Team
Olivia Jack
Olivia Jack is a programmer and artist who works frequently with open-source software, cartography, live coding, and experimental interfaces. She is the developer of browser-based creative tools including Hydra (live-codable video synthesizer), PIXELSYNTH, and LiveLab (peer-to-peer media router). Her live visual sets explore algorithmic representations of unpredictable and chaotic systems, and writing software as a messy and ephemeral process.
Antonio Roberts
Antonio Roberts is an artist, musician and curator based in Birmingham, UK. His practice is concerned with how the misuse of digital technology impacts people of colour and other marginalised groups.
His recent work focuses on the depiction of Black people in digital media, ranging from stereotypical misrepresentations in early video games to modern algorithms and AI codifying existing biases.
His (Algo|Afro) Futures mentoring programme teaches live coding software as a way to address how Black people have been under/mispreresented in digital art and electronic music, despite being pivotal to its development.
He is currently learning game development, with the aim to explore how immersive environments can be used as a narrative storytelling device. He is also working on his debut EP, created using a combination of live coding software and hardware synthesisers.
Aida El-Oweidy
graphic design
Aida El-Oweidy is a Cairo-based visual artist & graphic designer working through the mediums of text, video, and performance. She is interested in creating experiences that explore space, collective imagination, & temporality. In 2022, Aida co-founded the Bakht collective, which focuses on the intersections between sound, visuals and movement through improvisation. She also co-created the ZayMaTeegy initiative, a series of live coding events in Cairo.
https://www.instagram.com/aidaeloweidy/
Flor de Fuego
2024 guest judge
Flor de Fuego is a digital-craft artist that mainly works with programming and live coding in order to create performative experiences. Her research rounds concepts like the body, space, code and chaos-cosmos. She has taken part in several international festivals around Europe and America in collaboration with some other artists as well as individually. She graduated as Bachelor in Arts at National University of La Plata, Argentina. Education is a fundamental part in her production. Flor is involved in the live coding communities and has contributed for the ICLC on paper reviewing. She is also an active community collaborator of Hydra, a live coding browser software developed by Olivia Jack. Photo credit: Vanja Konta
Past judges
[MONRHEA]
Wanjiru Ngure, [MONRHEA], is to be considered one of the most authentic entities of expression to emerge from Nairobi, Kenya. Their creative and experimental ability to draw out the deepest part of oneself, or better yet, sending you there, has her categorized as a talented creator and curator in the underground scene both here in Nairobi and beyond. They run a community called BYTE, that is creating a platform to share the world of music coding done through Sonic Pi, a code based music creation and performance tool. BYTE explores various avenues to experience the coding world to encourage creators and listeners to get involved. [MONRHEA]’s coding performances also incorporate visualization using Hydra video synth creating immersive audio-visual experiences.
Contact
Please contact us at hydra.video.synth@gmail.com with any questions :)