arebyte Annual Report 2021
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arebyte Annual Report 2021
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contents
contents
| Forewords | 3 |
|---|---|
| About arebyte Programme 2021 |
4 5 |
| arebyte Gallery | 6 |
| arebyte On Screen | 11 |
| arebyte Skills | 15 |
| arebyte Studios | 20 |
| Press highlights | 22 |
| Thankyou | 23 |
| Report and accounts of the Trustees | |
| and fnancial statement for the | |
| year ending 31 December 2021 | 25 |
| Report of the Trustees | 26 |
| Objectives and activities | 26 |
| Governance & management | 27 |
| Achievements and Performances | 27 |
| Financial review | 28 |
| Reference & administrative details | 28 |
| Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities | 29 |
| Independent examiner’s report to Trustees | 29 |
| Statement of fnancial activities | 30 |
| Balance Sheet | 30 |
| Notes to the fnancial statements | 31 |
forewords
arebyte Annual Report 2021
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forewords
In 2021, the world was still deep into the Covid-19 pandemic; new variants and restrictions continued to affect most aspects of our everyday life. Confronted with this dawning ‘new normal’, the 2021 artists responded to our yearly theme Realities with ambitious projects: new commissions challenging audiences with urgent societal questions of democracy and equality; exhibitions exploring collectivism within communities, as well as live performances and online experiences offering a breath of fresh air away from the pandemic.
arebyte Gallery programme started with Kate Frances Lingard, winner of our nation-wide young artist development programme hotel generation, with their … exhibition Tender spots in hard code fraught with potential, fragile with indecision looking into the notion of personal and collective care through card and computer games. Following Kate’s show, online communities gathered IRL for Going Away TV ’s curated evening of live streamed acts, performed in front of a green screen, blurring digital and physical spaces. We then presented Software for Less by artist Ben Grosser who exposed the real motivations which govern social media platforms through user’s profiling for advertising and political purposes. As a counteract to this, Ben developed the commissioned work Minus , a new finite social media platform where users get 100 posts – for life. Software for Less toured to Aksioma, Ljubljana in May 2022. The programme continued with The Rogue Collection who curated Free From , a day celebrating Black Womxnhood through digital artworks, photography and live performances. Closing the programme, She Keeps Me Damn Alive by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley urged audiences to take a stand to protect the lives of trans black people through a first-person shootout game using a physical infrared gun in immersive arcade-style play. We were pleased to collaborate with
Quad on one event of our events programme associated with the exhibition, reinforcing our work with peer organisations in the UK. Danielle’s installation travelled to Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf in June 2022.
Our online programme arebyte on Screen overcame the mobility restrictions imposed by the pandemic by taking the viewers on a virtual journey through The Digital Weird , a digital scavenger hunt co-curated by Jan Robert Leegte, with artworks hidden across the World Wide Web. We joined forces with LIMA for the events programme running alongside the Digital Weird , allowing us to extend our audience reach. We then launched Open Screen in partnership with Shape Arts, with the aim to remove disabling barriers in the digital age and address an area of underrepresentation in the art industry: through a yearly worldwide open call for online works by digital artists who self-identify as disabled, Open Screen 2021 presented two interactive newly commissioned works, a hyper-link story about rescue by Uma Breakdown, and a multiple choice game exposing how mundanity drips into self-made - mythologies by Tilly P-M. We then showed Para Net , an online experiment in distributed paraspace developed by Digital Arts Computing students from Goldsmith University, during their online residency with arebyte. We ended the programme with the release of the 2nd generation of arebyte Plugin in partnership with The Wrong, offering audiences a progressive way for traversing the magnitude and unique breadth of content featured in the online biennale, as a series of window pop-ups via a browser plugin.
The popularity gained among audiences by our educational programme arebyte Skills confirmed the need for creating more opportunities to share knowledge on creative media technologies for amateurs and professionals
of all ages. This led to a partnership with The Serpentine Galleries and their initiative Future Art Ecosystems around the coproduction of three of our Digital Training Sessions series on creative software run by digital artists.
arebyte Studios continued to provide much needed creative workspaces at London City Island, Camberwell and Peckham, preserving the affordability of 150 artist studios in London.
2021 saw arebyte cement its reputation as one of the most innovative digital art organisations in Europe, with ongoing increase in viewership and visitors, coverage in major outlets such as The Guardian, Frieze, Art Review, and Hyperallergic, collaborations with acclaimed cultural partners, and exhibitions touring internationally.
Building on the success of our programmes and our growing expertise in art & technology, arebyte will open London’s first Digital Art Centre in 2024 in a 20,000 sqft new building secured as our permanent home. The Digital Art Centre will act as a creative hub championing digital cultures, connecting multiple voices and embracing a wide range of influences to offer immersive experiences in large scale exhibition spaces, affordable workspaces with digital fabrication facilities for the creative tech sector, and educational rooms for creative digital skills and literacy workshops.
