Tag Archives: Curating

Art-AI: Curating the Machine

Artist and curtator Antonio Roberts will talk about his research into the affect AI and automation is having on the role of curation in the arts.

During 2017, as part of his fellowship at Near Now at Broadway, artist and Curator Antonio Roberts conducted research into the affect AI and automation is having on the role of curation in the arts.

In this presentation Antonio will present his research, which asks questions about the specific roles of curators and whether an AI can be used to fully automate an exhibition. This will culminate in a proposal for a Curator AI that he aims to develop in the near future.

Algorave Supersonic Festival

After Mothwasp’s visual performance, the Wilde stage turns into an Algorave, brought to you by Supersonic and Vivid Projects curator Antonio Roberts. If you haven’t heard of or been to an algorave, be sure to check it out; an algorave is a party where electronic music and visuals are generated live from algorithms. The word was coined around 2012, initially as a joke, but has since taken hold with Algoraves taking place in over 40 cities around the world.

Supersonic’s Algorave features artists Heavy Lifting and Blood Sport, presenting a collision and mutation of their current work in a textural and improvisatory reinterpretation of the ‘B2B’ DJ set.

Heavy Lifting is Lucy writing confused live code in TidalCycles and FoxDot – divinely inspired by toads & pickled eggs she bends time signatures to create not-quite-techno rhythms. Also a member of algorave band TYPE and co-founder of the creative collective SONA.

Blood Sport are an aggro-beat trio based in Sheffield; consisting of Alex Keegan (guitar & octatrack), Sam Parkin (drums) and Nick Potter (baritone & vocals). Creating a fractured dancefloor, Blood Sport’s work mixes pre-recorded and live performance using live-coding program Tidal Cycles.

Heavy Lifting will live-code textures and rhythms using the sample-pack (to be publicly released this year), and Blood Sport will respond with music. This set was originally born out of a request from Blood Sport for Heavy Lifting to create a remix of one of their tracks, using a micro-sample pack Blood Sport had created for live-coding program TidalCycles; and after an outing at the Algomech Festival closing party, both acts have begun to work together on regular live and DJ driven performances.

Miri Kat continues the algorave: an AV Noise Artist working with Max/MSP, processing & found sound. Focuses on the creation of unique sounds and immersive multimedia, equipped with a loved of hacking, cats and mocha.

Closing the Algorave is BITLIP; a veteran livecoder and part-time Algoraver who makes downtempo techno collages out of strange samples, analogue-sounding synths, and broken breakbeats straight out of the late 90s.

Supersonic’s Algorave is hosted by Vivid Projects, a collaborative space supporting media arts practice. Based in Birmingham, they encourage innovation, risk and experimentation in artistic practice and work with artists and producers across disciplines.

Algorave is curated by hellocatfood – the alias of Antonio Roberts, a New Media artist and Curator based in Birmingham at Vivid. His artwork uses glitch art, hacking and technology-driven processes to explore issues surrounding copyright, remixing and free culture. For his live visuals he (mis)uses a range of programming languages to create glitched, broken visuals. He has provided visuals for the likes of MTV, Com Truise, Elmo Sexwhistle, Steve Davis, Henry Homesweet and My Panda Shall Fly.

Near Now Fellowship: Meet the Fellows

Between May 2017 and March 2018, our third Fellowship cohort will work as part of the Near Now Studio, undertaking a tailored programme that will support them to research and create ambitious new work, reach new audiences and progress their careers.

Join us for pizza and drinks (on us!) and help celebrate the start of a successful Fellowship.

Each Fellow will give a brief introduction to their work and share some early insights into their inspirations and ambitions for their Fellowship. Followed by a chance to ask questions about their practices, hang out, chat, and hopefully make some new friends.

Curating the Machine

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Since May 2017, alongside everything else, I been undertaking a fellowship with Near Now in Nottingham. The Fellowship, now in its third iteration, is for anyone interested in developing a project that uses technology in a creative way.

For my fellowship I have been conducting research into the relationship been copyright, curating and automation. There are no concrete outputs yet but do take a look at the blog, Curating the Machine, which collates all of my research to date.

