HardWired Opening Event

with Autonomous Sheep, Tommie Introna, Olivia Burgess

Join us for the opening of "HARDWired: Decoding the Tech Unconscious", an exhibition curated by Autonomous Sheep. Existing understandings of human relationships with both the physical and digital world are called into question in this space.

"HARDWired" invites you to ponder the role of technology in altering our shared human experience and shifting our social and political landscape. The exhibition challenges intuitive perceptions of technology as inherently rational, unveiling the emotive undercurrents of technology that targets and transforms our emotions, relationships, society, and politics. Dissecting and reconstructing our hardwired ways of engaging with platforms, data, online communities and identities, new possibilities of communication, connection, and creation emerge.

Get your tickets for:

⚡️Live music performance by Tommie Introna

⚡️DJ set by OddSpiral

⚡️Performance by Olivia Burgess

⚡️Introduction to "HARDWired" and upcoming talks and workshops

PRIVATE VIEW: 18 Jan, 6-9pm

Polaris Magazine ISSUE 02 Launch

with Polaris Magazine, InHouse Records, Cala Del Río Alemparte

Polaris Magazine ISSUE 02 Launch:

Live Music by InHouse Records.

🚀 Get ready to embark on a journey of contemplation as Polaris Magazine proudly unveils the dazzling ISSUE 02!

🌌 After months of collaboration and crowdfunding, we're thrilled to invite you to join us for the celebration of this milestone!

🎶 We will be joined by our friends at InHouse Records -featured in this issue- with live music, as we celebrate not just the birth of a magazine but a fusion of creativity in every form.

🌏 This isn't just a magazine launch; it's a celebration of the human journey, a rendezvous with the universe within.

Nebulous Narratives: Data Intervention Workshop

with Antonia Valencia, Cala Del Río Alemparte

Welcome to the "Nebulous Narratives" workshop, where creativity meets unconventional data gathering in a unique exploration of cloud imaginary.

🌥️ Unconventional Data Collection:

In this workshop, we challenge the traditional way of collecting and interpreting data in a more playful and creative way using the ethereal and ever-changing properties of the clouds as a canvas for our collective imagination.

🔍 Exploration Through Imagination:

Engage in creative analogue hands-on activities that transform cloud imaginaries into expressive works of art. Through these creative interventions, we not only explore the aesthetic potential of clouds but also discover new ways to gather and interpret data through artistic expressions.

Join us in the "Nebulous Narratives" workshop, where unconventional data gathering takes a whimsical turn, and clouds become the playful medium through which we collectively reimagine the art and science of storytelling.

Handmade Web

with April Chu, Koundinya Dhulipalla

“I evoke the term ‘handmade web’ to suggest slowness and smallness as forms of resistance.”

— J. R. Carpenter

With modern websites being increasingly automated and driven by complex, framework-driven technologies, the Handmade Web workshop invites participants to imagine an alternative web that is rooted in slowness and love.

Using HTML and CSS, the workshop will emphasize the craft of building websites as artifacts for sharing stories, and creating our own tiny little corners on the internet, while opening up discussions on the role of the web as a platform and a medium for expression.

🌐 No prior coding experience is required to join. The workshop will focus on craft and the process of creation over the technical skills 🌐

Dancing with Algorithms

with Avika Pulges, Olivia Burgess

Where do the body and technology meet? How can technology serve to translate, transform and augment our human form? Through the lens of performance and dance we will take a look at how contemporary choreographers are using technology to explore new realms of storytelling both on and off stage.

This workshop is perfect for dancers keen on translating their physical expressions into the digital domain, and for those fascinated by how technology can be used to enhance and reinterpret human movement. We'll be focusing on utilising a free node programming tool called TouchDesigner to capture and interpret body movements, transforming this data into a variety of visual and auditory experiences. We encourage you to participate and witness the transformation of human motion into a captivating digital art form. No previous experience of coding or TouchDesigner is required.

Cyber_Identities

with Maria Than, Nella Piatek, Autonomous Sheep

'Cyber_Identities' is a series of talks and panel discussion with Maria Than and Nella Piatek.

