos in one display, with the idea to have an accompanying soundtrack that degraded over time. I displayed the silent video at Piksel in 2018 as one of their Pikselsavers and used a still from the video for an episode of Art of Now on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.

I have been taking small steps to complete the soundtrack and then finally complete the project. I’m aiming to exhibit it somewhere in 2027.

badcirculation

badcirculation has been a collaborative project between myself and Maria since 2019. We don’t perform that often but it’s always so much fun when it does happen. We have finally recorded an EP but we’re just in the mixing and mastering stage. It’s taking a while but it will be done soon. Here’s a recording from 2025 to give you a taste of what’s to come.

Forward

It has been a challenging few years but I am in a much better place now. I am worried about the future for many reasons (climate collapse anyone?!) but I am in a much better place in terms of my health and creativity and so feel ready to take on these challenges.

It’s not related to anything, I just like this photo

Thanks for reading!

Algorave Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery - 15th October

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Happy to announce that I’m organising an Algorave at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery on 15th October in the Tearoom!

Poster by meeeeeee

On the ~~decks~~ code will be myself, bundy, nadya via proxy and Epiploke.

I’ve been going to BMAG since I was really young so I’m very excited that I get to perform there soon! Go get your tickets!

QUOB 2026

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On 17th and 18th July I was in Lake District to perform at QUOB. It’s a relatively new festival, with the first edition only taking place in October 2025. It takes place in Fell Foot Woods in a barn/shed-type structure that can probably hold no more than 200 people.

In many ways it reminds me of a much smaller version of SUPERNORMAL Festival, in that I went there not knowing many of the artists but knew I was in for a well-curated series of weird and wonderful performances.

On the first night I was most looking forward to seeing Slikback. I’d played his music many times on my Mondo Radio and (Algo|Afro) Futures radio shows and so was really excited to see him perform. When he dropped Armada I joined the mosh pit! My back hated me the next morning but it was worth it.

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On Saturday I did two performances. The first was my usual footwork-inspired tracks with a bit of chaos on top. I will get around to doing a proper release of these soon, I promise!

Photo by symbramusic

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Video by symbramusic

Following that I did an unannounced super-secret visuals performance for Slikback’s DJ set (omg!). For this I used my modular video synth. It was also the first outing of my newly acquired Glitch Boy module. Definitely more that I want to explore with that. For example, it has bluetooth support so I want to hand out a controller to the audience so that they can play a game as I glitch it.

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Video by Paul Brawn

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Video by Paul Brawn

A huge thanks to the organisers for inviting me to perform. It’s not often that I get to do live coding outside of the usual Algorave and Algorave-adjacent contexts. I get a bit nervous thinking about how unfamiliar audiences will react to something very different but thankfully many people seemed to enjoy it!

Of course I really loved everyone’s performances but particular highlights were from Slikback (obvs), Bathing Suits (who gave me a shout out aieeee!), A’Bear, Alex Izaak Milling, CURRENTMOODGIRL, Kelly Jayne Jones, Grasping at Reality, and Brawny. Go support them, and of course support the festival itselef!

The very friendly robin that was nicknamed Quobin

What happened to my website?

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I started writing this blog post in the Summer of 2024. At the time I was on a game development course where we had a workshop on building a successful portfolio website. Many of us held our heads in shame as we looked at our horrible, barren, and outdated websites.

Shortly after this wake-up call I published a “back soon” blog post and hoped that I’d find the motivation to finally give my website some attention. Of course “back soon” turned out to be nearly two years. I’m now here on June 3rd 2026 returning to this half-written blog post which explained my absence but this time with an actually presentable website. So, let’s return to the original provocation of this blog post: What happened to my website and what can you expect going forward?

The tl;dr answer is that Wordpress became unbearable to use, the other services I relied on became shit, and a secret third thing which I’ll talk about in a later blog post.

Wordpress, why are you like this?

Since the beginning of time (2008 I think) my website was built on Wordpress and focused on blogging. Prior to Wordpress I was a livejournal user and so the idea of blogging felt natural to me, which Wordpress excelled at. Eventually, though, I really needed a way to showcase artworks without asking viewers to have to scroll back through the feed to find specific artworks. Since around May 2014 I used the Touchfolio theme which mostly solved this. It gave me a way to put images and videos of a project on the front page and add a short description. It did most of what I wanted with a few quirks.

My website in 2015

However, despite its popularity and mostly open source status, it was rarely updated and the bugs started to pile up. One issue was that Wordpress’s newly introduced custom widgets feature wasn’t supported. In general, Touchfolio seemed to implement its features in its own custom way and wasn’t being updated to do things in newly introduced “Wordpress” ways. So, any new features were a no go for me. For the most part that didn’t matter. I just needed to use Touchfolio’s in built gallery features and blog posts. As long as that worked I could mostly ignore its shortcomings.

Then, one day, the whole site broke. I can’t recall exactly what happened, but I think Wordpress dropped support for older versions of jQuery or some other software in the early 2020s. Bug reports on github suggest this happened around 2019 or 2020. There were various hacks and temporary workarounds but eventually, around April 2021 the solution was to drop the front page gallery, turning my website back into a blog.

What happened next is still a bit hazy to me. Either the Touchfolio theme became more incompatible with newer Wordpress versions and stopped working or I became sick of having an outdated theme. In any case around July 2023 the theme changed once again to one of Wordpress’s default themes.

Then, finally, some time in November 2024 I decided to replace my whole website with a one-pager that had some basic information, contact details, and links to places like instagram and youtube where you could find more up-to-date information. My website had gone from being useful repository of information and archive of my projects to being a functionally identical but expensive linktree that pointed people to other websites.

Fuck plugins, all my homies hate plugins

Alongside my theme breaking I was also battling with plugins. Plugins were one of the big features of Wordpress. I liked the idea that any problem you had could probably be addressed with a plugin. One of my favourite plugins was the Broken Link Checker. Link rot is definitely a real problem and so being able to identify broken links across my website and replace the link with a Archive.org link was great.

Over time I noticed the plugins becoming worse. To use a modern term they became enshittified. Plugins that were once independent were being acquired by larger plugin developers like WPMU Dev. Some started asking if they could track me, or prompting me to upgrade to a premium version. The most visible sign of the enshittification of plugins was when they turned my Wordpress dashboard into an advertising nightmare. So many requests to upgrade to premium that I never asked for.

My ad-filled wordpress dashboard

This screenshot was from June 2026 but it has definitely been this bad for a long time.

Plugins can of course just be disabled, but my issue was that I had long relied on a few for core functionality. For example, I used The Events Calendar and Events Calendar Shortcode plugins for my events page. It provided a really easy way to display events show more information. However, with each update brought the possibility of enshittification. I don’t remember if The Events Calendar did the ol’ bait and switch and put once core functionality behind a paywall, but tbh I stopped inputting events in the early 2020s and I didn’t want to stick around to find out.

Dependency hell

In the early 2000s/2010s APIs were the all the hype. The idea is that you would put all of your data, e.g. tweets, listening habits, reading lists, into a service and then you or anyone could utilise an API to interface with that service and potentially build services on top it. This is why, for a time, there were a number of alternative twitter clients, or widgets that would display your last.fm listens or recent Facebook updates.

