Nerd Nite London Livestream - March 2021

Nerd Nite London is a monthly event where three speakers give 18-21 minute fun-yet-informative talks across all disciplines, while the audience drinks along. This March we're going to be learning about Algoraves, about people subverting technology and about the Covid-19 debt.

Be there and be square.

Address: Your living room.  Or kitchen, if it's more comfortable. Or bedroom, if you're feeling like you need a little lie down. It's all good with us. 

Details: March 17^th 2021. The stream will go live at 7pm, with the speakers starting at 7.30pm

Tickets: Early Nerd Tickets £4, General Admission £5, Extra-generous donation to Coders of Colour £7.50. All proceeds will be donated to charity.

Algorithmic music patterns

Algorave, a term coined in 2014, is a portmanteau of Algorithm and Rave. Algoraves are parties where musicians and artists create music and visuals using code. This process is exposed to audiences by the performer(s) showing their screens. In this presentation, Antonio will demonstrate how the live coding software TidalCycles can be used to create and mutate drum patterns found in popular music.

Bio: Antonio Roberts is an artist and curator based in Birmingham, UK, working primarily with video, code, and sound. He is critically engaged with the themes surrounding network culture and in his practice explores how technology continues to shape ideas of creation, ownership, and authorship. As a performing visual artist and musician he utilises live coding techniques to demystify technology and reveal its design decisions, limitations, and creative potential.

You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @hellocatfood and on https://hellocatfood.com

Can we occupy technology with love? 

Communications technologies don't come into the world fully formed -- they rely on their users to change, model and mould them. From 1950s housewives who telephoned each other in the afternoons to K Pop stans promoting Black Lives Matter, there is a long history of people and communities subverting technology. Having spent the last few years wondering how to rebel in a digital world dominated by big platforms, in this talk Rachel will explore why and how it might be possible to love bomb the communications platforms we use every day, and turn them into happier, kinder places. 

Bio: Rachel Coldicutt is a technology researcher who has been making things on the Internet since the mid-1990s. She now runs a research agency called Careful Industries that specialises in responsible innovation. She also advises various technology companies and regulators and is writing a book on collective, careful innovation. She is on Twitter as @Rachel Coldicutt 

Covid-19 broke it. Who pays for it?

Ever wondered who’s going to pay back the trillions governments are spending on Covid-19? Maybe it’s you, or your great- grandkids. Maybe it’s the super-rich. Maybe it’s nobody at all. John Foley will guide you through the debate over whether we should worry about our towering mounds of national debt.

Bio: John Sinclair Foley is the editor of Reuters’ financial opinion section in New York. He’s been writing for over a decade about companies, economics and how money makes some things better and other things much, much worse. He believes finance isn’t rocket science – though some people would like you to think it is. You can find him on Twitter @johnsfoley.

All proceeds from Nerd Nite London go to charity. This month, we'll be supporting Coders of Colour.

More information about Nerd Nite London can be found by following us on Twitter @nerdnitelondon, liking us on Facebook www.facebook.com/nerdnitelondon or visiting www.london.nerdnite.com. for more information about The Shine Trust visit www.shinetrust.org.uk