Musician and artist Bishi is the WITCiH (The Women in Technology Creative Industries Hub) co-founder and has already been curating a brilliant series of salons, including a one-off at the Tate Modern. Salon guests have included Imogen Heap, Mira Calix, Ana Matronic and Lone Taxidermist.

The new festival will host the world premieres of four specially-commissioned audio-visual works created by Miri Kat, Lia Mice, Rebekah Ubuntu and Vicky O’Neon, some of the most exciting up and coming female & non-binary artists in the UK today. The performances will involve live coding, hacking, interactive tech and awe-inspiring visuals.

BISHI will perform at the festival, alongside the four commissioned artists and Chagall, and an EP of commissioned artists will be available to download on all streaming platforms through Gryphon Records.

Headline speakers include composer, musician and producer Gazelle Twin, who will be
giving an exclusive lecture, giving new music audiences the chance to hear about her unconventional approach to production and live performance through changing personas and collaboration.

WITCiH is a platform to empower and celebrate women in tech at the intersection of music, tech and STEM, and the organisation empowers, celebrates and now commissions audio-visual works from female and non-binary artists. PRS Foundation funding has enabled this inauguration of WITCiH as a commissioning platform.

WITCiH believes in increasing visibility for Women in the creative industries and that ‘The state of gender?’ is an exciting state of fluidity that is constantly evolving and in need of questioning as the tech industries develop. It seeks to keep the conversation engaging and open to debate and discussion, and pushes women to the forefront of change.

There’s a WITCiH Podcast in the pipeline and composer, Hannah Peel has been interviewed already.

WEDNESDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER

Chagall, Bishi, Miri Kat

Chagall

Chagall is an Amsterdam-born, London-based electronic music producer, songwriter, singer, performer and early adopter of the Mi.Mu Gloves, wireless data gloves to perform electronic music with gesture.

Since the release of her Stray Flux EP (2015) she’s played across the globe showcasing her live audiovisual work incorporating gestural technology, reactive visuals and choreography. Following a residency at Somerset House she is currently touring across Europe with her latest project ‘Calibration’.

Citing inspiration from nature, Greek poetry, Bjork, James Blake, Beethoven, Nina Simone, Erykah Badu, Joni Mitchell & Miriam Makeba this is a truly imaginative artist. New projects include a Virtual Reality experience ‘Ukiyo Cave’ which revolves around true & focused listening to music, where you’ll be invited to leave everything form your daily and internet driven life behind and become part of her musical imagination.

As an artist Chagall is part of PRS Foundation’s Keychange, a pioneering international initiative which empowers women to transform the future of music and encourages festivals to achieve a 50:50 gender balance by 2022. Keychange aims to accelerate change and create a better more inclusive music industry for present and future generations.

Bishi

Bishi is a Musician, Artist, Performer, Producer, Composer & Curator, as well as being the co-founder of WITCiH. In 2018, she has co-produced and released the EP ‘Winds of Fate,’ & her new song cycle BISHI: The Good Immigrant,’ co-produced with composer, Jeff Cook was commissioned by National Sawdust in NYC. She is currently building an interactive light show with Output Arts for this album’s stage presentation.

Bishi contributed Sitar on the new Daphne Guinness album, ‘Daphne & The Golden Chord,’ produced by Tony Visconti. A WITCiH podcast series is currently in development. ‘WITCiH – The State of Gender,’ is the first festival that Bishi has conceived & curated.

Miri Kat - Premiere

A Producer, Hacker, Livecoder and AV Artist based in London, Miri Kat mainly works with Max/MSP Supercollider & found sounds. Her focus is on the creation of unique and immersive sound and multimedia experiences and she will be premiering a new piece of Music AV, commissioned by WITCiH.

THURSDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER

Di Mainstone, Bishi, Lia Mice, Vicky O’Neon

Di Mainstone

Di Mainstone is an Artist and Movician who creates sonic sculptures, that extend from the body and trigger sound via movement. The New York Times has featured Di Mainstone as one of the “new generation visionaries” of the international digital arts scene. A global ambassador for audio brand Sennheiser, Di Mainstone is artist in residence at Queen Mary University of London where she collaborates with researchers from the Centre for Digital Music and Media Arts & Technology group, to develop new musical instruments that are inspired by the body, transforming physical movement into sound via digital technology. Di has invented the term “Movician” to describe the player of these instruments – a hybrid artist who explores and composes sound through movement. her work includes Human Harp at the Roundhouse.

Lia Mice - Premiere

Lia Mice will be premiering a new work at the festival, that was commissioned by WITCiH. Lia is a London-based producer, DJ and instrument designer, was recently crowned “one of the pioneers of experimental pop” by Live And Die In Music, with praise for her newest LP I Love You appearing all over including in Entertainment Weekly, MTV and Life + Times. A doctoral candidate at the MAT Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London, Lia is currently producing her third solo LP, a selection of kaleidoscopic experimental-dance/weird-pop cuts created on analogue samplers during her Master’s research into the sampler as a time machine. Her instrument ChandeLIA received great acclaim at the recent Ars Electronica Festival.

Vicky O’Neon - Premiere

Finnish born Vicky O’Neon (Österberg) is an award-winning percussionist, drummer and performance artist based in London and graduated from the renowned UK music college BIMM London. She has taken her music skills touring extensively with different artists and DJs internationally and in the UK. Vicky’s performance credits include Hans Zimmer, Pharrell Williams, Elle Style Awards and 02 Academy. Her new work will incorporate a custom LED sound responsive harness that is a collaboration between Vicky, the Rotterdam-Based POPKALAB and Ricardo O’ Nascimento.

FRIDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

Gazelle Twin, Bishi, Rebekah Ubuntu

Gazelle Twin (Special Lecture)

Gazelle Twin is the stage name of Elizabeth Bernholz, a British composer, producer and musician from Brighton, England. At WITCiH - The State of Gender? Elizabeth will be presenting a lecture on the making of her forthcoming ‘Pastoral,’ audiovisual project which covers topics as diverse exploring fascism and horror in the English landscape past and present, the creative process from writing to recording/production, and identity as a working artist and Mother. The newly-released album has quickly received outstanding reviews.

Rebekah Ubuntu - Premiere

Rebekah Ubuntu is a London-based multimedia performance artist and musician experimenting with ideas of futurism, rebellion, and paradoxes. Their collaborative work has featured on BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac show, Tate Britain, London’s Serpentine Galleries, and UK-wide arts institutions. Studying Creative Musicianship at the British Institute of Modern Music, current developments include electronic music performance, songwriting, and live performance art. Rebekah will be premiering a new audiovisual composition entitled, ‘Are You There?’, which explores the inextricable link between race and gender through an Afrofuturist and transfeminist lens.

• Tickets are available here
• Facebook event page
• Blogs on previous WITCiH events are here