If any of this sparks an interest or it you want to know more please do get in touch! I’ll also be at Transmediale on a research trip (thx Near Now) at the end of January if you want to meet IRL 😺

No Copyright Infringement Intended

No Copyright Infringement Intended is a group exhibition exploring the relationship between copyright and culture in the digital age, investigating how the concept of ownership and authorship is evolving and coming into conflict with outdated copyright and intellectual property laws.

Since the 1990s the internet has provided the opportunity for mass copying, redistribution and remixing of content – profoundly changing the way culture is produced and shared and sparking legal battles and debates that still rage on. Today, the increasing availability of technologies like 3D scanning and 3D printing have extended the ability to digitally copy and reproduce to the physical realm.

For many people now, mass sharing, copying and remixing seems like a natural form of self expression. Rather than embracing this change and using it to their advantage, rights holders and lawyers often resort to reinforcing outdated laws – penalising those who copy – and placing barriers on technology’s ability to share information and content freely.

Meanwhile, among artists there is widespread misunderstanding of copyright and how it affects their work. The phrase “No Copyright Infringement Intended” is often used as an attempt to avoid repercussions of copyright infringement. The phrase has no legal standing, but its widespread usage shows a lack of awareness of existing laws and the consequences of breaking them.

Featuring 10 national and international artists working across a range of creative practices, the exhibition highlights the ongoing tension between production and copyright, considers the new artistic, social and political possibilities created through this tension and suggests new ways forward for artists, rights holders and the wider creative community.

The exhibition includes work by Nick Briz, Emilie Gervais, Nicolas Maigret, Christopher Meerdo, Jan Nikolai Nelles & Nora Al-Badri, Duncan Poulton, Fernando Sosa, Andrea Wallace & Ronan Deazley

Curated by Antonio Roberts, a new media artist and curator based in Birmingham. Kindly supported by Arts Council England

Creative Careers

We’re exploring curation this month and what the role means to the people leading the way art in London and the UK is being curated

Creative Careers will be hosting a panel of curatorial professionals from across the art world. With backgrounds ranging from London’s top arts organisations to curating from an artist-led and learning perspective, we’re excited to host:

Rebecca Lewin, Curator, Serpentine Gallery
Abondance Matanda, Founder, Yutes of London
Antonio Roberts, Artist and Curator
Oscar Humphries, Curator

Together they will be unpacking what the role means to them and dishing out snippets of advice to you on how to get into the industry and develop in your career.

And, as always, dinner is on us.

No Copyright Infringement Intended, 1st – 23rd September

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I’m happy to announce the second iteration of No Copyright Infringement Intended  will be taking place at Vivid Projects, Birmingham, from 1st – 23rd September.

Image: Still Not Sure if Art or Copyright Infringement by Emilie Gervais

No Copyright Infringement Intended is a group exhibition exploring the relationship between copyright and culture in the digital age, investigating how the concept of ownership and authorship is evolving and coming into conflict with outdated copyright and intellectual property laws.

Since the 1990s the internet has provided the opportunity for mass copying, redistribution and remixing of content – profoundly changing the way culture is produced and shared and sparking legal battles and debates that still rage on. Today, the increasing availability of technologies like 3D scanning and 3D printing have extended the ability to digitally copy and reproduce to the physical realm.

For many people now, mass sharing, copying and remixing seems like a natural form of self expression. Rather than embracing this change and using it to their advantage, rights holders and lawyers often resort to reinforcing outdated laws – penalising those who copy – and placing barriers on technology’s ability to share information and content freely.

Meanwhile, among artists there is widespread misunderstanding of copyright and how it affects their work. The phrase “No Copyright Infringement Intended” is often used as an attempt to avoid repercussions of copyright infringement. The phrase has no legal standing, but its widespread usage shows a lack of awareness of existing laws and the consequences of breaking them.

Featuring 10 national and international artists working across a range of creative practices, the exhibition highlights the ongoing tension between production and copyright, considers the new artistic, social and political possibilities created through this tension and suggests new ways forward for artists, rights holders and the wider creative community.

The exhibition features work by Nick Briz, Emilie Gervais, Nicolas Maigret, Christopher Meerdo, Jan Nikolai Nelles & Nora Al-Badri, Duncan Poulton, Fernando Sosa, Andrea Wallace & Ronan Deazley.

