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Posthuman Symposium Forest Forge, Ringwood The Posthuman Symposium was a week long residency in 2021 that brought together artists of different disciplines to explore posthuman aesthetics. Each artist was encouraged to introduce an experiment. These ranged from explorations of posthuman concepts in pagan ritual to experimentation with manipulating form through lighting. This was made possible through crowdfunding via livestream, where participating artists and members of the community shared their existing work in posthumanism On the research: My Research that week centered on the use of disembodied facilitation- using text-to-speech and projected text to facilitate communical creation without being physically present. These workshops focused on different forms, such as using writing prompts to create poetry and reference images to inspire sculpture and generative works. This was to investigate how removing the physical presence of a facilitator would effect the dynamics of a community. These experiments led to the successful creation of sculpture, generative art pieces and poetry. As an observer, I noticed an uncertainty and tension in the group that led to a one-sided instruction based form of facilitation. The group enjoyed the reveal of the poem they had collectively created, but became frustrated as I experimented with more playful behaviour, with text on screen changing the text prompt while they were thinking of an answer. This revealed to me the potential power imbalance in this form of 'remote facilitation', as the disembodied facilitator had no social cache, they are unable to be held accountable. The only thing the group can do is refuse to participate. Beyond my proposals, a recurring theme of the Posthuman Symposium was how Posthuman concepts can be discussed without entering an apocalyptic post-modern view, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. How we can challenge anthrocentrism and deconstruct binaries of human identity, without losing sight of the driving forces underpinning community oriented work and collective creation? Moving forward, I found the exploration of ancient anglo pagan practises from the lens of posthumanism an interesting proposal, grounding concepts branded 'sci-fi' in a community strengthening context. Particularly, the concept of 'communing' with natural forces. This has led me to explore more with archival material, particularly the use of extinct animal calls as a basis for composition. This led me to the creation of 'Symbiocene', available below. Notes from process

Joe Browning Click here for full CV Multimedia Artist, Composer, Sound Designer An interdisciplinary artist, sound designer and founder of Cagney 2020: a multimedia experiment synthesising digital technology with live community arts. Cagney has appeared in virtual installations, visual art and live performances, all aiming to re-purpose the tools of mass media to support collective creation. Joe is a composer and performer, creating for theatre productions and film across England and internationally, using original production and archival sound to explore media’s role in forming memory and identity. See more below: Installation Audio experiences presented in Theatres and galleries Live Sonics Sound design and composition for Live performance, made in collaboration with directors and performers, using synthesis, archival media and original recordings. Visual Composition Sound Design and Composition for Film Research Residencies and collaborations exploring sound and multimedia Further Sound demos A small collection of ambient sound design pieces created in collaboration with poets and theatre makers across the UK. These ambiences were paired with special shows which only came together once or perhaps twice. While the pieces lay dormant, these artefacts live on. The best thing about this medium is getting into a room and creating a temporary reality. Even if these pieces were only performed once, these songs have stayed with me. The thought of these decaying in a hard-drive makes me sad, so I've put them on a decaying internet instead.

I am the Bomb Union Theatre, Riverside Studios, Queens Park Art Centre 'I Am the Bomb' is a daring and experimental play inspired by Lewis’s struggle with depression and SSRI-induced psychosis, set against the backdrop of an unexploded WWII bomb found near his London flat in 2018. Click here to the the audience reaction On the show: After creating a series of shows getting to grips with generative synths and sample manipulation, I wanted to put more limits in place. ​ This started with my housemate and collaborator Alexandros Paneris, who found a free, funkily out of tune piano on facebook. Speaking with the director Lewis Miles, we wanted to ground the design in the auditory hallucinations of the protagonist. Key words from these discussions for me were sounds of touch and distant noises in an apartment complex. This led to me setting an hour timer, and me and alex doing anything with this piano besides playing it- feeling the mechanisms of the piano, creating sounds along it’s wood panels and lightly depressing the keys. After this, we took turns playing piano inspired by these key words, and the strange atmosphere this long form task had created. This led to the bulk of sound of the show, using these vaguely intimate sounds that would collect meaning from the text onstage, creating subliminal messages and innuendo, as the sounds came across as movements next door, or memories from years before. Once the groundwork of the design had been created, I also drew from vintage sound effects- vinyls created to depict the UK’s constructed memory of the war and the ‘good old day’s that followed. This allowed the music to follow the spectrum of our character’s dissociation from reality across the piece. Sound Design with your friends! A how to: do what you need to do to get a sense of the world of the play, then try and translate that into feelings, movements, objects. This might get something like 'wood, velvet sofa, brushing' etc. Now find an object, activity etc that you think will evoke this, like a form of foley design, but for less tangible things than footsteps or murder. Now, with your friend(s) find a way to record this object, set a 30-60 minute timer and discover together what sounds you can get from it with as little verbal communication as possible. Try and start by not using the object as intended, saving that for when the timer is over. With luck, this will give you a palette of sounds that seem of the same world; the start of your design. Notes from process