Having all of these connected services was actually quite cool. btw do you also hear that foreboding music too? Anyway…

An external service I relied on heavily was Flickr. Very early on I was using Gallery 3, which is why some very early posts have these weird embed codes instead of images. It was functional but also a bit cumbersome whereas Flickr seemed to understand that artists and photographers wanted an easy way to view and share photos. For a very long time nearly any photo or short video was an embed from Flickr. It was so useful that I even bought a pro subscription.

By 2020 I was using Flickr less and less. This could have been due to using instagram more (I even toyed with having a separate artist account for a time), but also lockdowns had just started and so there were fewer opportunities for me to take photos to upload.

For a few years I begrudgingly kept paying for a pro subscription. By this point Touchfolio had stopped working so the albums for each artwork and project became my pseudo-portfolio. But over time I resented paying for a service that I was barely using. I only kept paying because some others relied on it (e.g. Algoravers used photos I had taken for press shots) and I had invested so much time and effort into it (sunk cost fallacy anyone?).

Once Flickr raised their subscription prices a few too many times I decided it was time to stop paying. My account reverted back to a basic one and I got warnings saying that photos that went beyond my free account quota would be deleted. The only concern I had about this was that if photos beyond a certain date or count were deleted many blog posts would have gaping holes where photos once were.

I honestly now regret relying on these external services so heavily.

And it’s not just Flickr. I have similar feelings about Vimeo. For a few years I had a pro account. Once I stopped paying I was assured that uploads that went beyond my free account quota would still be accessible but I just couldn’t upload any more. Then, in May 2026 they reversed this and there are probably now videos which are inaccessible.

Back to basics

All of this showed me that using Wordpress with other services for embedding media/content wasn’t working. It used to work but the internet changed, and my needs changed. So I began the long task of finding an alternative.

So many artists and graphic designer friends and peers have really nice websites built on top of Squarespace, Wix, or some other portfolio service. I briefly considered this as it would make my life so much easier but I would essentially be trading one walled garden for another. Whatever framework, CMS, or service I did adopt would have to do a few things:

Portfolio and project pages

Honestly, I liked the Touchfolio full-page showcase (I think this is called hero images). It would have been great if those linked to project pages where I could show more information.

RSS feed

RSS does one thing and it does it well: It lets people subscribe to and read my blog. Sure, it’s not new and fancy, but it works.

Import existing blog posts

This is one of the most important requirements. My blog has posts going back nearly 20 years. In many ways I see my website as a resource for other people. It is a showcase for my work but it is also where I share progress updates, code, and tutorials, the most well known of these being my Databending in Audacity tutorial.

The earliest snapshot of the Databending in Audacity tutorial

It was posted in 2009 and in the years since it has been referenced, linked to and replicated so many times. Sure, it doesn’t show at the top of search results anymore, but I feel that this is an important part of glitch art’s history and so I want to try and preserve it as much as possible.

Then there’s my other tutorials such as Seamlessly loop Wave Modifier in Blender, Datamoshing using Avidemux 2.7.0, and (mis)Using FFmpeg’s Motion Interpolation Options. These posts provide specialist information to a small group of people but I still want to preserve it and have it be of service to others who have the same unique needs that I do/did.

If the service or framework that I adopted couldn’t import blog posts then it would have been a no from me.

So, in reality if my new website could be like Wordpress + Touchfolio in 2014 then I would be happy.

A new challenger approaches

I had heard of static website builders for a while. Conceptually they are like like a modern day equivalent of Dreamweaver or Front Page Express in that you do all of the building and editing locally and then upload it to a server. One difference is that you keep the content and theme/styling separate: you write your content in markdown files and it takes that content and builds the website for you. No server-side dynamic page building at all!

When I started (Algo|Afro) Futures in 2021 I needed a very basic site for it and so chose the Hugo static site builder. I don’t know if there was any big-brained process behind this decision but I liked how it worked. Most importantly it was lightweight and fast. I could do an update and be confident that there would be no plugin or backend updates that would break the site. I could set it and forget it. This positive experience convinced me to use Hugo for my redesign.

(Algo|Afro) Futures website in 2025

Migrating was a gargantuan task, and one that is still ongoing. As mentioned earlier, I had two decades of blog posts to migrate, and then there was embedded content from Flickr that was going to disappear so I needed to account for that too. Fortunately for me there are a few plugins and services for migrating. I think I used this WordPress to Hugo Exporter which had the added feature of including any embedded media in its export. This meant all external Flickr photos were included! I would still have to do manual work to get attachments working and redirect some links, but this saved me a lot of work.

I had this exported archive sitting in various location on my computer for maybe two years before I got the motivation to do the migrating.

Relaunch

2025 -2026 saw the website rebuilding process pick up pace and now it’s in a fairly usable state. I think I officially uploaded the new site on 5th July. The most remarkable thing about it is that, well, it’s unremarkable! It doesn’t do anything other than display my art, events, projects, and blog. On the viewer-facing side the most “fancy” thing is does is have an image carousel on the front page. On the user-facing side (that’s me) I’m just happy I have a reliable way to host and update my art. Of course there’s always a chance that Hugo could become unmaintained, but having everything in plain text files that can easily be parsed (thanks yaml!) means that it’s easy to migrate should I need to do it again.

The future

Now that my website is back, what now?

I’ll be gradually adding old projects, fixing links and embedded content, and making sure that my archive is up-to-date. For example, you may have seen that I have events listings going back to my graduate show 2007! Many of those listings still have their original event urls. 99% of people won’t look at anything older than two years, but for me it’s important to have a record of everything that I’ve done. As a solo freelance artist I find all too easy to fall into pits of despair, particularly after waves of rejections or comparing myself to people on Instagram. Seeing my events listings and old projects helps to remind me that, even in periods of down time, I have accomplished things and I hopefully will again in the future.

I can also see myself getting back into blogging again. In fact, I already have been posting a few things since relaunching. I prefer blogging over (or in addition to) posting social media as there’s a sense of permanence. For example, Sometimes I like to write essay-length posts on Mastodon, and on occasion a late-night sketch gets lots of attention on Instagram.

I’m glad that there’s an audience for these posts but after a day or two they get lost in the feed. I would spend hours agonising over how to distil an idea into Instagram’s rigid formats or Mastodon’s content limits (word count, images or videos, not both), find an optimal time to post, pick my best/most optimised content only for the post to get little attention and then promptly get lost in the feed.

Sinking so much time into posting on social media feels like lost time. But, I recognise that it is necessary for artists and musicians to have a presence on these platforms. So, I will continue to post on social media, but for when I really want to do a “deep dive” into a topic or have something more permanent that I can point people to I will post/cross-post onto my blog.

Overall, I’m just happy to once again have a place for my art and writing that I can call my own.

Errorcamp 2026

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

From 23rd - 26th July I was somewhere in rural Exeter for Errorcamp, which is a semi-annual gathering of live coders. It’s not really an official event, festival, or conference, so the best way to learn more about it is to become part of a local live coding community.

I had gone to previous Errorcamps and one thing I really valued about it was having the opportunity to spend time with live coders in an informal environment. My understanding is that it was started as a way to reconnect after being locked away indoors for much of 2020-2021. As a global community of live coders we had been regularly organising week-long live streams and attending conferences like ICLC, and I think we were missing having that semi-occasional meeting of international live coders. This story might not be accurate, but it’s how I think of it. In any case, one thing I like about Errorcamp is being able to be in a space with people you may only know by a username or code contributions.