5 May 2022
Nimrod Vardi, Claudel Goy, Founder and Creative director Managing director
arebyte Annual Report 2021
about arebyte
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about arebyte
Since 2013, arebyte brings innovative perspectives to art through new technologies.
arebyte leads a pioneering digital art programme at the intersection of new technologies and contemporary culture. From net art’s inception in the 90s to more recent innovations in computer technology from VR to AI, the programme invites multiple voices to create multimedia installations at arebyte Gallery, London, and online experiences at arebyte on Screen.
Alongside the art programme, arebyte Skills shares knowledge on creative media technologies with audiences of all ages. Run in partnership with artists and the education and youth sectors, the programme offers activities for amateurs and professionals to develop hands-on digital techniques and gain critical thinking around digital art practices through workshops, artist development programmes, university residencies and panel discussions.
arebyte also supports a vibrant community of artists, designers and creative technologists through arebyte Studios, an initiative that provides affordable workspaces to 150 creative professionals across London.
Contacts hello@arebyte.com www.arebyte.com charity # 1167185 twitter | facebook | instagram
Address
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley SHE KEEPS ME DAMN ALIVE arebyte Gallery (2021) Image: Dan Weill
Java House, 7 Botanic Square London City Island, E14 0LG
arebyte Annual Report 2021
programme 2021
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2021 programme Realities
arebyte’s 2021 artistic programme Realities explores various speculative truths (and fictions) present within the complexities of living and nonliving bodies, those who are represented within real-life experiences and encounters and those who are present in avatars and online platforms. Questioning the circumstances surrounding our states of individual and collective being, the programme traverses the myriad ways we conduct ourselves and our behaviours – our emotions and body language, our learned social etiquettes and intimate gestures, and our ability to work and talk together to enforce change – as a way of asserting new forms of experience. The layering, multiplicity and diversity of our collective existence is interrogated in the programme through computational, cultural, political, and other perspectives.
Our supposed reality is in a constant state of flux, and increasingly so when faced with major global transformation. The premise of the global village (with all its inherent systems of community, care, movement of goods
and transport) is narrowing physically but expanding digitally, and is not exempt from change; the fundamental structures of our societies are volatile, with each depending on the other in times of growth and subsequent decline. We are facing a new reality which is yet to be fully unveiled to us – A New Normal – parts of which we negotiate through endless speculations on the one hand, and through scientific knowledge on the other. New (or renewed) markets for technology, science, food and stocks, and the distribution of communication are shifting and now exist via dispersed elements of rationing, multi-platform communications, video conferencing, social distancing, community driven initiatives and the abundance of so-called free voice-video messaging applications.
An important starting point for a discussion surrounding real reality begins with Lacan’s definition of vs. his definition of reality . For Lacan, the real is what is quantifiably / objectively real or true and reality is that which presents itself as real or true. Reality is pure ideology but acts as if it is non-ideological – it covers up and suppresses what is truly real. For example, we are taught that many things (like mental instability) are a fact of life that it is caused by a change in the chemicals within our brains. However, we are not often taught about why these chemical changes might come about: social, political or economical issues contribute to mental illness. In Capitalist Realism , Mark Fisher argues that “all mental illnesses are neurologically instantiated, but this says nothing about their causation... the task of repolitisising mental health is an urgent one.” Mental health is one reality, but the same argument can be made for many other realities faced by groups and individuals the world-over whereby the only viable political economic way to organise a society is through capitalism. The plasticity of capitalism, as taken from Deleuze + Guatarri, makes it a monstrous entity, “capable of metabolising and absorbing anything that comes into contact with it”. [1] In Fredric Jameson’s words, we are fragmented.
In the pre-Covid-19 world, we were haphazardly finding our way through ingrained routines and the mundanities of existence. Personal identity, our personal realities, are an effect of the unification of the past and future with
one’s present. The inability to unify these passages of time, especially in times of stress or routine mundanity, reduces us to being an experience of pure material signifiers, unrelated markers of gesture, object, form (a facial expression, words on a page, an image etc). This dislocation of our bodies situated firmly on solid ground exacerbated our fears for the uncertainty of the United Kingdom and Europe; frustration at austerity motivated funding cuts in our National Health Service; our cultural sector; inherent racism and sexism without our emergency services; and our complex education matrix. In a post-Covid-19 world, we find it difficult to forget the impacts of “social distancing”; what it felt and looked like to have empty streets and empty supermarket shelves from the spread of panic; the acceptance of resigning a set of personal liberties in favour of the greater good; embracing an enforced police state; and the growth of conspiracies. Remembering these thoughts will be implicit in understanding our new reality. We may now be in a position to logically understand our future, but how we respond to these past events – and how we should treat our social systems with more respect, love and care – will be paramount.
