Algorave Coventry

An evening of futuristic electronic rhythms, brought to you by some of the leading lights of the Algorave movement, including one of the artists behind our WONDER exhibition, Antonio Roberts. Experience the exciting and unpredictable phenomenon of algorithms brought to life as music and visuals.

“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. lt’s coding as improvisation and experiment..” – The Wire magazine

“Live coders write computer programs live, while the programs generate their music, but the focus is on people dancing and seriously enjoying themselves” – Dazed and Confused

“.. not so much a revolution as a de-volution, a rolling back to the backend of music production, where the possibilities of the encoded information inside computer software is open and endless” – Mixmag

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Spon Spun Art Trail

This year the Spon Spun Art Trail will take in over 20 community and heritage venues. It will include commissioned work from Talking Birds, Antonio Roberts, HA and Kindy Dayal, as well as featuring artists Michelle Englefied, Karina Koskina, Carole Breen, Thomas Tierney, Alan Van Wijgerden, Keith Watts, Min-Kyung Kim, Chiara Grant, Crafty Blokes at the Men’s Shed and work produced by community members with artist Ruth Spaak and Mary Courtneyand more! The full art trail will be open from 12 but a number of venues will be opening at 11am for those who are keen to see everything available on the day! See more information about all the artists involved here http://www.sponspun.co.uk/artists/

Last Day

As part of the Random String microFestival on Thursday 9th June I installed Last Day at Unit 22 at the City Arcade in Coventry.

Last Day

Last Day

Last Day

Last Day is a piece that highlights the fragility of financial markets and the unpredictable nature of consumer habits, market forces and trends. The effects of these have been far reaching, seeing once thriving retail parks home to small businesses and former retail giants rendered as ghost towns of empty units. The choice of imagery shows that nothng is too big to fail.

Last Day

Last Day

Last Day

Last Day was commissioned by Ludic Rooms for the Random String microFestival. It is situated in a derelict shopping unit the City Arcade in Coventry where it will remain until the space becomes occupied again. Many thanks to Dom Breadmore and Anne Forgan for accepting my proposal and Malachi Cummings-Hall for his assistance installing.

More photos are available here.

Random String microFestival, 11th June

In addition to delivering a presentation on at the Symposium on 10th June, on 11th June I’ll have some new work available for viewing at the Random String microFestival.

rsmicrofestival

The Random String microFestival is an exciting day exploring technology and art.

Digital artworks, interactive installations, hands-on arts activities and workshops will fill the City Arcade, including the Shop Front Theatre, Artspace’s City Arcadia and in the recently opened FabLab Coventry.

Last Day

For the microFetsival I will produce a new vinyl installation work called Last Day.

last_day_gif

Last Day is a piece that highlights the fragility of financial markets and the unpredictable nature of consumer habits, market forces and trends. The effects of these have been far reaching, seeing once thriving retail parks home to small businesses and former retail giants rendered as ghost towns of empty units. The choice of imagery shows that nothing is too big to fail.

The piece will be installed in the window of Unit 22 at the City Arcade.

Last Day workshop

To accompany the installation, during the mircoFestival you will be invited to create your own shop window honouring our favourite defunct brands!

The microFestival takes place 11th June 11:00 – 16:00 at the City Arcade in Coventry and is completely free

Random String Fellowships

The awesome folk at Ludic Room have announced that they are now running a Fellowship programme for their Random String event. If you’re interested in incorporating digital technology into your practice then read on. I’ll be one of the mentors on this programme.

randomstring

The Random String Fellowship is an opportunity open to artists and practitioners from any discipline, including visual arts, music, literature and performing arts, who are interested in embarking on a technology-focused creative enquiry.

We are looking for 6 enthusiastic mid-career artists with an established body of practice to explore how technology might make their work more interactive, develop a more meaningful relationship with audiences or explore future notions of co-creation and participatory practice.

What is the Fellowship?

The Fellowship is a comprehensive programme that includes:

  • 1-1 time with a Mentor to give training and support
  • Group development opportunities alongside other artists
  • Studio and exhibition visits
  • The option to spend time with academics from Warwick University
  • Attendance and presence at the Random String festival in June

We’ll also give each artist a stipend of £800 towards their time and expenses and we’ll provide £200 worth of technology to use in their enquiry and keep afterwards. We can also offer shared studio and hot-desking at our space in Coventry Canal Warehouse if required. There is no expectation that the Fellowship will result in a new body of work, this is an opportunity to play. We ask Fellows to honestly and openly experiment with the technology, share their experience via our blog through visual or textual means and to show any work in progress at the Symposium and at a final Pecha Kucha event charting your successes and failures.

randomstring_hacking

How do I apply?

The application process is very simple. Please complete the application form here, including uploading a CV and any supporting images or weblinks and write a short paragraph outlining what you find interesting about the Random String Fellowship programme.

The Fellowship is only open to artists who currently do not use routinely use interactive technology in their creative practice.

The deadline is 13:00 on 18th April. Get applying now!

Pecha Kucha Coventry Vol 14 – 11th June 2013

On June 11th from 7pm I’ll be making a superduperspecial appearance at volume 14 of Pecha Kucha Coventry, taking place – unsurprisingly – in Coventry at Taylor John’s House.

Ludic Rooms take the reins to curate a special PKN for the Coventry Mysteries Festival. This year the festival theme is Re-Creation and we have invited speakers from around the country to give their 400 seconds on the re-creation of a specialist subject.

As it is part of the Coventry Mysteries Festival, for one night only the ticket price is FREE.

Confirmed speakers include:

You may have noticed that I’m not on the speakers’ list. That’s because…

@hellocatfood will be taking portrait photography on the night. Using a Game Boy Camera and Printer he will recreate you in an 8bit glitch polaroid styled portrait. Take home a print on the night (First come first served) The photos will be on display for the remainder of the festival at the Hub in Market Way.

So, track me down and I’ll take your very own 0 megapixel picture for ya!

r00s Inside Out Inside Out Me and my hat!

Fargo Hack Play Space

This Sunday (i.e. today) I’ll be doing a micro residency (i.e. one day) at Fargo Hack Play Space in Coventry, UK (i.e. not Birmingham)

(i.e. (i.e. (i.e. (i.e. (i.e.)))))

This Sunday we will be hosting the Fargo Hack Play Space, an informal exhibition and sharing of new work from our residency at the Talking Birds curated Fargo Space.

We love watching people play with the Don’t Touch Screen at Warwick Arts Centre; that little moment of joy people feel as they realise they are in control of the piece, no matter the technology. We were keen to try and create something new that explored that same interaction between analogue and digital.

There’ll be a circuit bending session from 10am, but do contact @ludicrooms to see if there’s still places available.

I’ve no idea what I’ll be making yet, but I’m sure it’ll involve me breaking lots of stuff into tiny insignificant pieces.