ALGOMECH 2016

Imagine a piece of fabric that can be tapped or swiped just like you would a touch screen? Or if sensors woven into the cover of your chair told you when you were slouching? Electronic textiles are where computer science, electrical engineering, textiles and design all come together. Becky will discuss its rise and how it could change the way we interact with the world around us, including during live performance.

This talk was awarded the annual Daphne Oram Lecture, and is generously supported by the British Science Association. The talk will run from 12 midday until 1pm, leading into a "Meet the Maker" session with Becky as part of the Millennium Gallery series until 2pm.

The British Science Association's Award Lectures on tour is supported by 3M.
 

Dead Plants And Living Objects is a collaborative sound installation / concert by sound artists Rie Nakajima and Pierre Berthet who have been creating various ways to vibrate things so that their acoustic shadows dance around the space. 

Tin cans, whistles, locomotive suspension springs, porcelain bowls, compressor top bells, ping pong balls, agave dry leaves, sponges, steel wires, branches, paper foils, plastic bags, silver papers, pink gloves, piano, balloons, buckets, feathers, water, scraps, peebles, flower pots, guitar, metal tubes, paulownia tree seeds, pearls, bamboo sticks, logs, bones, stones, filter queens...

This event is in collaboration with DINA and Connect the Dots, and will premiere new work commissioned through a residency at Access Space.

A concert of the diverse artforms of clog dancing, music boxes, embroidery and live coding, each giving a different perspective on the human side of mechanisms and algorithms. The concert will take place 12th November 2016. We are also programming a second concert on the following day (13th Nov), which will be free of charge to Crafting Sound ticket holders.

An arts-research day symposium, with talks and performances on the theme of Algorithmic and Mechanical Movement, chaired by Thor Magnusson and Chris Kiefer from University of Sussex's Experimental Music Technology Lab, and taking place in the Sheffield Institute of Arts.

The £25 / £12.50 ticket prices are inclusive of all fees, and includes refreshments, lunch and free access to evening performances at the Millennium Gallery. 

We are very happy to announce that the symposium will include a keynote speech by Godfried-Willem Raes from the Logos Foundation. For details, including a draft programme, please see the symposium website hosted by the symposium chairs.

Crafting Sound continues for the second evening, with performances feeding sounds from Sheffield into self-made, archaic systems and machinery, audiovisual live coding with sonic pi, dance choreographed by live coded JavaScript, and the physical clapping out of binary code to build a pure sine wave.

A hands-on, beginners' workshop where you can get started with making music and visuals with text.. You'll be introduced to a variety of "live coding" environments, geared towards combining simple elements into complex results. Most of the workshop will be hands-on with the free/open source TidalCycles environment. No experience in programming or performance necessary! Just bring a laptop (or let us know in advance if you need to borrow one). The workshop will be lead by algoravers Lucy Cheesman, Richard Eason and Alex McLean. 

Booking essential, £25 or £15 concessions (student/underemployed/independent artist). We are keen for this to be an inclusive workshop, so if cost is a barrier but keen to take part please get in contact.

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s)-TwT. is a micro event series that explores the digital with physical means by asking performers to present digital work without using anything digital. Five performers/presenters take up the challenge of re-thinking the digital with free interpretations that are 1 to 10 minutes in duration, about or related to digital technology and happening on some sort of platform. 'Technology without Technology' (TwT) performances are a creative, playfully serious strategy to negotiate the 'unknowable' of digital technology and the constant information overload in our contemporary world. OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s)-TwT. originated at Access Space in 2012 and is curated by Susanne Palzer. @Open_Platform_

A lunchtime talk on Live Coding by Dan Hett. 'Show Us Your Screens' focuses on improvised livecoding as a creative practice - the act of writing completely improvised code to create live audio-reactive visuals, where the code is also displayed as part of the output, projected onto the stage, performers, revellers and occasionally himself. Dan will cover everything from the creative implications of writing code in a live and often chaotic environment, through to a brief rundown of the software and systems that make it all happen. Along the way Dan will be demonstrating a range of livecoding software and techniques - no videos in this session. And for the faint of heart: there will be noise and flashing images throughout!

"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

Algorave is a combination of "algorithms" and "rave", the opportunity to dance to alien rhythms and freaky visuals, all created from code before your eyes. The Algorave scene is fast-growing around the world, with Sheffield a strong centre, building on its fine roots in electronic music history. For the AlgoMech Algorave we are teaming up with Millennium Gallery Live Lates, and mixing in some mechanical techno to spice up the algorithmic electronics. We'll be bringing together algorithmic and mechanical artists from UIQ, PC Music, Computer Club, Rephlex, Conditional and NTS radio on one bill.. This has to be experienced!

As part of the Millennium Gallery "Meet the Maker" series, representatives from Bela Platform will have some hands-on demos of the digital musical instruments that can be made with their open source system, including the incredible D-Box, an instrument that has been designed to be hacked and reconfigured while it's played.

Our closing event will begin with an algorithmic dance performance from Kate Sicchio, leading into a party with Blood Sport DJs, hellocatfood visuals, and DJ Dadmagnet literally bringing powertools to power ballads. All donations on the door go to the charitable work of Access Space.