Following arebyte’s 2020 programme focused on Systems , the conversations and discussions surrounding 2021 have broadened to challenge how these systems are reflected in the lived-world and our experiences in real-time. The programme embraces an interdependent curatorial approach whereby artists, works, texts, ideas and plans relate to each other on varying levels of abstraction, positioning broader interpretations and methodologies ahead of one, singular narrative. This allows the programme to include artists working at the intersections of everything from explorations into the dark corners of digital making via the “eerie” and “weird” sub-genres, black-trans perspectives presented through designing specific gameworld environments, accessibility and inclusion for artists with visible or invisible disabilities via online presentations, and an open-access / DIY events programme.
Written by Rebecca Edwards, Curator of arebyte
[1] Fisher, M., 2009, Capitalist Realism . p.6.
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Gallery
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from net art’s inception in the 90s to more recent innovations in computer and immersive technology, arebyte Gallery leads a pioneering programme of multimedia installations in London that push the boundaries of digital art.
Kate Francis Lingard
Tender Spots in Hard Code...fraught with potential, fragile with indecision, 2021, arebyte Gallery, London. Image: Max Colson
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Gallery
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Kate Frances Lingard
Tender spots in hard code… fraught with potential, fragile with indecision 11 June – 24 July 2021
Kate Frances Lingard is the 2020 finalist from the gallery’s annual young artist development programme, hotel generation.
The project emerges from the fraught and complex convergence of social, economic and technological space. In trying to navigate this pervasive architecture of power, decentralised and distributed systems hold the potential as organisational tools in the digital commons. They can allow us to rethink the kinds of social relations that structure this space, to prioritise an ethics of care.
Kate Francis Lingard, Tender spots in hard code… fraught with potential, fragile with indecision (2021). Installation view. Commissioned by arebyte. Image: Max Colson
Judgment Day
Guest-curated by Going Away.tv Friday 30 July / 7 – 9pm
Transforming arebyte Gallery into an apocalyptic public access TV studio audiences are invited to enter the bunker and take part in the fun.
Live-streamed with experimental effects from Rob Hall, Going Away.tv LIVE – Judgement Day features performances from Gal Go Grey, a London born experimental producer; live music from London-based producer and beatmaker Skye Chai; performance art chaos from London artists Dank Collective, made up of Grant Bingham, Tori Carr, James D. Hopkins, Ian Williamson, and Zen Khalid; as well as jingles from house-band Adam Parrousos, and all-night banter from artists and hosts Meg Jenkins and Marc Blazel.
Skye Chai Live performance part of Going Away.TV at arebyte, 2021. Image: Max Colson
Ben Grosser
Software for Less 20 August – 23 October 2021
Software for Less takes visitors on a journey through a pseudo tech exposition. Each work is presented as a product that could have come out of an alternative Silicon Valley, interrogating and reimagining how software is created, operated, and sold.
The exhibition provokes the viewer to consider the influence software has on us, foregrounding social media platforms as the main impetus; how is an interface that foregrounds our friend count changing our conceptions of friendship? Who benefits when a software system can intuit how we feel? Ultimately, questioning how software moulds who we are.
Ben Grosser, Software for Less, (2021). Installation view. Commissioned by arebyte. Image: Max Colson.
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Gallery
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Free Form: a celebration of Black womxnhood Guest-Curated by The Rogue Collection 29 October 2021 / 1–9pm
Curated by The Rogue Collection in collaboration with arebyte Gallery, Free Form: An artistic exploration from a network of Black artists using technology and digital media to celebrate the distinct complexities of Black womxnhood in all its facets. Through live performance & exhibition, Free Form tears away at societal restraints to reveal the limitless Black Feminine reality.
Free Form explores themes of queerness, heritage, intergenerational relations, hair, skin, and body image, intimacy, love, sex, joy, masculinity as a part of womxnhood, resistance, and more.
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley She Keeps Me Damn Alive 19 November – 5 March 2022
SHE KEEPS ME DAMN ALIVE, uses the artist’s recent series of DOTCOM works, blacktransarchive.com, blacktransair.com and blacktranssea.com as a starting point for furthering research on Archiving the black trans experience via interactivity and storytelling.
In SHE KEEPS ME DAMN ALIVE, this methodology takes shape as an immersive point and-shoot style arcade game asking visitors to question how their choices and actions (or inactions) affect others directly. The game uses the interactions of those who play it to recentre their understanding of responsibility; challenging them to see if their sense of when to act and when not to act is sustainable for black trans people.
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, SHE KEEPS ME DAMN ALIVE Unity game (2021). Installation view. Commissioned by arebyte. Image: Dan Weill.
CIL Live Performance part of Free Form at arebyte. (2021). Image: Max Colson
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte On Screen
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arebyte on Screen is an expanded and innovative platform experimenting with new forms of curating online from digital animations, videos, or web-based interactive experiences.
