Shelly Knotts

Shelly produces live-coded and network music performances and projects which explore aspects of code, data and collaboration in improvisation. Based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, she performs internationally, collaborating with computers and other humans. 

She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at Durham University (UK) on the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project MIMIC (Musically Intelligent Machines Interacting Creatively) with Nick Collins. Previously she worked on Improvisational Interfaces at Monash University (AU), and was Leverulme artist-in-residence at Newcastle University (UK) working on ‘Molecular Soundscapes’ with Agnieszka Bronowska. She is studied for a PhD in Live Computer Music at Durham University with Nick Collins and Peter Manning, with a focus on collaboration in network music, and completed a masters degree in composition at the University of Birmingham in 2012, where she studied with Scott Wilson and Vic Hoyland and was a member of BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre).

Current projects include: live coding Algo-pop band ALGOBABEZ (with Joanne Armitage); OFFAL (Orchestra For Females And Laptops); and generative audio-visual performance [Sisesta Pelakiri] (with Alo Allik). ALGOBABEZ formed in 2016 and have since performed at international festival such as Mutek (Montreal, CA) and SXSW (Austin, TX, USA). As well as performing regularly they released the album Burning Circuits on Fractal Meat record label in 2017 and regularly give workshops teaching women to live code. OFFAL formed in 2015 and are a collective of women who make electronic music who are developing projects which explore technology, structures and approaches for long-distance collaboration. Live coding performance [Sisesta Pelakiri] is a generative audio-visual performance based on an audio-visual feedback loop created by writing code live on stage and exchanging musical information over the network. [Sisesta Pelakiri] has been performed at live.code.festival 2013 (Karlsruhe, DE), Zeppellin 2013 (Barcelona, ESP) and Musik Festival 2015 (Bern, CH).

As solo laptop improvisor and composer, Shelly’s work – including live and fixed electronic works, generative sound installations and live electronic improvisations – has been presented at various festivals and events in the UK and Worldwide. As a live-coder she has also performed at numerous Algoraves in cities around the world.

Past affiliations have included network music band BiLE who performed together in various line-ups 2011-2015; BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre) 2007-2011; and sound art collective SOUNDkitchen 2010-2012. She was also a co-founder and project manager of Network Music Festival, Birmingham (UK) which took place in 2012-2014.

Publications of her music include: electronic works Etude #16, 257, on Chordpunch record label’s RissEP, 2012, and I.E.M (Impromptu Entropy Machine), on Absence of Wax netlabel, 2013, live electronic piece XYZ in CNCPTN webzine in 2012, and mixed live electronic and instrumental piece Chordophonia in Leonardo Music Journal, 2008. She received commissions from the PRSF ‘women make music’ fund in 2011 and 2016. In 2014-15 she was part of Sound and Music’s ‘New Voices’ cohort. She was a recipient of the PRSF and BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s Oram award for Innovation in Sound and Music in 2017. 

As well as composing and performing Shelly has presented and published her work at international conferences and in international journals and has also been involved in the organisation of a number of projects including Rewriting the Hack and the 1st International Conference of  Live Coding and regularly facilitates workshops on creative coding.