There was a loose agenda and activities list which was largely decided by the attendees themselves. Anyone could propose an activity whether that be a workshop on knitting (everyone loved this), deep listening, building robots, or just a walk up a hill. Unlike previous Errorcamps this year I purposefully set out to do less. There’s always an interesting workshop, or a demonstration of a synth, or a live coding jam happening, and it can sometimes be overstimulating. If I were to try to do everything it would lead to, as it has done in the past, a bit of burnout and not really fully engaging in anything (is this fomo?). So, this year I did less.

I had a lot of fun choreographing robots with Joana and Alex, learning about making heavy metal in Strudel with Boggo, and learning more about TouchDesigner from Chau. Aside from that here’s a few of my outputs from the weekend:

Algo Grime

At some point I got speaking to Nkosi Khumalo. He mentioned how he’s been trying to create grime music using live coding. Here’s what he had accomplished already:

I am by no means well versed in grime, let alone algorithmic grime, but I have dabbled a bit in this via the remix badcirculation did of Gaika’s song Forward. My own songs which explore footwork and house also brought a bit of knowledge too. Nkosi mentioned that he was inspired by or wanted to reference Don’t Waste my time by Krept & Konan, and so with that a few hours later here’s what I created:

This was a very fun challenge figuring out which aspects of grime to replicate e.g. the triangles, wub wub bass, and the quite sparse 808s. I can definitely see myself adopting this more in the future. I’m looking forward to hearing Nkosi’s lyrics on top of it.

Silent Running

On the final night we all had an interesting option of doing a live score to the 1972 film Silent Running. The idea was that during the many sections without dialogue we could separately or collaboratively do a score for it. I’d never heard of the film before but Sheffield’s own 65daysofstatic had done a new score for it in 2011 for Glasgow Film Festival.

I asked to score the opening title sequence and the section following it, with each being about three minutes. I wanted something slightly sombre sounding to match the dystopian tone of the film. I was also imagining something minimal like the opening of Idaho by Open Mike Eagle. For chords I basically opened this chord voicings list and picked chords until I was happy.

I really really really love cello and upright bass sounds. There’s something about the dry, deep, gravelly sound that I enjoy, so I was happy to see Strudel already has some synthesisers (gm_cello:1 and gm_acoustic_bass:2) for this.

Finally, I added in some weird synthy noises from a Korg Monotron Delay. Here’s a recreation of the opening credits with the code overlaid.

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If the complete rescoring of the film from Errorcamp is uploaded anywhere I’ll edit this post with a link to it.

For my second section I reused the first part of my contribution to the Behind the Screens series. It didn’t fit too well but it was interesting to give a new context to an earlier work.

Dude chilling

Aside from that I really just had a great time chillin’ out ~~maxin’, relaxin all cool~~ and learning about what everyone else is up to. Here’s some photos:

Thanks to the organisers and hosts for such a great weekend!

Week of Patching Day 2

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

July 6th - 12th was a self-directed Week of Patching, initiated by Paloma Kop.

Week of Patching is a playful invitation to spend a week, in parallel with other people across the internet, engaging with a patching-based practice.

[…]

Each day, create a patch and then make a recording of its output.

At the end of the week, take pieces of all of those recordings and edit them together into a single composition. (It doesn’t have to be long; for example, you could take 30 seconds of each patch in series to create a 3.5 minute composition.)

From my earliest days of doing creative coding I have been really interested in patching environments, specifically Pure Data. I like how I can trace the flow of data by simply looking at patch cable, even if the actual patch ends up being a mess!

Since 2023 I’ve also been into hardware video synthesis via LZX/Syntonie Eurorack modules, which I really love for the same reason, but also because, unlike software, you can really just plug something in and see what happens. As long as you’re not literally giving something too much electricity it’s pretty hard to generate no output.

I go through phases of being really into patching and then not touching it for weeks or months. Seeing the announcement of Week of Patching I was excited to get the motivation to do it again. Alas, life always finds a way to interfere with plans, so in the end I only did day #2.

The tl;dr is that I wish I dedicated more time to experimenting and not try and rush something to meet a deadline. I should also try and decide on a recording setup ahead of time. And finally, I also think the heatwave massively affected my ability to think and deal with technical issues.

Cardinal (VCV Rack), TidalCycles, monome grid

Creating the Cardinal patch was initially quite challenging. I had big ideas but hadn’t patched in a month or two so spent most of time was spent remembering what modules do. Eventually I settled on a very simple but effective ambient pad sound with some modulation.

To create melody I had a couple of options. In most situations I would just use TidalCycles to generate a melody and send midi to Cardinal, but in the spirit of experimentation and using things I already own I opted to use the monome grid. Early in 2026 they released iii, which basically turns the grid into a standalone instrument. I loaded it with the wake script (a standalone variation of awake) which let me play some nice generative melodies.

Next I wanted to add some percussion and granular sounds using TidalCycles. On paper this was very simple but in trying to keep everything in sync I resurfaced a bug that I discovered in 2020. TidalCycles can use AbletonLink for its clock and bpm syncing. Carla is a plugin host (think virtual pedalboard) which can also use AbletonLink. What this means is that any vsts/lv2s that you load in Carla that use clock/bpm will now all be in sync with TidalCycles. Great!

I used Carla to host the Cardinal lv2 plugin. In Cardinal I used delay modules which used the host’s (Carla) bpm. So far no issues. I then wanted to send the clock, bpm and transport information to the monome grid so that it’s melody (generated via wake) would be in sync with everything else. x42 had made a very useful plugin for sending clock, transport, and bpm over midi called mclk.

There is, however, one massive catch: The moment you enable “Use Ableton Link” in Carla the mclk plugin stops working. Or maybe it’s Carla that stops working. Either way, the result is that the clock/bpm doesn’t get sent to the monome grid. When I reported this “bug” in 2020 a fix for mclk was proposed but ultimately not implemented, with x42 saying that it’s an issue with Carla. Yay. With time running out and the heatwave reducing my patience for tech issues to zero I just ditched the idea of integrating TidalCycles.

Video patching

I similarly had quite big ambitions for creating visuals with the video synth which failed to materialise. What I wanted to do was control my video synth modules with either the monome grid or Cardinal. I would have achieved this by using the Univer Inter module to convert usb midi to CV, and then the SCA-5 Voltage Scaler to scale those voltages down to 0-1v.

I didn’t want to do audio-reactive visuals, but instead have the visuals be closely tied to the audio. In reality, like the audio, I rushed and put a bit too much pressure on myself to create something interesting. A thing that I have learnt about my creative process is that some of my best or most fun work comes out of free experimentation. The moment that I am faced with any deadlines and expectations I essentially freeze up.

I remember reading an interview with Sarah GHP where she talks about her process and has a similar outlook:

So have a goal, have a bunch of happy accidents, and then try to understand things so you can recreate the accidents. You will have more accidents and grow your list of things to understand.

[…]

So, I guess my advice is:

Look for your starting point. What do you actually like? What do you like that isn’t what everyone else likes? Being a bit of a hater (in your head!) is also a good way to find a starting point. Don’t be mean, but it is useful to know what you do not want to do, especially if you aren’t sure what you want to do.