Dark Matter Visuals by Gisela Mulindwa, Dark Matter has been performed at The Roundhouse, Theatre Peckham and the Vault Festival On the show: Early versions of this work started in 2017, resurrected and remade around three or so times, with our collaboration continuing in other projects taken on by director/performer/writer Tatenda Matsvai that often followed similar themes, but crossed into film and live music. From so many opportunities to explore having been taken, the stakes felt high here. ​ The goal of the sound of this show was to try and balance a sense of huge scale (in terms of time and space), while also creating a sense of intimacy and internal dialogue with the performer and audience. We wanted to try and break down this binary. ​ ​ ​ This led to the manipulation of recordings from Nasa’s Mars Rover and other deep space recordings to present a ‘dark matter’ liminal space. In the 360 degree speaker set up in our tunnel venue, combining these sounds and presenting them with no explanation felt eerie, and blended well with the vibrations of trains passing overhead. Alongside sounds of space, material from Tatenda’s family was recorded, alongside traditional Shona instruments such as the Hosho and Mbira played by Tatenda. We also looked for intimacy in the inclusion of club music, taking inspiration from playlists created by Pussy Palace, the setting of key scenes. With the access to surround sound and an audience sat either side of our performer, we were finally able to nail this idea we’d had years ago, of immersing the audience in darkness, using sound as a set. This left room to experiment with immersive sound: How to create biblically accurate rain: imagine a tunnel with a row of five speakers either side across the length of an audience sat either side. Using 3-6 recordings of rain, place the closest/most immediate sounding recording in the center row of speakers, and the more distant sounds further away from the center. The slightly damp smell of the tunnel left this effect with audience members looking around, wondering if they could complain about the weather. Notes from process Let’s Work Together Get in touch so we can start working together. First Name Last Name Email Message Send Thanks for submitting!

On Canon: Those exposed to Cagney often refer to 'Canon'. They take Canon to mean the accepted collection of 'true' information about Cagney. They reject any depiction of Cagney being 'more true' than others. As personal encounters with Cagney are limited, 'Truth' is instead garnered by aspects of Cagney that appear consistently, through shared interest and witness accounts. get me back to...

Making a Cagney A simple guide Build A Cagney All events have a time where audiences have a chance to co-create Cagney Content. For better or worse, this is Canon too! If you would be interested in having your work shown at one of our upcoming events, we’d be honoured to have you. If you would be interested in creating work in relation to the Cagney experiment, we literally cannot stop you! If you would like assistance, as a multimedia project, we are always looking for collaborators and there is almost always something currently in the works that could do with another pair of hands. So, if you want to try out a new form, or open yourself up to new collaborators, we’d love to hear from you. Each voice negotiated and work organised on a case by-case basis, to suit the project and those involved. In The Meantime: As the project has grown, we realise that approaching it may feel daunting, so we have outlined a foolproof formula to creating your own Cagney Content today! 1. Look: any/all Cagney content, as well as anything that interests you: your favourite anime, instagram etc 2. Analyse: Consider any/all of the following: What did this make you think about? What did it remind you of? What questions did it raise? Do you see something missing? 3. Reflect: what do you want to try today? This could be writing, drawing, free-forn Jazz etc. Don’t worry about a finished product just yet. 4. Combine: using the thoughts of step 2 with the ideas came up with in step 3, go! Set out some time you are able to put to this idea, and go with it. We’ve found it helps to think about where this art could be shown- is it a trailer? A fragment of a feature length movie? A Soundtrack to a Yoga class? 5. (optional) If you fancy, let us see/hear/experience it in whatever way works for you- tagging us in a social media post, sending it via private email or even showing it to us in person. If you are interested, this could be featured in an event on it’s own, or even included in a larger project. All uses of your creations are treated on a case-by-case basis, explicitly with your permission, and unless you would rather stay anonymous, fully credited and included in our Hall of Fame. The spice of life, and this project, is variety. Whatever level you consider your skills, if it’s Macaroni art or your life’s practise, the most important part is that it is exists, and we are thrilled to see any sign of Cagney! Read More

