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Approach
Talks/Panels
Futures Copenhagen (2024)
Futures London (2024)
See more
Approach
Talks/Panels
Futures Copenhagen (2024)
Futures London (2024)
Published on 11/01/2026 by Olivia Ema
My emotions were often negated growing up, I learned to suppress them to appear more resilient, capable or more level-headed. But this only felt like I was suppressing my superpowers (especially as I’m a Cancer moon, for anybody interested in astrology). As a collective, we’re starting to tap into the awareness of gut instinct as a second brain, or the importance of feeling your emotions to tap into bodily wellness. But the wider context of my being British-Nigerian within a predominantly white hetronormative tech space makes it that much more important. Suppressing my emotions means I'm programming myself out of my own creations in many ways, a scarcity mindset that affirms a false image of having it together whilst pacifying the harms of my lived experience navigating an industry rooted in exploitation of resources and labour. It doesn't allow me to tap into the possibility of what can happen as an intersectional body creating meaning within this vast interactive piece of technology. This is harmful to my existence as someone learning to find harmony within my body whilst delving into new territory as a creative being.
As someone who's always connected with spirituality as a way of navigating the world, I've mainly been inspired by cymatics, a metaphysical branch of study that investigates how sound frequencies create form. Scientist Hans Jenny (1904–1972), who coined the word "cymatics," was not the first to notice the correlation between sound, frequency and form, but he was recognised to have conducted measured experiments using electric oscillators. He observed how sound waves influenced the formation of shapes by feeding vibrations into oscillators (a device that produces electronic signals - think heartbeat ECG machine) and placing sand or liquid to visualise different frequencies. It always fascinated me how these forms mirrored sacred geometric patterns found throughout history and etched into architecture and biological forms.
Within the Black British diaspora, Black people have always resonated with sound, the curators of vibe (vibration), electronic Jungle music - the sound I grew up on in the UK - rooted in Jamaican sound system culture, Afrobeats rooted in African heritage and at its core the Yoruba culture’s talking drums, or sounds that shaped my secondary school youth - Early 00’s Grime music, an amalgamation of Black British electronic music: expression, release, resilience, with a natural rhythm and attentiveness to the beat. Music has always been recognised for its power to wield messages, transcending time and space. Technology within my culture takes many forms: resonance, frequency, physical manifestation through movement and dance. These all work hand in hand with our ability to observe, overstand and embody the spiritual forces that shape materiality.
Touchdesigner is helping me affirm my embodied reality, building the confidence I need to navigate my intersections - just as cymatics revealed the interconnected nature of form and frequency. I've explored audio-reactivity (visuals that react to sound) as a way of visualising the unseen frequencies in music.
My approach is both practical and nourishing:
- Music as the fixed parameter: When preparing for a DJ set, music is the element outside my control. I don't know what the DJ will choose beforehand, so I can't create visuals with any single song in mind. The system has to be flexible enough to accommodate any track while still feeling intentional. This flexibility comes from setting parameters that respond to sonic structure, drops, builds, silences and so on, so the visuals feel composed.
- Preprogramming and spontaneity: I create the visuals beforehand but program them so they're only partially within my control. Some parameters react to frequencies in the music (low, medium, and high frequencies trigger specific reactions), while the rest reflects my creative vision in real-time - colour combinations, shapes, and rhythmic adjustments.
I'm co-creating with the DJ and the crowd in real-time to curate the moment. When doing these sets, I feel this huge rush of energy within my body - it's a thrill and a surrender. I have to be in the moment to catch the vibe. I also have to trust the moment, acknowledging that if anything goes wrong with the tech, it can and will be resolved to the best of my or the team's ability. This teaches me to trust myself and my ability without second-guessing.
The embodiment of spiritual computing to me means: to actively use technology as a tool to probe into spiritual wisdom, truth, self-reflection, ultimately aiding us to more deeply connect with each other and the wider environment. I'm building systems that embody care so I can understand viscerally, not just intellectually - how generative software might support wellbeing rather than extract from it. I've explored visualising the unseen frequencies in music through movement, light and colour, using abstraction as a way to signal to my body that there are some aspects I don't have to control, this is one way I’m embodying care as the programmer, signalling that I can trust spontaneity and lean into an emotional landscape through embracing non-linearity. This is the energy I want to infuse into the systems I am a part of. Not suppression, but expression. Not scarcity, but trust. Not programming myself out, but finally factoring myself in.