Linyou Xie We Will Love You (2021). 3D Video
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte On Screen
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Bot (Bio Operational Transition) Guest-Curated by Harddiskmuseum March – April 2021
BOT plays with the idea of the chat-bot through the presence of the artists, who are in control of answering the questions and comments of visitors on the website.
The project is guest created by Solimán López, new media artist and founder of the Harddiskmuseum as an environment of real and non real connection. The project will unfold over the coming weeks with contributions from Solimán López, Klaus Fruchtnis, Stash, Maximiliano Bellman, Vidya-Kelie and Paulo Arriano from Harddiskmuseum.
Spur.World Babe, lil, Ilcruthac May – June 2021
Presenting works from three artists from SPUR.WORLD on AOS, Babe, lIl, and Ilcruthac relating to the theme of ‘realities’, and with connections to the natural, mysticism and magic within landscapes, and alternative rituals of performing consciousness, memory and otherness.
SPUR is a virtual residency platform uniting international graduates working across digital mediums. Spanning workshops, collaboration, and mentorship, the residency program facilitates new methodologies for working collectively online.
Image: Screenshot from spur.world wesbite
Image: Artwork by Solimán López,
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte On Screen
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The Digital Weird Co-curated with Jan Robert Leegte 5 July – 6 September 2021
The Digital Weird parodies the format of an online scavenger hunt. Visitors are asked to find hyperlinks within each work to progress through a sequence of carefully placed videos, stills, texts and games. These works are disseminated across a number of platforms, websites, and other methods of communication; supplanted into subcultured social scenes, added into niche video platforms, appearing as links into the esotericism of Reddit debates, and bogus landmarks within the Google map matrix. Nothing is what it seems, and nothing is given context of artist name or exhibition title. Using nonsense usernames and phoney accounts, the embedded works exist in a chain of discovery but can equally be stumbled upon by unsuspecting viewers at random.
Para-Net Paraspaces 12 September – 11 October 2021
Paraspaces are the layers of reality that weave together, forming the warp and weft of reality. Paraspaces are an emergent property of swarm behavior, rising out of collective belief, communal engagement rising out of semi-anonymised forum posters, neural networkpowered bots, rising out of techno-occult covens and well-known non-profits we can’t name.
The paraspace residency traces mycelial links between paraspaces, following evidence of lost civilisations through deserted forums, esoteric institutions and the occasional small-scale internet connection. Residency is an experiment in distributed paraspace cartography producing values that aren’t values, un-realities that are real.
Image: Screenshot from Para-net wesbite
Image: Exhibition booklet designed by Conor Rigby
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte On Screen
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The Wrong Biennale – arebyte plugin 2021–2022
arebyte Plugin in partnership with The Wrong, offers audiences a progressive way for traversing the magnitude and unique breadth of content featured in the online biennale, as a series of window pop-ups via a browser plugin.
Brought directly to the viewer’s screen weekly exhibitions are disseminated over the duration of a week, providing an artistic ‘stopping cue’ from relentless scrolling, email notifications and other computercentered work.
Images: Collection of Screenshots from arebyte Plugin
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte On Screen
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Uma Breakdown Take The Moonlight by The Tail April – October 2021
Take The Moonlight by The Tail is a story about rescuing someone and taking them home through complex swamps; sheer cliffs; unreliable simulations/ memories; and the roaming commune of dead souls. You have only one mission, and it only goes one way.
Uma Breakdown, still from Take The Moonlight by The Tail (2021). Commissioned by arebyte.
Developed in partnership with Shape Arts, Open Screen is arebyte’s yearly open call for digital artists working online to be exhibited on arebyte on Screen.
Open Screen is actively aiming to address an area of underrepresentation in the art industry with proposals exploring the role of digital technologies and the new opportunities it creates or hinders; from experiments in augmented, virtual and mixed reality, to fake news, online bots, social media, darknet and deep fakes.
Tilly Prentice-Middleton byobob April – October 2021
byobob is a multiple-choice game where players move around by selecting how they would like the person, or sim, to spend their day. Computer-generated images and gifs, alongside real-life documentation of immediate surroundings create collaged fragments of daily routines.
Tilly Prentince-Middleton, byobob - bring your own banality of being (2021). Commissioned by arebyte.
OPEN SCREEN 2021 panel of judges
Elinor Hayes Creative Producer at Shape Art
Joseph Wilk
Programmer and Live Coding Performer
Vivek Gohil
Gaming Accessibility Consultant and Freelance Writer at Eurogamer
Nimrod Vardi
Founder and Creative Director at arebyte
Rebecca Edwards Curator at arebyte
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte On Screen
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artist chain2021
programme
The Artist chain is an endless digital trail of works where arebyte selects the first artist of the chain,
who then invites the next artist to participate, forming a dialogue between peer groups around the world.