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🐇 'Generative AI, Storytelling, and Heritage'

Maria Than is currently looking into ways in which generative AI can be used to explore her heritage within concepts of Vietnamese Buddhism such as reincarnation and impermanence. Maria Than is a Viet-British-French creative technologist, educator, activist & co-founder of design practice Ricebox Studio. Using AR, illustration and AI-generated content, she explores her identity as a chronically online Asian woman surrounded by themes of buddhism, over-productivity, anxiety, internalised racism, burn-outs & escapism. She has exhibited in London, Paris, New York and Toronto. In 2021, she became a Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts, an award based on her period activism and AR work. She lectures in BA Graphic Design and in MSc Data Science and AI in the Creative Industries at UAL Creative Computing Institute, works part-time at Child Rights International Network as a Digital Designer. She is also currently a creative technologist in residency in the Story & Code programme at AIxDesign and is preparing for her first solo art exhibition in London at arebyte Gallery in 2024.

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🌀 From Angels to Swamplings: The Sisterhood of Spectral Bodies

An odyssey through the digital wilderness —from angels, girls, cyberwitches, cybernymphs, and swamplings, we trace the lineage of spectral bodies that have emerged from the digital ether. We delve into the cyberfeminist past and present, seeking not authenticity but the rich tapestry of artifice, play, and collective consciousness.

In this talk Nella Piatek theorises what it means to inhabit the spectral body. A spectral body exists in the fissure of technological systems, navigating the delicate balance between visibility and obscurity. Defying normative constructs of presence and absence, the spectral body is a leakage, seeping through and haunting the spaces it inhabits.

Nella Piatek is a critical designer, researcher and cyberwitch studying the evolution of the human in conjunction with digital technology, along with the implications and values that this entanglement conjures. Her work explores poetic introspection and rituals to touch upon the themes of faith, impermanence, and the infinite search for a sense of self within the digital context.

They are an academic at UAL, Goldsmiths University and Era Vision Beijing, as well as an artist exhibited internationally at various exhibitions, festivals, and conferences including The Photographers’ Gallery (UK), Ars Electronica (AT) and Oddstream Gallery (NL).

Future Worlds and Machine Learning

with Marissa Beaty, Wesley Goatley, Autonomous Sheep

‘Envisioning Distant Worlds’ is a panel discussion led by Marissa Beaty and Wesley Goatley on the infusion of scientific data within machine learning, generative art, and space.

🪐 Marissa Beaty is a fresh face in the AI and machine learning landscape, armed with a recent master's degree in Data Science and AI from CCI. Her journey started in project management, and she holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a double major in Art History and English Literature.

Marissa had the honor of presenting her thesis research at NeurIPS in New Orleans, where she explored the fusion of generative art and embedding real-world data in creative coding. Her work reflects a passion for pushing the boundaries of AI in a creative and scientific direction.

Outside the tech realm, Marissa enjoys the simple pleasures of baking, discovering new destinations through travel, and picking up the art of sewing. You can find Marissa on instagram (@marissa_beaty) and her website (marissabeaty.me).

🪐 Wesley Goatley is a Senior Lecturer on MA Interaction Design at London College of Communication.

Wesley is an artist and digital media theorist, whose work examines the politics and aesthetics of data, machine learning, and networked technologies. His work in installation, sound art, and sculpture is exhibited internationally, including recent shows at Milan Design Week, the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum in London, Seoul SFX Festival, and Eyebeam in New York. He gives regular guest lectures and talks on his practice and research, at events including CTM Festival Berlin, Global Art Forum Singapore, and the European Data Forum in Eindhoven.

HardWired Closing Event

with Autonomous Sheep, Adnan Naqvi, Mebis G

We’re saying goodbye!

Join us one last time for the closing of our exhibition, “HARDWired: Decoding the Tech Unconscious” curated by Autonomous Sheep. Through immersive artworks, talks, and workshops presented in this space, “HARDWired” invited visitors to ponder and explore the role and use of technology in altering our shared human experience and shifting our social and political landscape. The exhibition challenged intuitive perceptions of technology as inherently rational, unveiling the emotive undercurrents of technology that targets and transforms our emotions, relationships, society, and politics.

Dissecting and reconstructing our hardwired ways of engaging with platforms, data, online communities and identities, new possibilities of communication, connection, and creation emerge.

Get your tickets for:

⚡️Talk and live performance by Adnan Naqvi

⚡️Performance by Rajvi Bhandari

⚡️DJ set by Mebis G

CLOSING EVENT: 16 Feb, 6-9pm

📍Unit 3 Euston Tower, 286, Euston Road, London NW1 3DP