Go out and fuck up a lot.

Find a balance between exploration and deliberation. Don’t try to save everything because you will drive yourself mad.

Focus on understanding and avenues will open up around that.

The video patch I created was still really nice and gave me room to play, but there’s definitely some playfulness missing.

Patching it together

I haven’t done many at-home recordings of synth jams but this seemed like a good opportunity to do so even if the conditions were not ideal. An issue that I, and many others living in small apartments, faced is I don’t have a dedicated space where I can leave all of my equipment permanently set up. I have to wait for any shared space to become available and then reconstruct my setup each time. It’s inconvenient and takes time away from creating.

Eventually I found a spot on the dining table to film. I spent more time than I should have arranging the synths and laptop so that everything was in shot.

The layout meant that using the video synth was actually kinda difficult. I couldn’t see all of the modules and had to reach over quite far to turn some knobs.

After about 30 minutes of arranging I settled on a setup, sat down and hit record! Enjoy 8ish minutes of me pressing buttons and twiddling knobs.

I should do this more often

The result was quite pleasant though not musically or visually very interesting. In an ideal world this would have served as day 0 of the Week of Patching, a day to make sure all of the hardware and software was working as expected and create an environment that I could comfortably create in. But, as the saying goes, life… finds a way to mess up your plans!

Hopefully this will serve as a reminder to me to do more experiments so that I’m not caught off guard for the next Week of Patching. Thanks to Paloma Kop for starting this initiative, it was still a fun learning experience!

2026

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Creating the Basic Waveforms artwork

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Editor's note — 30.07.2026

This blog post is based on a set of posts I made on Mastodon in December 2025. I’m reposting it here with some added information.

On Friday 4th December Charles Céleste Hutchins released a new EP, Basic Waveforms, and I was happy to create the artwork for it! Charles had already had a go at creating artwork for it but I jumped in and said I could probably create something based on it.

Before I get into how I made the artwork you should definitely listen to and buy the EP.

Basic Waveforms by Charles Celeste Hutchins

I already knew that I wanted to use analog video synthesis to create the artwork. For those not in the know, video synthesis is similar to audio synthesis, but instead of +1 to -1 doing amplitude things, think of it as going from white (+1) to black (0) to white (-1). This creates vertical lines on a screen. The higher the frequency, the more lines there are. The higher the amplitude the more visible the lines are. Of course there’s a lot more to this but that basic explanation should suffice for now.

I have a modular video synthesiser featuring a bunch of modules primarily from LZX and Syntonie. Check out my full setup on Modulargrid if you’re interested.

Hydra alternative

Side note, you can always take a step into video synthesis without shelling out a lot of money by using Hydra from Olivia Jack. Here’s an example of a few waveforms with help from a plugin by kandid.

Back to video synthesis

The first stage was building the video patch for each waveform. LZX’s DWO3 module is responsible for most of it. I just modulated some vertical square waves with either a horizontal sine, square, or triangle wave.

I also created a video for each track. The Univer Inter midi to CV module made creating a timeline for the video really easy as I could create a midi sequence using any software on that could output midi.

Originally I wanted to use Ossia to send out midi values but I couldn’t get it to work exactly how I wanted so instead I used Ardour which might sound like a surprising choice!

In Ardour I created a CC automation track and tried to make the values reflect the intensity of the music. This was sent to Univer Inter over USB and then to the CV input of a few different eurorack modules.

With all the automation set up I hit play and recorded the video using OBS. I also controlled the video synthesiser manually for some parts to avoid it feeling too robotic. Here’s a bit of me recording the Squares track.

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So that’s everything done, right? Nope! I really liked the output but felt it looked a bit too clean despite it being the output of a noisy analog setup. I wanted to have a few more subtle imperfections, similar to the CRT shaders that you get on things like Retroarch. I could have used the brilliant ntsc-rs plugin to achieve this but even that didn’t feel right.

Here’s a section of the Sines track as captured from OBS from a cheap composite capture card.

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A common practice in the video synth world is something called rescanning, which is basically pointing a camera at a screen and recording the output. There’s a few reasons that you might want to do this including upscaling and for glitch art, but for my purpose the screen itself would introduce some hopefully subtle artefacts and make it look more authentically analog. One small problem: I don’t own a CRT! They’re getting expensive to buy (even second hand) and I needed one by the next day. Luckily Vivid Projects have several so I ventured there to use one.

Using a HDMI to composite adaptor I sent my laptop video out to an old Trinitron TV. Aaaand then the TV exploded! It was actually quite dramatic. It made a poof sound and then the magic smoke was released from the back. After apologies were given and the smoke cleared I opted to instead use a much smaller black and white CCTV monitor. I again loaded up the video into OBS and used a combination of Stable and CVB001 eurorack modules to have some control over contrast and saturation.

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Once home I finally brought in all of the footage and did some basic cropping and perspective editing. A last-minute change I made was to show the TV frame. I think it helped to give context and show that it really is a CRT and not just a filter. There’s also a little bit of ghosting and screen flickering due to refresh rates of the camera and screen, but again I like it!

For the final EP cover I put the artist and title text on separately using GIMP as it was too blurry from the CRT rescan.

Overall I’m really happy with how it all turned out and I enjoyed the multi-part process of making it!

You should definitely go support Charles and buy his EP!

(Algo|Afro) Futures - 2021-2025

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Editor's note — 02.09.2026

(Algo|Afro) Futures ended in 2025. I published an announcement on Instagram and Mastodon about this, but I thought I’d also publish it here with some more thoughts so that it has a place off social media

Logo by Designer Philly

After four editions of the programme, (Algo|Afro) Futures has come to an end.

We started the programme in 2021 as a way to address the lack of diversity that myself and co-founder Alex McLean had noticed within the UK live coding scene.

Photo by Marcin Sz

Photo by Jodi Cunningham

Since then, the live coding scene has changed a lot. New tools have been built, more people are finding out about live coding through their own means, and bringing their own take on what can be done with live coding.

I’m proud of the impact that this programme has had - we’ve been able to give 25 early-career Black artists the time, space, and support for them to learn live coding. It certainly hasn’t solved the problem of diversity and racism within the live coding scene, nor was that ever the intention, but I also feel it’s time to give space for this new generations of live coders to develop a programme that reflects who they are and how they work.

Vivid Projects, the project partner and host organisation, is committed to supporting artists and creatives from under represented communities through a dedicated programme. They would love to hear from anyone who wanted to take the lead on starting a similar project. Get in touch!

Photo by Marcin Sz

Photo by Leah Moses

Photo by Jake Williams

Thanks to co-founder Alex McLean for supporting the programme from the very beginning. Thanks to guest mentors Gary Stewart and Tyger Blue. Thanks to Designer Philly for our awesome logo. Thanks to the various organisations that have provided additional support: Then Try This, Birmingham Open Media, University of Birmingham, and Brum Radio. Thanks also to Arts Council England for their support.

Thanks to all of the participants on the programme, it was a joy watching your skills develop and I hope you continue to make great things.

Photo by Jake Williams

Thanks once again to Yasmeen Baig-Clifford and Vivid Projects for everything ❤️ And finally, thank you, the audience, for attending the showcase events, watching the live streams, listening to the radio show, and being enthusiastic about this programme and live coding. There’s still so much work to do to recognise the Black and Queer history of digital art, dance and electronic music, and having the support of people helps validate these efforts.

