(Algo|Afro) Futures artist announcement

We're very happy to announce the four artists selected for the (Algo|Afro) Futures programme, who will be approaching live coding from diverse range of practices including spoken word, digital art and electronic music.

Rosa Francesca

(she/her or they/them)

Rosa Francesca is a digital artist from Leamington Spa whose work focuses on the themes of the body and accessibility. Rosa often experiments with biofeedback and facial recognition to find innovative ways for people with limited mobility to make music and art. Her work ranges from 3D renders to performance and interactive installations.

Twitter: @RosaFrancsArt

Instagram: @rosafrancesca.art

Emily Mulenga

(she/her)

Emily Mulenga is a mixed media artist. Using visuals and sound that draw upon video games, cartoons and the internet, her practice explores themes of capitalism, feminism, technology and existential anxieties.

Since 2013 she has shown internationally, and has led projects at Tate Britain and Camden Art Centre. In January 2020 she graduated from Chelsea College of Arts with an MA in Fine Art, which was fully funded by a Frank Bowling Scholarship.

Website: https://www.emilymulenga.com/

Twitter: @MulengaMoji

Instagram: @emilymulenga

Samiir Saunders

(he/they)

Samiir Saunders is a mixed media poet based in Birmingham. Their work consists of experimental digital poetry, page poetry, spoken word performance, and video-poetry. Samiir’s poems and artworks examine the tension between a desire to communicate authentically and the limitations of digital technology (and indeed, of language itself). He explores how the internet’s seemingly unlimited pool of information sits within a wider context of capitalism, post-colonialism, and the various erasures therein, whilst also finding a space for playfulness and the acceptance of ambiguity.

Website: https://samiirsaunders.com/

Twitter: @smaiduskhan

Instagram: @smaiduskhan

Jae Tallawah

(they/them)

Jae Tallawah is a ferociously Brummy, Neurodivergent, Non-binary, Queer, multidisciplinary artist. Jae’s explores the transformative power of affirmations in all they do (through music production, visual art and bespoke workshops tailored to communities that need it the most). Jae is passionate about Disability justice, they advocate for radical change to the systems within the arts and cultural world and are committed to seeing a world that centres and considers people like them. Jae values empathy, creative care and spaces to be unapologetic. Their mantra is to always make, create and dream with intention.

Website: https://www.jaetallawah.com/

Instagram: @unapologeticblackgirl

The programme is lead by artist/curator Antonio Roberts, with Alex McLean of FoAM Kernow and Yasmeen Baig-Clifford of Vivid Projects, in collaboration with and funded by the UKRI research project "Music and the Internet: Towards a Digital Sociology of Music" which is lead by Christopher Haworth at the University of Birmingham.