Like the first iteration of the exhibition, there will be a number of related events including:

No Copyright Infringement Intended, 7th April – 21st May

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I’m happy to announce that I’ll be curating the No Copyright Infringement Intended exhibition at the Cube Gallery at Phoenix, Leicester, taking place from 7th April – 21st May.

Image: Still Not Sure if Art or Copyright Infringement by Emilie Gervais

No Copyright Infringement Intended is a group exhibition exploring the relationship between copyright and culture in the digital age, investigating how the concept of ownership and authorship is evolving and coming into conflict with outdated copyright and intellectual property laws.

Since the 1990s the internet has provided the opportunity for mass copying, redistribution and remixing of content – profoundly changing the way culture is produced and shared and sparking legal battles and debates that still rage on. Today, the increasing availability of technologies like 3D scanning and 3D printing have extended the ability to digitally copy and reproduce to the physical realm.

For many people now, mass sharing, copying and remixing seems like a natural form of self expression. Rather than embracing this change and using it to their advantage, rights holders and lawyers often resort to reinforcing outdated laws – penalising those who copy – and placing barriers on technology’s ability to share information and content freely.

Meanwhile, among artists there is widespread misunderstanding of copyright and how it affects their work. The phrase “No Copyright Infringement Intended” is often used as an attempt to avoid repercussions of copyright infringement. The phrase has no legal standing, but its widespread usage shows a lack of awareness of existing laws and the consequences of breaking them.

Featuring 10 national and international artists working across a range of creative practices, the exhibition highlights the ongoing tension between production and copyright, considers the new artistic, social and political possibilities created through this tension and suggests new ways forward for artists, rights holders and the wider creative community.

The exhibition features work by Nick Briz, Emilie Gervais, Nicolas Maigret, Christopher Meerdo, Jan Nikolai Nelles & Nora Al-Badri, Duncan Poulton, Fernando Sosa, Andrea Wallace & Ronan Deazley.

In addition to the awesome exhibited works there will be a panel discussion and curator’s tour. More information on those to follow.

Many thanks to Phoenix/Chris Tyrer for inviting me to curate this exhibition and Arts Council England for their support 💯

Open Online Six: Too Long for iTunes

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On January 1st the sixth edition of the Open Online year-long online exhibitions from Fermynwoods Contemporary Art, titled Too Long for iTunes, went online.

Matigital_Culture_Kodak_Colour_Slides

Image: Emma Jarvis, Matigital Culture

Terre Thaemlitz’s 2011 album Soulnessless included a nearly 30-hour piano solo filling a single maximum length 320kB/s MP3 file of 4GB – yet the file playback was limited to the first two hours and 40 minutes! Challenging the era’s dominant media format the album was sold only as a 16GB microSDHD card, drawing a distinction between online culture and digital culture, honouring the authors ‘specificity of content’.

Our sixth annual curated open online exhibition seeks to examine whether there still exists a distinction between digital and online cultures following the advent of the Internet of Things, and what forms these may take.

The exhibition features new and existing works from Pete Ashton, Marc Atkinson, Emma Jarvis, and Sam Mattacott, and a text from Christine Lucy Latimer.

Back in October 2015 I was invited to be on the selection panel for the exhibition (after previously featuring in their Free Exchange discussion group about Art + Copyright). It’s great to see the exhibition finally realised. Go take a look at it now!

Stealth

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On 25th June I’ll be putting my curator hat back on for my first curatorial duties since my appointment as Associate Producer to present Stealth at Vivid Projects.

stealth

STEALTH presents recent work by UK and international artists critiquing surveillance culture and the invasive and pervasive technologies that shape our daily interactions.

Utilising a variety of media including installations, video, social media and software, the exhibition explores how technology affects and disrupts our perceptions of privacy.

Exhibition launches Thursday 25 June, 6.30 – 8.30pm, and continues to 11 July, open Thu – Sat, 12 – 5pm.

Artists: Manu Luksch, Sang Mun, Henry Driver, James Bridle, Joseph DeLappe, Ryan Hughes.