Thanks and goodbye!

(Algo|Afro) Futures
2021 - 2025

2025

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

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2022

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

2021 Year in Review

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t have too much to say about this year. It was of course difficult in many ways but there were some moments of relief, especially when I get to see people IRL. Of course the pandemic and everything else in this world is still happening but I really valued those little moments, especially around August - October, where I could just do things. Anyway, on with the overview of 2021!

January

Not much happened in January. The Idle Index exhibition at Phoneix concluded with a talk between some of the artists involved.

February

There were a lot of presentations, lectures and workshops delivered this year and this activity all started around February. After lectures for VCU and The Courtald I did a rather big presentation as part of the Screenwalk series from The Photographer’s Gallery and Fotomuseum . It was a general overview of my practice but also welcomed back a sonification performance but with added Korg Volca synths.

I also started delivering a four-part Blender workshop series. Side note, check out Devon Ko’s amazing thread on Blender resources and in particular why you shouldn’t follow the donut guy.

Finally this month I announced (Algo|Afro) Futures.

This programme is really important to me, and its launch comes/came at a time when it’s more important than ever to address racism and diversity in every aspect of art and culture.

March

This month I did two presentations which came out of my takeover on the Minorities in Stem twitter account in 2020. The first was a presentation about live coding for Nerd Nite London. The second presentation only two days later I had the honour of being a Guest Conductor on The Coding Train!

Although I don’t use Processing/p5.js in my work I do really admire the work that Dan Shiffman does and how accessible his tutorials are. He’s really one of my favourite online educators and so it was an honour to be asked to present my work and talk about live coding to his audience. I followed my presentation with a little performance too!

Fundraisers for both of those events helped to raise nearly £10,000 for Coders of Colour :-)

April

It was fairly quiet in terms of output, partly due to ill health. I spent a week in London delivering workshops for New Town Culture with Company Drinks.

After a long deliberation process I was happy to announce the successful applications to the (Algo|Afro) Futures programme, Jae Tallawah, Samiir Saunders, Rosa Francesca, and Emily Mulenga.

May

The Rules of Engagement exhibition that I curated for ODI happened back in November 2020, but in May I was in conversation with two of the participating artists, Everest Pipkin and Nick Briz, about their work . Always great to speak with them!

I also made a new video work for the Estuary Festival , which took a trip down the Thames Estuary, showing how it was projected to flood over 100 years. The video I created is titled A Short History of Nearly Everything (big-up to fellow Reuben fans).

Making this video was a real learning experience, particularly in making the soundtrack. I feel that since making the soundtrack for Windows Explorer and Nodes I’ve slowly begun to be more considerate about making music, and making a 40-minute soundtrack gave me a lot to think about in terms of pacing and transitions. Still more to learn about mixing and mastering, but I definitely could sense I made progress.

I also did visuals at the Overlap Social event, which was my first in-person performance since February 2020!

And also this month I contributed to an NFT artwork that was sold at the Proof of Sovereignty Christies auction. The artwork, F473 by Coin Artist was an NFT and also a game! I was really happy to be working with Coin Artist/Blockade Games again (I previously did some work with/for them in 2018 with Plasma Bears).

If you’ve been on the internet at all this year you will have no doubt seen the discourse around NFTs. I still have mixed-to-negative opinions about NFTs in general, so it’s very unlikely that you’ll see me “mint” or “drop” my own works,

June

This month I was really excited to finally launch A.M. Darke’s artwork that I commissioned for the ODI Rules of Engagement exhibition, fairlyintelligent.tech. To launch the artwork I was in conversation with A.M. about their work

Another huge announcement was that I Am Sitting in a Room was acquired by the Government Art Collection!

This artwork, originally made in 2010, is a remix of Alvin Lucier’s (RIP) work of the same name. I’m really happy that they chose to acquire this piece as it marked a significant moment in my career as a digital artist.

July

The big thing to happen this month was the conclusion and celebration event for the (Algo|Afro) Futures programme. After a bunch of in-person and online workshops each of the participants presented a new performance at Vivid Projects!

The whole event was live-streamed:

I’m really proud of what they all achieved in just a few short months!

I also made a music video for Affirmation by Echo Juliet

August

I did an online performance for Flash Crash and then presented some illustration work for Birmingham Design Festival’s Creative City exhibition

September

Another month of not much output, primarily as I was busy preparing new works. I celebrated my birthday with a performance at an Algorave in Sheffield, my first in-person live coding performance since February 2020!

I also produced a new commission for Beatfreeks’ Youth Trends report. You can see the commission and listen to a discussion I had about art made with data.

By far my highlight of September was Errorcamp, which saw around 50 live coders spend a few nights in the Lake District. We did some performances, some workshops, and some talks, but the most important thing for me was all of us just being in the same space together. The community aspect of Algorave and live coding is so important and I was really missing the in-person stuff, so I was glad to be there with others :-)

I also appeared as a guest on the BBC Arts & Ideas podcast.

October

This was a big month! It seems as though almost everything that was postponed in 2020 was rescheduled to take place in October 2021! My month of events started with a couple of performances at No Bounds Festival in Sheffield. Part of it was a presentation of prerecorded performances by (Algo|Afro) Futures participants and music by me, and then I performed visuals with both Alex McLean and eye measure.

Then, a week later I presented new video work at the Corridor of Light festival in Manchester. The video, Move Fast And B̴͓̝͉͝r̴̞͕̬͒̾̃e̷̜̖̾̊a̸͙̲̾͐́k̴̡̩̥̆͘ Things is quite possibly my biggest projection and was placed in a very prominent position on Oxford Road. It was such a joy to see people stopping and watching the piece.

This was another instance where I was really happy with the music that I made. It was made primarily using TidalCycles which I mostly used as a sequencer, and then did lots of editing in Ardour.

I also co-cutrated an Algorave, which saw Bad Circulation do their only public performance of the year.

The following week I was in Nottingham to deliver a few workshops and then to install my work for the Cut & Mix exhibition at New Art Exchange. The conversations with the exhibition’s curator, Ian Sergent, started in February 2020, and so I’m glad that the exhibition was postponed rather than cancelled.

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The exhibition is quite close to my heart, and it’s the first time I’ve ever really focused on race in my own work, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I’m already planning an extension of the work and will definitely talk and write more about the concepts behind it in the future. Also happy to see the exhibition get a mention in the Guardian.

On the same night Careful Networks also launched.

November

I started running another short course in Blender and then started doing Hydra workshops at Site Gallery in Sheffield.

I also made a variable glitch typeface and some gifs for the Animate Assembly website.

By far the biggest thing was the Concerning Photography event by The Photographers’ Gallery and Paul Melon Centre. I did a keynote artist talk about my practice on the third day of the conference. I’ll update this post with a recording once it’s published.

December

As usual December was quite quiet. I did a performance for the Between Sound and Concept: Listening with the CCRU event at Coventry Biennial. I was quite ill that day so wasn’t my usual energetic self, but did use it as a chance to do a live debut the Pulse and Nodes tracks. I’m definitely near the point where I’m ready to make an EP or something more official.

I then took part in a discussion with Alexandra Cardenas at ICLC.

