Current/Upcoming – Project DIVFUSE

DIVFUSE Film Archive No. 1 – Open Call

***Thank you to everyone who made a submission to this Open Call. Selected work and dates of exhibitions are now up on this website***

With the success of DIVFUSE Sound Archive calling for sound-based work with field recordings elements, we are excited to be launching a new Open Call on short films.

Theme for this first edition : Domesticity

Deadline for submissions : 31 March 2025 [Extended]

WHAT TO INCLUDE IN THE SUBMISSION:

1) Text on the each piece/series (300 words maximum). This shall include the name, year and duration of the work.

2) Artists’ bio (200 words maximum)

3) A link to the work. It could be a link to Vimeo for example but please do not send us the file to download.

4) Send the submission through by email to divfuse@gmail.com on or before 31 March 2025.

OTHER CONDITIONS:

1) Only digital versions are acceptable. Work can be fully digital or video finished Standard 8mm, Super 8 or 16mm films.

2) Only one submission can be made by each artist (or group of artists who work together).

3) The work or series of work shall be between 30 and 45 minutes long and can be made up of different pieces/parts.

4) Selected work will EACH be shown in multiple screening sessions for a weekend (Friday to Sunday) for free between April and June 2025 at Project DIVFUSE micro digital and multi-media art gallery, London. There is no payment to the artists but we will offer the following:

* micro gallery space (4m x 2.8m) for screenings.

* basic equipments for use for the screenings inside the gallery, including 2 x small Genelec speakers on stands, a Genelec subwoofer, a projector and a laptop to play the file(s) from.

* management of the exhibition including invigilating the space and promotion on social media.

5) Artists whose work is selected will have to make sure that the files reach the gallery at least a week before the exhibition. Additional information such as images from the work will also be required for social media posting.

6) If selected, digital files could be transferred over to Project DIVFUSE for use for the screening sessions for this Open Call only.

7) Artists who are based in London will be invited to do two or three sessions of artists talks. Both the screenings and the talk will be ticketed. ALL income from the screenings will go to the space to support the running of the project. Income from the artist’s talk will be split 60/40 between Project DIVFUSE and the artist. Again, this will help to cover some of the overhead costs for running and managing the events.

Vox Aeterna II : Robin The Fog [Upcoming]

Tape Loop Workshop :

Session One : 17 May 2025 Saturday 3:30pm

Session Two : 17 May Saturday 6pm

£8 | 8 places per session | Please email divfuse@gmail.com for tickets

Following the success of Vox Aeterna I in 2024, Robin The Fog (UK) is returning to Project DIVFUSE to collect more materials for creating new work.

For this workshop and installation, participants will learn about the wonderful world of analogue tape, recording the sounds we find around us, creating loops and building up multiple layers of interlocking sounds and voices that blend, morph and disintegrate together before your very ears – although given that this is vintage technology, nothing is ever certain! What we can guarantee is that we’ll create sounds that nobody else has ever made before and we’ll create them together. The workshop will culminate in a performance featuring all the tape loops that have survived!

Robin The Fog is a Cumbrian-born composer and sound artist originally based in South London. He is the founder of Howlround, a project which creates music entirely from manipulating field recordings on vintage reel to reel tape machines with all digital effects and artificial reverb strictly forbidden, a process once described by Electronic Sound Magazine as ‘conjuring magic’.

Photo by T. Eigeland

@robinthefog

Specialist Machines : Mute Frequencies [Upcoming]

Sound Installation :

24 May 2025 Saturday 2:30pm – 6pm
25 May Sunday 2:30pm – 6:30pm
Suggested donations : £3

Artist’s Talk :

24 May Saturday 6pm
£6 | 8 places only | Email divfuse@gmail.com for tickets

In their ongoing examination of the garment industry Mute Frequencies presents an audiovisual installation that foregrounds the sonic characteristics of specialist machines. Recorded onsite at Central Saint Martins, a college renowned for its fashion programme, the documentation shows an array of machines under operation, including industrial sewing machines, overlockers and buttonhole machines. Each unit has its own sonic signature, mechanical quirks and operational rhythm. These machines are typically used in factories and therefore go unseen/unheard by the general public. Specialist Machines (2025) aims to hone in on the details that shape the unique voice of each machine, while surfacing ideas about manufacture, fast fashion and our relationship to clothes.

Reece 101 Keyhole Buttonhole Machine. Photo by Mute Frequencies

Mute Frequencies is the sound art project of Ilia Rogatchevski and Laura Rogatchevskaia, both former members of the art rock band Sebastian Melmoth. The duo work within the intersections of sound, performance and visual media and often investigate inaudible frequencies of the audio spectrum, the potential of electromagnetic waves to convey information and ideas relating to imperceptibility. They have installed work at various London galleries and performed at festivals including Radio Revolten, Radiophrenia, Supernormal, Open House and End of the Road.

