(Algo|Afro) Futures was a mentoring programme for early career UK-based Black artists interested in exploring creative coding and live coding. The programme ran over four editions between 2021 - 2025.
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.
Algorave returns to Birmingham on 3rd December to close Vivid Projects’ 2016 exhibition season.
An Algorave is a party where electronic music is 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.
At an Algorave the creation of algorithms are brought into the experience of the music itself. This is done using specially made “Live Coding” environments such as SuperCollider, TidalCycles, Gibber, ixi lang and Extempore. This processed opened up by projecting the code on screens around the venue, so audience members can see how the music they hear is being made. This is often complimented by algorithmically generated visuals projected alongside the code.
Artists
2019
Amber Drew, Andy Webster, Bex Ilsley, Carol Breen, Christopher D. Ansell, Dan Auluk, Dean Wellings, Dinosaur Kilby, Gemma Jones, Hannah Mary, Helen Kilby Nelson, James Dooley, Larissa E. Shaw, Libby Cufley, Liz Ord, Matthew Evans, Navi Kaur, Rosa Francesca, Tony McClure
2018
Alex Billingham, Carol Breen, Coral Manton, Daniel Hopkins, Dinosaur Kilby, Edie Jo Murray, Emily Roderick, Emily Scarrott, Jack Mugglestone, Julie Oneill, Kate Spence, Libby Cufley, Marcus Keating, Matthew Evans, Mike Dring, Pete Ashton, Rico Johnson-Sinclair, Sarah Walden & Ollie MacDonald-Brown, Sian Macfarlane, Thomas Tyrrell, Tony McClure, Vicky Roden
2017
Alex Billingham, Andy Howlett, David Checkley, Coral Manton, Daniel Hopkins, Dan Auluk, Rebecca Mahay, David Poole, Elizabeth Cufley, Jaime Jackson, John Bradburn, Kate Spence, Leon Trimble, Michael Lightborne, Ollie MacDonald-Brown, Patrick Goodall, Pete Ashton, Sarah Walden, Sian Macfarlane, Vicky Roden
Artists
Alan Brooker, Ewa Mos, Daisy Hogan, Antonio Roberts, Chris Plant, Modulate, James Warrier, Sarah Rose Allen, URRRGH, Paul Harrison, Kate Spence, Elizabeth Howell, Soraya Fatha, Leon Trimble, Michael Lightborne, Matt Murtagh, Pete Ashton, AAS, Arcade, Bobby Bird (Modulate), 8bit Pete
Vivid Projects’ acclaimed 33 REVOLUTIONS programme concludes this winter with Bring Your Own Beamer, a one-night celebration of the projected image curated by Antonio Roberts with assistance from Pete Ashton.
Armed with projectors, artists are invited to beam responses to 33 REVOLUTIONS in Vivid Projects’ space.
Artists
Antonio Roberts, Ashley James Brown, Ben Waddington, Chris Plant, chromatouch, DACHHU VISUALS, Daniel Salisbury, Dan Tombs, David Checkley, Dom Breadmore, faisfx, George Benson, Mark Murph, Michael Lightborne, Natalie O’Keeffe, Pete Ashton, Roxie Collins, Sam Alexander Mattacott, Sebastian Lenton, Sellotape Cinema, Soraya Fatha, Tim Neath, Vlad C Costache, Walter Newton, Alex Juno, Swoomptheeng DJs, Pete Ashton, Anna Horton
An engaging day of performances and interactive installations from digital artists, hacktivists and new media explorers from the West Midlands, Chicago and beyond. Artworks take the form of hacked and customised hardware, accessories, demos, lectures, data-mangling, projection and more!
This eclectic, expectation bending event is presented by Vivid Projects in association with artist/curator Antonio Roberts and The Barber institute of Fine Arts.
Artists
Minuek, Norah Lorway, Circuit Ben, Modulate, Carrie Gates, Theodore Darst, Antonio Roberts, Nick Kegeyan, Jennifer Chan, Kevin Carey, Michael Lightborne, Sian Macfarlane, Bryan Peterson, Jon Cates, Dan O’Hara, Benjamin Gaulon, Jeff Donaldson, Dec Ackroyd, Jason Soliday, Charlotte Frost and Rob Myers, Kate Pemberton, Jamie Boulton, URRRGH, Stef Lewandowski, Shawne Holloway + Steven Hammer
Now in its second year, GLI.TC/H gathers a variety of participants + works + ideas from within glitch/dirty/experimental-new-media art communities into a multi-day & multi-format happening consisting of video screenings, real-time performances, workshops, lectures, panels, a gallery exhibition and on-going online components. Thinkers and artists; Makers and breakers converge to celebrate technological catastrophe. A glitch is a moment known to everyone but enjoyed by few. GLI.TC/H brings together those inspired/curious/provoked by glitches and provides a platform to break things, share thoughts, and develop ideas.
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.
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.
Artists
Manu Luksch, Sang Mun, Henry Driver, James Bridle, Joseph DeLappe, Ryan Hughes.
In June 2012 TROVE, with Antonio Roberts, are hosting an exhibition about toys. This project leads on from the discovery that the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, where TROVE is based, used to produce more ’toys’ than jewellery, guns or pens during the industrial revolution; all things it is now more famously known for producing.
When researching what toys were produced in this area of Birmingham it was discovered that the term ‘toys’ was used to describe items such as buttons, cuff-links and belt buckles.