We were discussing diversity within the live coding community and the challenges we have both faced in this area. I was really happy to discuss the (Algo|Afro) Futures programme further. In general I really hope that the programme inspires live coders and algoravers in other communities to start their own similar programme. I would hate it if people saw this programme and thought that the work to combat racism is now “done”.

I finished the year by taking part in the TidalClub Longest Night live stream event. My performance was similar to the CCRU set but with a more refined and a new ending piece.

Also in December a remix I provided for Phoneutrian’s Sercle EP was released! My contribution was a remix of the song Crystal Mashup. Lots of other great songs on there!

Sercle + Remixes by hellocatfood

End

So that was the year! No specific hopes for the future other than to survive and continue to learn and develop. Vague, I know, but then so is the future.

I Am Sitting In A Room acquired by Government Art Collection

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I’m happy to share that my 2010 video, I Am Sitting In A Room, has been acquired by the Government Art Collection as part of Art X-UK, a permanent collection of works by 45 visual artists from across the UK.

In this difficult and unusual year, the Collection invited the networks for nine regions in England, and the networks in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, to nominate artists as part of a special project, Art X-UK. Our collection curators went on a virtual tour of artists’ studios from Penwith to Ballygally, to select works for the Collection to display in government buildings worldwide. Art X-UK, supported by the Advisory Committee on the Government Art Collection, was a unique way of responding to the impact of COVID-19 on the visual arts sector.

This project has enabled the Collection to support 45 artists, acquiring over 90 works, and spending £230,000 across the UK. As part of the nomination process, we asked each network to form a group and put forward the artists’ names, providing a statement on their selection process for transparency, including a list of the selectors. Asked to consider diverse representation of artists within each region, 24 of the artists are women, 2 identify as non-binary, 20 as minority ethnic, 6 as LGBTQ+, and 4 with disclosed disability.

I Am Sitting In A Room is my take on the 1969 artwork of the same name by Alvin Lucier, in which he recorded himself narrating a text, then played the recording back into the room, re-recorded it, played it back etc.

In my take I used a process of repeatedly glitching font files. I documented this process in several blog posts at the time, including a recent blog post where I tried to recreate the work in 1920x1080 resolution.

I’m really happy that they chose to acquire this piece as it marked a significant moment in my career as a digital artist. It was one of my first works to incorporate automation/programming and the work being screened at GLI.TC/H 2010 in Chicago represented one my first significant international screenings. The piece even was screened at Alvin Lucier’s 80th birthday celebrations in 2011!

Really happy that my work is part of this round of acquisitions along with a lot of great artists :-)

Controlling Improviz Using Midi via OSC

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In 2020 I did quite a number of workshops in using the Improviz visuals live coding environment. Improviz can be thought of as a fork of Livecodelab, especially as its developer, Guy John, is one the developers of Livecodelab. However, it has some key differences that make it stand out as its own unique software:

It works on the desktop, and I think it is faster because of it
The language is more fully documented
You can load your own textures, gifs, 3D models, and shaders

Being able to load your own textures might in itself be a reason for many people to switch from Livecodelab to Improviz. Things can be that just a bit more personalised when you’re using your own images and objects rather than only colours, gradients and basic geometrical shapes. Another potentially useful difference is that in Improviz you can interface with the software using Open Sound Control (OSC). This opens up the possibility of using software or external hardware devices. In this blog post I’ll take you through how you can connect a midi controller to Improviz via OSC and Pure Data.

To get started you first need to define a variable in Improviz that you want to be changed by OSC/midi. The name of this variable can be anything as long as it’s not a name already used as a function or variable in Improviz. Check the reference page for a list of reserved names. In my example I’ve used the variable name size.

size = ext(:size, 1)

Next, we need to connect to it via osc so that we can change its value.

When you launch Improviz via the terminal one of the messages you’ll see printed is the port it is using for sending message over OSC.

2021-03-25 20:53:.732595 INFO: Running at 640 by 480 2021-03-25 20:53:.732733 INFO: Framebuffer 640 by 480 2021-03-25 20:53:.390032 INFO: Loaded 3 texture files 2021-03-25 20:53:.437047 INFO: Loaded 8 material files 2021-03-25 20:53:.441641 INFO: Loaded 5 geometry files 2021-03-25 20:53:.441718 INFO: \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* 2021-03-25 20:53:.441766 INFO: Creating Improviz Environment 2021-03-25 20:53:.466755 INFO: Loading ./stdlib/variables.pz 2021-03-25 20:53:.466846 INFO: Loading ./stdlib/transformations.pz 2021-03-25 20:53:.466890 INFO: Loading ./stdlib/shapes.pz 2021-03-25 20:53:.466930 INFO: Loading ./stdlib/style.pz 2021-03-25 20:53:.466968 INFO: Loading ./stdlib/textures.pz 2021-03-25 20:53:.467004 INFO: Loading ./stdlib/screen.pz 2021-03-25 20:53:.467039 INFO: Loading ./usercode/grid.pz 2021-03-25 20:53:.467078 INFO: Loading ./usercode/seq.pz 2021-03-25 20:53:.467116 INFO: Improviz OSC server listening on port 5510 2021-03-25 20:53:.467297 INFO: Improviz HTTP server listening on port 3000 2021-03-25 20:53:.467405 INFO: Improviz resolution: 640 by 480

Of course you can, at this stage, use any software that can send data over OSC, but for this blog post/tutorial I’ll be using Pure Data. Alternatives exist but I like using it as it’s lightweight, stable and is cross platform.

To send OSC messages use the [netsend] object to connect to the same ip address as Improviz (usually 127.0.0.0) and same port (5510). [udpsend] will output a 1 from its only outlet to show a successful connection. With the connection established I can now send values from a number box to the variable via OSC!

Right now I’m using number box which has its values being set by me manually clicking and dragging. I could have the numbers being generated randomly by using the [random] object, or even have some level of audio reactivity by using the [adc] object. If that’s your thing you do it! Keeping to this blog post’s title I’ll be using a midi controller to change these values. For this next stage you should know that I’m using Ubuntu (20.10) as my operating system. This means that the instructions, especially those concerning connecting a midi controller, may be different for your operating system. Sadly I can’t help with that.

Connecting a midi controller to Pure Data is quite easy. I’m using an Akai MPK Mini MKII, but the instructions on connecting the controller are the same for pretty much any midi controller. First make sure that Pure Data is exposing at least one midi port. Change your midi backend to ALSA-MIDI in Media > ALSA-MIDI. Then go to Media > MIDI Settings… and make sure you have at least one midi input.

Then, open QjackCtl, click on the Connect button and under the ALSA tab connect the MPK Mini Mk II output port to the input port of Pure Data.

In Pure Data you can now read the Control Change (CC) values of a one of the knobs or pads using the [ctlin] object. On my MPK the first dial (K1) is [ctlin 1]. It outputs values from 0 - 127 (128 values). I want it to change the size of a cube from 0 - 4, so I need to map the ranges. I found this very handy mapping abstraction so I’ll be using that. With the ranges mapped I can use the knob on my controller to change the size!