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Enzo Vieira Medeiros Titas Mackevicius Noah Griffin James Sibley Adam Grant
Jackie Treehorn Affair Covid-99 Endon Kicking a Dead Horse Mother Bear
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Douglas Verinder Gedge Hal Hewetson Enzo Vieira Medeiros Titas Mackevicius Noah Griffin
Ethos @i_know_that_my_ Jackie Treehorn Affair Covid-99 Endon
redeemer_liveth
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Keiga Zongbo Jiang Abi Sheng Cattin Tsai Oliver Hunter Pohorille
Post-SMT DEL>x6F//50<200000- Digital Ego Iibido and The unreal world AKA SCUM BOY
0000 replication W3T DR3AM
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00Zhang
Post-2020-Experiment
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Linyou Xie
We Will Love You
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Josiane M.H. Pozi JPS GIVING rendition
Ed Fornieles Associations
Omsk Social Club S.M.I2.L.E – A trip into Synesthesia
Ana María Millán Playing Invisible
Luciana Ponte Shhhhhh Bai
LAZYBACKHOME IMAGO I: SUPERVISORY CONTROL
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Skills
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arebyte Skills shares knowledge on creative media technologies with audiences of all ages. Run in partnership with artists and the education and youth sectors, the programme offers activities for amateurs and professionals to develop hands-on digital techniques and gain critical thinking around digital art practices through workshops, artist development programmes, university residencies and panel discussions.
Sade Arellano. WIP, Map 3. work in progress ( 2021). Comissioned by arebyte.
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Skills
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April – August 2021
arebyte yearly artist development programme hotel generation mentors the next eneration of UK digital artists during the critical early stages of establishing a career in the arts.
Four participants from UK cities are selected through an open call to take part in a development programme including curatorial guidance, crit by guest artists, studio visits, digital skills and coding workshops, fundraising and marketing workshops.
The programme culminates in a solo show at arebyte Gallery for the winning artists shortlisted by a panel of judges.
The 2021 shortlisted candidates are Molly Erin McCarthy (PLYMOUTH), Martin Disley DINBURGH), Natasha Thembiso Ruwona (GLASGOW), Sade Arellano (BRISTOL).
HOTEL GENERATION 2021 panel of judges
Christl Bauer
Co-producer Ars Electronica Festival
Zaiba Jabbar Co-founder HERVISIONS
Olia Lialina Artist
Alessandro Ludovico
Researcher, artist and chief editor Neural magazine
Ben Vickers
CTO Serpentine Galleries co-founder Ignota Books initiator unMonastery
HOTEL GENERATION 2021 participants
Molly Erin McCarthy (Plymouth)
Martin Disley (Edinburgh)
Natasha Thembiso Ruwona (Glasgow) Sade Arellano (Bristol)
Sade Arellano (Bristol)
Natasha Thembiso Ruwona (Glasgow)
Martin Disley (Edinburgh)
Molly Erin McCarthy (Plymouth)
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Skills
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university residency
Each year, arebyte partners with a London University running a new media course and invite their students to look into new forms of making, curating, displaying and archiving digital art. The residency culminates in a collaborative public outcome as part of arebyte’s programme.
For 2021 arebyte in collaboration with Goldsmiths University, invited students and alumni from Goldsmiths Computing Department to take part in a 4-week residency around arebyte’s 2021 theme of ‘Realities’.
During the 4-week period, students experimented with the idea of a residency and public-facing outcomes. The residency aims to be transparent and open to the public via unconventional and disruptive methods of collaborative making. The driving motivation of the residency is to allow students the opportunity to challenge the idea of what a gallery is and what it can offer, as well as experimenting beyond the white cube space and context through a dedicated and sustained pedagogical framework.
Participants students are Pietro Bardini, Kris Cirkuit (Kris Hillquist), Jonas Grünwald, George Kuhn, Felix Loftus, Alexander MacKinnon, Rohan Mathur, Nahab (James Treagus), Zoë O’Shea, Chris Speed, Szonja Szendi, Samuel Antonio Turner, and Han Yajuan.
Images: Collection of Screenshots from Para-net website
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Skills
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digital training sessions
3D in the wild! Getting 3D online with THREE.js with artist Christopher MacInnes Saturday 5 January
Basics of C# code and emergence in Unity 3D in the with artist George Simms Saturday 6 November
Augmented Reality Makeover Party with artist Jeremy Bailey Saturday 20 March
Augmented Reality Tools for Artists (intermediate) with artist Studio Above&Below Saturday 3 July
Breaking Reality: Blender for beginners with artist Marc Blazel Saturday 9 October
Make or break: An Introduction to Deepfakes with artist Libby Heaney Saturday 19 June
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Skills
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Serpentine x arebyte present Skills for Future Art Ecosystems
’ s As part of Future Art Ecosystems: Art x Metaverse
exploration into virtual experiences and the
infrastructure necessary to support evolving art and advanced technologies, Serpentine and arebyte partner to bring you a series of technical workshops focused on artmaking in the metaverse. Each workshop, led by an artist, will offer participants the opportunity to learn and create live with a group of 20 other participants. Upon completion, attendees can expect to have tangible skills to apply in their own creative practice.