Live at Project DIVFUSE, November 2023. Photo by Jonathan Crabb

@mutefrequencies

Dialogues : Sophie Standford [Upcoming]

Dialogues by Sopie Standford (UK) is one of the three sets of work that are selected from DIVFUSE Film Archive Open Call No.1 with a theme on domesticity.

Film Screenings:

Session One 6 June 2025 Friday 7pm (+ artist’s talk)
Session Two 7 June Saturday 3pm
Session Three 7 June Saturday 4:30pm
Session Four 7 June Saturday 6pm (+ artist’s talk)
Session Five 8 June Sunday 3pm
Session Six 8 June Sunday 4:30pm

£8 for sessions with artist’s talk and £5 for other sessions | 8 places only per session | Please email divfuse@gmail.com for tickets

Running time: 32 minutes. The screenings will be presenting a collection of eight short moving image videos made by Sophie Standford, including:

Dialogue with my Father (2022-2025)
Duration: 7’20” Location: Suffolk

What if you can’t allow yourself to let go of something because it reminds you so profoundly of the person who has gone? What if this holding on to the past has become self destructive, to the point where objects are taking over?

Dialogue with my Father explores the inter-generational relationship between father and daughter; grief and loss; the piano that belonged to my father, on which he used to compose. I push the heavy bulk of this domestic, upright instrument around on the concrete floor trying and failing to find it space in the room. Frustration strips the piano of its dignity, tortured and destroyed. Braced, it fights back stoically, belligerent, vibrating a dance to its raucous rumbling, as its dainty wheels twist in agony under its defiant weight. In contrast, the video takes you on a mesmerising journey inside the piano accompanied by a composition that gives voice to its involuntary creeks and resonances.

Home (2011)
Duration: 2’42” Location: London

Home is a performance to camera. It is transparent in its construction: born out of frustration; of playing the role of mother; of confined living space; trapped by domesticity, responsibility and a sense of duty.

Harappa : Rie Nakajima (& Li Song)[Upcoming]

Outdoor Performance :

Session One (Solo): 28 June Saturday 6:30pm £8

Session Two (Rie Nakajima x Li Song): 29 June Sunday 4pm £9

Session Three (Solo): 29 June Sunday 6:30pm £8

12 places each session | Please email divfuse@gmail.com for tickets

Running time : 40 minutes

Harappa, in Japanese, means an open, empty, green field.

This two-day event will be a series of happenings, such as performances, conversations and perhaps more, to take place in the open courtyard of Project DIVFUSE.

Rie Nakajima will be joined by Li Song in the earlier performance on Sunday.

Rie Nakajima is a a sculptor living in London. She creates sounds using combination of motorised devices and daily objects. It can be installation or performance. Fusing sculpture and sound, her artistic practice is open to chance and the influence of others. Her first major solo exhibition was held at IKON Gallery in Birmingham in 2018. She has also worked with Museo Vostell Malpartida (Cáceres), Association de Le Cyclop (Milly la Forêt), ShugoArts (Tokyo), Donaueschinger Music Festival (Donaueschinger), and Cafe OTO (London). Her collaborators are Pierre Berthet, Angharad Davies, David Cunningham, Keiko Yamamoto, miki yui, hans.w.koch, Marie Roux, Billy Steiger, David Toop and Akira Sakata.

Notes on Listening : Francisco Mazza & Raquel Diniz [Upcoming]

Notes on Listening (UK) is one of the three sets of work that are selected from DIVFUSE Film Archive Open Call No.1 with a theme on domesticity.

Film Screenings + Audio Essay + Photography Documentation :

Session One 25 July 2025 Friday 7pm (+ artist’s talk)
Session Two 26 July Saturday 3pm
Session Three 26 July Saturday 4:30pm
Session Four 26 July Saturday 6pm (+ artist’s talk)
Session Five 27 July Sunday 3pm
Session Six 27 July Sunday 4:30pm

£8 for sessions with artist’s talk and £5 for other sessions | 8 places only per session | Please email divfuse@gmail.com for tickets

Running time : 45 minutes. The screenings will be presenting the experimental film Notes on Listening (2024), an audio essay More Than Background (2023) and a series of photography by Raquel Diniz on the making of Notes on Listening.

Notes on Listening is a groundbreaking practice-based research film that captures the essence of people, sound, and place in Peckham, London—a neighbourhood on the brink of cultural displacement due to gentrification. Winner of the prestigious BAFTSS Award (British Association of Film, TV, and Screen Media Studies) in 2024, this experimental documentary employs a unique ‘sensory documentary’ approach. Using sound as the driving force, it immerses viewers in Peckham’s vibrant yet threatened community.

What the judges from BAFTSS had to say:

“The panel agreed that NOTES ON LISTENING is a highly original sound-driven narrative documentary that successfully puts the audience inside the area it explores, Peckham in London. The film skilfully represents the complex and unique soundscape of this London borough, giving a visual and sonic sense of its vivacity and vibrancy. In doing so, it makes a clear case for resisting the impending threats posed by encroaching gentrification. The panel commended the filmmaker’s creative and intricate approach, which provides a vivid evocation of Peckham’s rich cultural life.”