Your browser does not support the video element. Pure Data patch in Improviz code is here: pd_improviz_4.zip

For my next trick I want one octave, C5 to G5, to alter the shades of grey of the cube. The [notein] object will tell me the current midi number of the key being pressed. From that I can deduce that C5 to G5 is midi notes 48 - 59. Using the [maxlib/scale] object again I can map those ranges to 0 - 256 and send those values over OSC to a variable in Improviz that will be used to change the fill function.

Your browser does not support the video element. Pure Data patch in Improviz code is here: pd_improviz_5.zip

For my final form I’ll use one of the pads on the midi controller to toggle a random colour generator.

Your browser does not support the video element. Pure Data patch in Improviz code is here: pd_improviz_6.zip

One of the possibilities of using a midi controller to control visuals in this way is that you can control the audio and visuals simultaneously, rather than one being triggered in reaction to the other. In my experience of doing live visuals it has been quite normal for visuals to move or, as is quite often the case, pulsate in reaction to the amplitude of the music. In fact I did this many years ago for a video for My Panda Shall Fly.

What I’ve sometimes noticed is that there’s latency and the reactive visuals often feel like they’re coming in too late after the beat/instrument has hit. Of course the latency can be reduced by adjusting the sensitivity of the audio input device (microphone or line in) but then it’s a fine balancing act of both the musician and visualist adjusting levels. Achievable but a pain!

By having one device/controller triggering both you can, in theory, have both happen simultaneously. Here’s a demonstration of this from October 2020

Your browser does not support the video element.

As you can see the midi controller is controlling both the visuals and the audio. When I eventually get back to performing live gigs this is definitely something I’m going to explore further. Until then, have fun mixing live coding with midi controllers!

(Algo|Afro) Futures

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I’m happy to launch (Algo|Afro) Futures, a mentoring programme for early career Black artists in the West Midlands who want to explore the creative potential of live coding.

Live coding is a performative practice where artists and musicians use code to create live music and live visuals. This is often done at electronic dance music events called Algoraves, but live coding is a technique rather than a genre, and has also been applied to noise music, choreography, live cinema, and many other time-based artforms.

(Algo|Afro) Futures will take place between April - June online and at Vivid Projects and will consist of four sessions. Dates will be confirmed in response to lockdown restrictions and participant availability.

Four participants will receive mentorship from myself and Alex McLean on all things live coding. Each participant will receive a fee of £100 per mentoring session attended plus reasonable travel expenses.

This opportunity is open for Black West Midlands-based artists only. The call is open now until 23:59 GMT on 14th March . Further information about the programme, FAQs and the application form can be found at the (Algo|Afro) Futures website.

(Algo|Afro) Futures is organised with FoAM Kernow and Vivid Projects, in collaboration with and funded by the UKRI research project “Music and the Internet: Towards a Digital Sociology of Music”

windows.exe has stopped working

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

windows.exe has stopped working is about that moment of uncertainty when software begins exhibiting signs of an impending malfunction. The software stutters, glitches, begins acting erratically, sometimes altogether freezing with no indication of when normality will return. When faced with this hopeless situation the illusion of flawless technology is shattered and we’re reminded that technology is imbued with the flaws and imperfections of its creators.

windows.exe has stopped working was commissioned by Phoneix for The Idle Index

2021

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

2020 Year in Review

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

2020 was definitely a hard year, which feels a pretty repetitive and redundant thing to say at this point. I did try to stay creative, and did create things, but sometimes I just felt like staying still and watching the world crumble around me. At times just getting out of bed before 12:00 felt like enough of an achievement for one day.

When exhibitions or performances did eventually happen, albiet online, it all felt a bit anticlimactic. Sometimes months of work would go into preparing for an online exhibition or performance. After the adrenaline of the event wore off there was no release, no celebration, no friends around to hug or high five. Just a sudden comedown, get your pajamas on and realise that you’ve not travelled more than 50 metres from the kitchen in days. Oh, and the world is still falling apart.

So, with that cheery start here’s most of the things that I got up to in 2020.

January

As usual not much happened in January. Imagine that, an uneventful month. How I’d wish for that right now…

February

In early February I made my way to Limerick to attend ICLC and perform at an Algorave with Maria Witek (mxwx). I feel that the academic side of live coding sometimes passes me by, but what I do like about events like these is the critical reflection on the practice and the gathering of artists from all parts of the world. It helps to remind me that live coding is a global thing, not just UK/western world.

I really enjoyed performing with Maria. You can see a bit of our performance from around 03:09:00.

Shortly after that I was in Norwich share some new work for Love Light Norwich. I shared a new video work, Let’s Never Meet.

I did a couple of blog posts detailing how I made both the audio and some of the visuals.

March

On 5th March I had the honour of performing at the Algorave at Cafe Oto. I was really nervous as I was making music, not visuals. By this stage I had performed music live a handful of times in venues and online. To then perform at this prestigious venue was daunting but in the end it pushed me to learn and practice more. Here’s a recording of the performance.

Little did I know that this would be my last performance in a venue this year.

On 19th March the year of live streams started. The Eulerroom Equinox took place over three days and featured performances from myself and Alex McLean and one of my favourite performances from myself and mxwx:

This event had been in planning since late 2019 but I think it took on new relevance with the whole world now moving online.

Also in this month I did live streams with Echo Juliet and published a lot of blog posts on (mis)using FFmpeg’s motion interpolation commands. To gather all of the findings together I melted a cat:

April

Online group exhibitions and performances dominate my activities from April onward. On of the first was the Well Now WTF? exhibition which launched on April 4th. This exhibition featured over 140 exhibiting gifs and videos that raised the question of what should/can we do now that everything is cancelled. I contributed a gif in the “Wash Your Fucking Hands” room reflecting on the collective loneliness that comes from online parties.

I did a couple more online live coding events, including a performance with Yaxu for Graham Dunning’s Noise Quest series and a performance for Open Data Institute where we got cut off half way through, possibly for copyright violation! Another sign of things to come.

Also In April I did an overview of the Design Yourself project I ran with Barbican is 2019. Working with a select group of their Young Creatives we created artwork that asked what it meant to be human in an age of technology. One of the participants, Tice Cin, wrote a really good summary of the programme. Here’s one of my favourite videos:

May

Live streams this month included performances with Yaxu on a Cyberyacht(!) (from 32:00) and a performance for Github (better quality version here).

As part of the Well Now WTF? exhibition I presented Gifhouseparty, a lockdown party for all the gifs stuck at home. The music was all live coded and features music/code from me and mxwx, and also gifs of people you may recognise.

Perhaps the biggest event of this month was the opening of the Copy Paste exhibition on 22nd May at Piksel in Bergen, Norway. As Curator I had been planning this exhibition for over a year. I had fully expected this exhibition to not go ahead but the lockdown situation in Bergen at the time allowed for events to still go ahead and so it went along, just without me there. A carefully curated online component was added to allow some of the works to be enjoyed online.

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I’m of course thankful to Piksel for their work in allowing the exhibition to go ahead, but I still can’t help but feel sad that I wasn’t able to be there to see it in person!

Other events this month include another performance with Yaxu for the Copy Paste exhibition, a presentation and discussion about copyright/copyleft at Photographer’s Gallery and a performance and presentation at Art Meets Radical Openness. The presentation, called Sorry About That, was about the role that copyright plays in online streaming.

You can watch the presentation here (from 01:40:00), or listen to a rebroadcast of the talk that happened on Radio FRO in July (from around 21:20).