Interaction 101
with Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley Saturday 24 July
Metahuman Production with Keiken Saturday 18 September
Dynamic Environments in Unity with Christopher MacInnes Saturday 28 August
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Studios
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arebyte supports a vibrant community of artists, designers and creative technologists through arebyte Studios, an initiative that provides affordable workspaces to 150 professionals across London.
In partnership with developers, councils and private landlords, arebyte sets up flexible workspaces as part of a cultural placemaking strategy. preserving the affordability of premises for artists, creative start-ups and micro businesses, with the ambition to nurture London’s creative workforce and art community.
London City Island Workspaces Image: Andriana Oborocean
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Studios
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Kokomelt Ltd, arebyte Studios @London City Island, 2020
AREBYTE STUDIOS – LONDON CITY ISLAND
arebyte Studio at London City Island has been set up in partnership with Ballymore, with support from Studiomakers, an initiative led by Outset Contemporary Art Fund. Since 2017, the new development hosts an exciting community of 30 artists, designers, makers and creative businesses, with studios, offices and a co-working space.
arebyte Studios @Burgess Business Park, 2020
AREBYTE STUDIOS – CAMBERWELL
arebyte Studios in Camberwell is situated within an industrial complex and comprises 80 creative workspaces for artists and makers. The site also includes a venue available to hire for rehearsals, photo and film shootings.
arebyte Studios @Old Kent Road, 2020
AREBYTE STUDIOS – PECKHAM
arebyte Studio site on Old Kent Road is located on a two-storey warehouse housing 45 makers and designers. It includes an exhibition space run by artistled collective Superfluous, and the Old Kent Road Arts Club run by F.A.T. Studio
arebyte Annual Report 2021
arebyte Studios
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press highlights
The Digital Weird listed under Brilliant Things To Do in AnOther (2021)
RGBFAQ featured in CLOT Magazine (2021)
arebyte’s creative director & curator give insight on London’s crypto art scene online and in print in Financial Times (2021)
SHE KEEPS ME DAMN ALIVE reviewed in Frieze (2021)
arebyte creative director Nimrod Vardi selected as 40 under 40 art & tech in Apollo Magazine (2021)
Artist Ben Grosser interviewed for Software for Less online
in TheGuardian and in print in The Observer (2021)
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arebyte Annual Report 2021
Thank you
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artists and curators we worked with in 2021
thank you
Omsk Social Club Paulo Arriano Pietro Bardini Rachel Maclean Rebecca Gill Rohan Mathur Sabrina Ratté Samuel Antonio Turner Sheila Chukwulozie Skye Chai Sola Solimán López Solimán López Stash Summer Pearl Szonja Szendi The Vasulkas Tilly Prentice-Middleton Titas Mackevicius Uma Breakdown Vidya-Kelie Wednesday Kim Zoë O’Shea Zongbo Jiang
00Zhang Ilcruthac Abi Sheng India Sky Adam Grant Jacques Perconte Adam Paroussos James Sibley Adham Faramawy Jonas Grüwald Alexander MacKinnon Josiane M.H. Pozi Ana María Millán Kate Frances Lingard Babe Keiga Ben Grosser Keleena Onyeaka Benjamin Hall Kid Xanthrax Casey Kauffmann Klaus Fruchtnis Cassie McQuater Kris Cirkuit (Kris Hillquist) Cattin Tsai LAZYBACKHOME Chris Speed Leo Robinson CIL lIl Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley Linyou Xie Dank Collective Luciana Ponte Digital Excreta Martin Disley Douglas Verinder Maximiliano Bellman Ed Fornieles Molly Erin McCarthy Enzo Vieira Medeiros Nahab (James Treagus) Felix Loftus Natasha Thembiso Ruwona Gal Go Grey Nicolai Schmelling Geoffrey Lillemon Nnenna Onuoha George Kuhn Noah Griffin Hal Hewetson Nwaka Okparaeke Han Yajuan Oliver Hunter Pohorille
Artists
arebyte Annual Report 2021
Thank you
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thank you
Curators
Judges
Ayshia Taskin Bart Seng Wen Long Bjørn Magnhildøen Canek Zapata Collagsim Enrique Salmoiraghi Exonemo Fabio Fon Flounder Lee Jan Robert Leegte Jonathan Touitou Juliusz Grabinski Luis Mercado Lupus Siegert Marc Blazel Meg Jenkins Rachel Falconer Ross Alexander Payne Sizzle Lyk Dat.Studio Soraya Braz Systaime The Rogue Collection
Alessandro Ludovico Ben Vickers Christl Bauer Julian Lee Mark Stokes Olia Lialina Zaiba Jabbar
Guest Speakers
Guest Writers
Cade Diehm Christopher MacInnes Christopher MacInnes David Blandy Dr. Bo Ruberg Elinor Hayes Erik Davis Fopé Olaleye Gabrielle de la Puente George Simms James Rogers Jeremy Bailey Joana Moll Keiken Libby Heaney Marc Blazel Matthew Fuller Nabiha Syed Omikemi Patricia Falcão Sanneke Huisman Studio Above & Below Valentina Tanni Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
Chloe Filani Colm Guo-Lin Peare Emelia Kerr Beale (Illustration) Jan Robert Leegte Rachel O’Bwyer Tamar Clarke-Brown
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arebyte Annual Report 2021
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report
Report of the Trustees and financial statement for the year ending 31 December 2021
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report
Report of the Trustees
The trustees are pleased to present their annual report together with the charity’s statement of accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2021.
