Bleep

As night falls on 11th October a rogue frequency is transmitted from London’s Mall. This frequency sits below popular channels, infecting smart devices with bursts of encrypted data with no beginning and no end. Offering an alternative to algorithmic censorship and cultural extraction. Beyond notions of history, place and time. – Nine Nights

Channel B is an audio-visual exploration of Black futurism by the Black-owned art, music, and creative initiative Nine Nights. The exhibition features sound and video installations by founding artists Gaika, GLOR1A and Shannen SP. At the heart of Channel B is the live event series New Syntax, which sees each installation act as staging to host performances by Black artists from across the world.

Nine Nights emerged in May 2020 to counter the systemic racial inequalities of the global music industry by exploring new modes of artistic empowerment. Founded in response to the persistent undervaluing of Black people, the growing protest movement, and the current pandemic’s impact on nightlife and live music, Nine Nights has one purpose – to support Black culture.

The work of the exhibiting artists is rooted in the electronically mutated rhythms of the diaspora that pulse through every city, every night. Drawing on a lineage of pirate radio, subterranean dance floors, and the art happenings of the 1960s, Channel B is nostalgic for an unknown past and committed to the imaginaries of a future. The installations use speculative fiction, experimental sound, and satire to explore contemporary digital issues such as surveillance and non-human intelligence.

Nine Nights will create a future archive of Black counterculture at each New Syntax event, with each installation becoming a transmitter, recorder, and broadcaster. Featuring one-off contributions from performers, live musicians and artists working with electronic music, sound and movement, New Syntax invites both present and online audiences to participate in re-imagining the future.

Nine Nights is a new music concept featuring thoughtfully curated Black artists across the world, spanning music, performance, poetry and spoken word. The name 'Nine Nights' is rooted in Jamaican tradition that celebrates the life and safe passing for those deceased over nine nights. This ‘dead yard’ series is for those who have lost their lives at the hands of racism, police brutality and COVID, to celebrate their existence, and push for change. We want a new system, one that helps develop Black lives in music, art and community. – Nine Nights