Portfolio Roundhouse Photoshoot Producer, Graphic Designer The Roundhouse studios. ​ Collaborating with emerging photographers, a free studio session for emerging artists 18-25 in dialogue with the Roundhouse. Building on the Cagney brand and it's community. Created social media assets for artists and a promotional video available here: Nyika Mbiri Vid eographer, Animator Working with Poet and Performance artist Tatenda Matsvai to create an online experience, comissioned by ______. Combining live footage with digital animations. See an extract here BRR Media Production executive (Live audiovisual engineer, Video post-production) Creating live-stream events for "many of the biggest and most high profile companies in Europe", specialising in Audio but fulfilling Camera and video-post production roles as well. The Comoonity C reative Director, Promoter, Tour De Moon in partnership with the online division of 'Tour De Moon', creating a social media based experience, working with writers and visual artists to create an online fiction experience through the form of a forum, where audiences could participate. Available here Cagney.org Creative Director, visual artist A series of multimedia projects working with a variety of disciplines and artists since 2017. Aiming to combine new media with community arts, Cagney.org has led to the creation of interactive games, jewellery and online experiences. See more here Project Name This is your Project description. A brief summary can help visitors understand the context of your work. Click on "Edit Text" or double click on the text box to start. Projects + Roles

Cagney Contact Portal Strictly for researchers interested in exposure to subject 'CAG-2020'. To skip this warning, Click Here for immediate exposure CAG-2020 Memetic Pathogen Example Depiction of CAG-2020 (obscured for viewer protection) Item# CAG-2020 Status: Off-World Description: CAG-2020 is an intelligent memetic artefact, that transforms and self-replicates through visual contact with a human subject. CAG-2020 was first identified in the work of juvenile film-makers, and has since spread to a wide demographic of human subjects. In the ensuing weeks after exposure, test subjects often find the specimen, referred to colloquially as 'CAGNEY', subconsciously manifesting in their daily activities, most notably, in acts of expression. ​ Threat Status: Many artists who create and share depictions of the subject describe it as a 'compulsion'. They paradoxically insist that their depictions fundamentally change Cagney's appearance and behaviour in physical space. This researcher suggests that Cagney's threat status to wider civilisation is entirely based on it's human handlers, and we should endeavour to manage notable 'Cagney Messengers' through █████ █████ and ██████████. This researcher insists that to understand the being requires direct dialogue, established through visual exposure to the pathogen. To join me in this: ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Expose yourself To Cagney Want to report a sighting? Get in touch: whoiscagney2020@gmail.com @cagney2020

Meet Cagney The Comoonity Forum The Collection New Project: Symbiocene Journal of Captured Messenger

Symbiocene All that remains are the machines built to remember. With any luck, they will build mouths to speak, so we can sing with the birds and plastic again. "to affirm the interconnectedness of life and all living things" The newest anti-disciplinary research project in association with cagney.org, 'Symbiocene' is a multimedia performance practise focusing on the creation of live interactive systems between human and non-human performers. HOW symbiomimicry: using new technology to recreate the mutually beneficial associations between different life forms found in nature: connecting performers, audiences and the natural world to create emergent models of co-existence. Our creative team are currently focusing on the following pillars: Sound As a visceral language between performers, communities, animals and machine, we use sound as the foundation of our reactive systems. So far this has led us to duets between field recording, audio-reactive visualisers and computer interpretation. We are also seeking ways to make sonic experiences more accessible, using visual feedback and stage technologies to increase sound's reach. Archive in creating a post-anthropocene future, we want to maintain our connection to our existing communities, exploring our generation's role as self-documentarians. This has led us to integrate oral storytelling, personal music projects and audience response into our reactive systems. Liveness To communicate the live elements of our performance without depending on multiple viewings, we have been exploring how we can combine flexible performances with autonomous and non-human systems. This has led to the use of live generative synthesis, probability based composition and investigations into using signals from plant life to shape our performance. WHO sunbiocracy: A collaboration between three distinct multidisciplinary artists. 'Symbiocene' stems from the belief that with the increase of accessibility in media creation, new modes of performance are possible. explore the team below: To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key. WHEN clairvoyance: Symbiocene is in active development. We are currently working to create the core aspects of the performance, using a s oundtrack prototype as the foundation for our collaboration. Take a listen: Alongside our independent efforts and venue relationships, we are currently seeking opportunities to extend the technical reach of our work, to push the possibilities of the piece and the forms it can take, such applying our reseach in installations and workshops. if you would like to follow our research, related projects or ask any questions, feel free to get in touch or join the CAGNEY.ORG mailing list: Enter your email here Sign Up Thanks for submitting!