The financial statements comply with the Charity Act (2011), arebyte’s CIO constitution (‘foundation model’ offered by the Charity Commission), and the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) “Accounting and Reporting by Charities” applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019).
Objectives and activities
In pursuing arebyte’s charitable objectives through its main activities, the trustees hold regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.
The organisation’s charitable objectives as registered with the Charity Commission are to advance education in the fields of digital and performance art by the establishment and maintenance of an art gallery, and in particular the production of artistic projects, and facilitating the development of emerging artists and their audiences.
arebyte brings innovative perspectives to art through new technologies. The organisation fulfils its mission by delivering the following programmes:
— arebyte Gallery commissions and presents artists who push the boundaries of digital art through multimedia installations that use projection mapping, spatial soundscapes, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and computer generated imagery.
— arebyte on Screen offers artists and curators an expanded and innovative online platform for digital animations, videos, web-based interactive experiences and curatorial interventions.
— arebyte Skills features short courses and workshops to creative software providing practitioners and newcomers with practical techniques for digital making.
— arebyte Studios supports a vibrant community of artists, designers and creative technologists through affordable workspaces
The 2020-2022 audience development plan aims to:
— Grow audiences: reach more people in the UK and abroad across all audience segments
— Maintain existing audiences: increase depth of experience and develop loyalty
— Diversify audiences: arebyte identifies inspirational artists that reflect contemporary society in its multiplicity. By drawing in talented practitioners from all backgrounds, arebyte embeds multiple voices and perspectives in the cultural content the charity produces and ensures underrepresented communities feel their experiences are reflected in the programme
— Attract the less engaged to contemporary and digital art by providing engaging opportunities through community art participation and creation.
arebyte’s longer term plan is to set up London’s first Digital Art Centre in 2024 centred around digital experiences, digital making and digital learning in a 20,000 sqft new building secured as arebyte’s permanent home at London City Island, where the charity is currently located.
The Digital Art Centre by arebyte will act as a creative hub championing digital cultures, connecting multiple voices and embracing a wide range of influences to offer:
— immersive experiences and digital art installations in large scale exhibition spaces;
—affordable workspace provision with digital fabrication facilities for the art and creative tech sectors; educational rooms for creative digital skills and literacy workshops.
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Governance & management
RECRUITMENT AND APPOINTMENT OF TRUSTEES
The members of the Board are the trustees of the charity under charity law. They are the only voting members. Each trustee is appointed for a term of 2 years. All trustees offer their services on a voluntary basis and no funds are held as custodian trustees.
In selecting a new trustee, the trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective management of the charity.
Appointment of trustees is by resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of trustees. Before or on the appointment of a new member of the trustee body, a candidate is provided with a copy of the constitution and the latest Trustees’ Annual Report and statement of accounts.
ORGANISATION
The day-to-day direction of arebyte’s affairs is the responsibility of the Managing director and the Creative director who reports to the Board during the trustee’s meeting or in between meetings, as detailed in arebyte Delegation scheme document.
RISK MANAGEMENT
The major risks to arebyte’s activities, finance and reputation have been identified by the Trustees and are reviewed at each Trustees meetings.
arebyte rates the importance of risks through consideration of the likelihood of an event occurring, and the seriousness that would arise if the event were to occur. Preventive mitigation actions to reduce the likelihood and/or seriousness are identified, and implemented as a priority for higher risks.
arebyte has successfully mitigated the risk associated with the Covid-19 pandemic (insufficient staff resources, drop in audiences attendance due to social distancing measures and lockdowns) by shifting elements of its programme online, allowing greater attendance and increased flexibility in terms of project management.
Achievements and Performances
PROGRAMME OF ACTIVITIES
Our initiatives provide vital opportunities every year to support the professional development of curators and artists working within digital cultures. From making new work, curating exhibitions, performing, giving talks, delivering workshops or writing contributions, arebyte invites multiple voices to take part in the programme.
arebyte aims to inspire more people to engage with digital art, by experiencing arebyte Gallery’s multimedia installations, visiting arebyte on Screen ’s online experiences and taking part in arebyte Skill ’s digital making workshops.