June

This month was kinda quiet. The Copy Paste exhibition continued with events including a presentation from Constant and a workshop from Duncan Poulton. With my skills in audio production getting better I decided to revisit the Wonderland video I made for the Wonder exhibition in 2019 and add a soundtrack.

July

I did visuals for a mix from Reprezent Radio for Late at Tate Online on 17th July. The video’s no longer online so have a couple of gifs!

On 18th July I did two performances in one day! The first was for Oxidize Global and then later me and mxwx collaborated again for a performance at Network Music Festival. Sadly there’s no recordings of either performance but there will hopefully be rerecordings of the music at some point.

Elsewhere in this month I was interviewed by Thisandthatzine and also did a self portrait for it.

August

The collaboration between me and mxwx finally got a name! We’re now known as Bad Circulation and you can find our music here. At the moment it’s just live recordings and rehearsals. We’re working on an EP. In the meantime here’s one of my favourite recordings.

I was also on the selection panel for Hyperlink from Test Card. Congrats to those that were successful!

September

The online component of Copy Paste was included in Ars Electronica. This included the online exhibition as well as a Curator’s tour, an rebroadcast of Constant’s presentation and the performance from me and Yaxu.

I also published a blog post about it being 10 years since the first GLI.TC/H happened in Chicago. It had quite an impact on me in many ways so I felt it right to mark the occasion somehow.

I was also on the selection panel for the Jerwood Arts / FACT Digital Fellowship. I’m intrigued to see what the three selected artists will create next year!

All the way back in February I was on the selection panel for Ten Acres of Sound, “a festival of noise, sound, sonic art, music, performance, whatever located within Stirchley, Birmingham”. I’m glad it managed to happen as it was postponed from earlier in the year.

October

Back in July I was undertaking a “Stay at Home” residency with New Art Gallery Walsall:

In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, The New Art Gallery Walsall initiated a series of remote residencies to support artists to produce work from their homes. Departing from the Gallery’s usual emphasis on making and sharing work within the context of the Gallery’s purpose-built studio space, artists were encouraged to find creative approaches to developing their practice amid imposed national restrictions and, in particular, to explore the benefits and possibilities of engaging with an online audience.

I challenged myself to learn more about film making and make a video using only what I already have at home. Here’s my video called Windows Explorer:

It was a big challenge and I wrote three blog posts detailing each challenge.

I took part in another online group exhibition (this time featuring 50 artists) called The Archive to Come. For this I made a gif/video reflecting on the tearing down of statues and the Black Lives Matter protests. Here’s a lower resolution gif version:

A better quality video can be seen here and you should check out all of the works in the exhibition.

I also (finally) took part in DA Z. This event was cancelled back in March as was a related event in September, and though I wasn’t able to be physically present in Switzerland I was still happy to be part of it.

November

November was unusually busy. Since July I was working behind the scenes with Open Data Institute to curate Rules of Engagement, an online programme of artworks that make a case for ethical practices when working with data.

The commissioned artists were Nick Briz, Everest Pipkin, and A.M. Darke. The artworks were launched at ODI’s annual Summit and are still available online to view now. It was a lot of work to get the programme together but it was a pleasure to commission new work from some great artists!

You can hear myself, Nick Briz and ODI’s Hannah Redler-Hawes talk about the programme on the TECHnique podcast.

The next day on 11th November I presented new work as part of the Peer to Peer online exhibition. I was one of the three UK commissioned artists and created a piece called Nodes.

It’s the first time I’ve been commissioned to make a piece of music (I did make the visuals as well though) and I really enjoyed making it.

Sticking with music, in November the Compassion Through Algorithms Vol. II compilation was released. The compilation is raising funds for Young Minds Together and was created in response the Black Lives Matter protests, and the general recognition that live coding/electronic music is still heavily dominated by White men. I made a track for it called Pulse.

Compassion Through Algorithms Vol. II by Antonio Roberts

I also did a short blog post about how I made it. It’s still on sale so go buy it!

I provided a screensaver for the The Idle Index online exhibition from Phoenix Leicester. It’s delivered via a browser extension which you can install in Chrome.

I also took part in Abuja Art Week’s digital exhibition with two existing videos, Visually Similar and Abundant Antiques.

Back in September I was a judge for the second year running for the Koestler Arts Digital Art category. In November their annual exhibition, this time called No Lockdown of the Imagination launched. Lockdown prevented me from seeing the works in London in person but they have an app you can use to view all of the works.

In other selection panel/judging activities, I was on the selection panel for the MADE IT graduate exhibition which features around 50 artists. The selection process took place between September - October but the online exhibition launched in November. Congrats to all those selected!

December

A fairly quiet month. From 7th - I did a takeover of the Minorities in STEM twitter account. Each week on that account a different person talks about their experiences of being, well, a minority working in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths). Though my work does use all of those there’s also the Art side (sometimes called STEAM) so I used some of 3700 words to talk about how al of these overlap. I also talked about how in my experiences of learning about digital art there was never any talk of Black people or anyone other than mainly White men. Things have gotten better since I was in education but there’s still so much work to do to recognise the contributions of Black people in (digital) art. You can read each of the daily threads here:

Monday - how I got into working in art+tech, with a focus on setting up the fizzPOP makerspace
Tuesday - glitch art and early experiments in making generative art using code
Wednesday - realising that the history of Black people working in art + technology is often overlooked
Thursday - demonstrated live coding and talked about Algorave
Friday - covered a handful of the organisations in the UK that are helping to make art and technology more diverse

I ended the year with a performance at the Eulerroom Winter Solstice. I combined live coding using Tidal Cycles with a couple of Korg Volca synths. No video yet but I’ll update when it becomes available.

end

And so ends a crappy year. That sense of community from being part of group exhibitions and performances definitely helped keep me sane and connected but I really need human contact again. Anything that isn’t a Zoom window… I of course hope that 2021 will be better, but I think we’ll need to fight to keep our galleries, museums, venues and other institutions open. Time and time again our government has shown that they don’t value the arts, and I fear that so many of the places I love will be lost next year. Did I also mention that there’s a pandemic still going on?

Laters 2020!

Submerged

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Your browser does not support the video element.

Edward Colston was an English merchant, philanthropist and politician whose involvement in the slave trade was often overlooked. In June 2020 his statue in Bristol was toppled and thrown into the harbour during Black Lives Matter protests.

Through tearing down statutes we don’t rewrite or erase history but instead reveal more about it. It is increasingly important that we learn more about the history of our country and its leaders and face the full reality of its past.

Nodes

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Nodes is a new commission created for the Peer to Peer: UK/HK online festival which ran from 11th - 14th November, created as a reflection on the interconnectedness of the global live coding community.

Live coding is a performative practice where artists make music and visual art live using programming. This happens primarily at events such as Algoraves, but there is an equally active online community which organises regular performances, conferences, workshops and more.

Moving beyond e-mail and social media platforms, people within the community have built their own tools which allow for real time communication and collaboration across borders and time zones. In this way the local nodes the global live coding community are able to stay connected.

Many thanks to Dr Charlotte Frost from Furtherfield for the nomination. Nodes was commissioned on the occasion of Peer to Peer: UK/HK online Festival 2020 by Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Open Eye Gallery and University of Salford Art Collection.