Following the outbreak of the coronavirus, arebyte did rapidly adapt to the changing environment. Throughout the pandemic, benefiting from a strong expertise in curating online, we seized the opportunities to grow our online art programme, arebyte on Screen , bringing exhibitions straight to the screen of the viewers. arebyte continued its educational programme arebyte Skill online, sharing knowledge about creative media technologies to an extended audience.
All this led to a great coverage in renowned outlets, cementing arebyte’s reputation as one of the most innovative digital art galleries.
In 2021, arebyte’s viewership continued to grow with 326,000 viewers (2020: 312,000). In contrast with previous years where 66% of our online audience was
located in the UK, the reach in London and the rest of the UK in 2021 accounts for 46% (London: 20%, UK: 26%), whereas the majority of our viewers comes from abroad (54%), spread across 98 countries. This drastic increase in diversity is the outcome of a consistent effort in developing and promoting our online programme to a worldwide audience, to situate arebyte on the international scene. The existing reach in Asia has seen a substantial increase, reaching 31% of viewership, followed by Europe (9%), South America (6%), North America (5%), Africa (2%) and Australia (1%) and Africa.
WORKSPACE PROVISION
All studios sites have been kept open during the pandemic, with measures put in place to work safely, with the primary focus to keep the studio holders as safe and protected as possible from spreading and contracting the Coronavirus, whilst working in the workspace.
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Financial review
PERFORMANCE
Total income amounts to £584,128 in 2021 (2020: £456,290). Income from charitable activities has increased to £482,178 (2020: £439,966) as a result of an increase of rental income to £ 424,648 (2020: £325,829) due to a full year of operations of arebyte Studios at Old Kent Road (Peckham) which opened in summer 2020.
EFFICIENCY
arebyte is focused on delivering the greatest possible public benefit to the widest possible public; this requires to keep our support costs and overall return on investment under close scrutiny. In 2021 arebyte’s support costs slightly decreased to £52,517 (2020: £55,252).
RESERVES POLICY
The Trustees review arebyte’s reserves policy on an annual basis to consider the difference between the yearly expenditures and income, and ensure that adequate resources are available to meet liabilities. The charity’s reserve policy is to ensure that there are sufficient funds available to meet the anticipated expenditure requirements for a period between 3-6 months. At the end of the 2021 financial year, the reserve level amounted to to £185,034 (2020: £118,148) and therefore within the threshold of the policy (£96,000 to £192,000).
Reference & administrative details
Charity name: arebyte CIO Charity type: Charitable incorporated organisation Charity number: 1167185 Registration date: 18 May 2016 Java House Principal office: 7 Botanic Square London City Island E14 0LG Trustees: Jonatan Jona Hajnalka Semsei Guy Armitage Financial year end: 31 December Independent examiner: Morris Crocker Station House, 50 North Street, Havant, Hants PO9 1QU Bankers: HSBC Bank plc 465 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 9QW PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, S.C.A, 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg
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Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities
The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Annual Report and the statement of accounts in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
The trustees have had due regard to guidance published by the Charity Commission on public benefit. They believe the activities and achievements discussed in this report clearly show how the charity brings benefit to the public. The trustees are not aware and have no knowledge of any serious incidents or other such matters that should be reported to the Commission.
Approved by order of the board of trustees on 13 May 2022 and signed on its behalf by:
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Guy Armitage - Chair
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Independent examiner’s report to Trustees
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of arebyte (the Trust) for the year ended 31 December 2021.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND BASIS OF REPORT
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S STATEMENT
Since your charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a listed body. I can confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a registered member of FCA which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
................................................................. S F Mackie, FCA Morris Crocker Chartered Accountants Station House
North Street Havant Hampshire PO9 1QU
Date: .... May 2022 16
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records; or 3. the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
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arebyte Annual Report 2021
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arebyte Annual Report 2021 34 AfuYiE AAE•VTE IKITES TO ThÉ FIIIIIKIAL sTATET3. ¢411rdd FOR THE YEAA ÉNOED JI DECEMBEA 2V41 TES TO THÉ FM4IKIAL STATEIIENTS. FOA M YEAR ENI)EO JI (CÉM•EA 2021 1.121 31_1221 Al 1 •PI 112J At 31 D•wryv IiY21 Al 1 J•rwy X721 11574 li At 31 t)•(•n•r 3lll Al Ji t>•c•rtw 21J20 SV.128 JIJ 34511 {4.401 73fy) TOTAL Fim 504.IJ ?19) ii. 67.l¥Jl i.Ix+ 31 1237 11&7 1.207 2.977 le7.$ 25149) TOTAL Fiwg 1*.125
arebyte Annual Report 2021 35 IK+TES TO THÉ FMIIKIAL STATEI*NTS. FOR YEAII ENDED 31 DÉCEM•EA 2fr21 371.7$3 131126 X+.4 14&C( TOTAL FUI 421.4011 TAMI