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< Back A Dystopian Nightmare: When Our Fiction is Real George Orwell — 1984. This book is so prolific that people use ‘Orwellian’ as an adjective, even though they might be using it wrongly. Does the concept of inescapable surveillance seem familiar? Instead of a totalitarian state of Big Brother, we might have sub-contracted this control to tech giants who can read your emails, hear your conversations, and monitor your search history. Synopsis of the full article on Medium. Medium 24 Aug 2024 George Orwell — 1984. This book is so prolific that people use ‘Orwellian’ as an adjective, even though they might be using it wrongly . 1984 is often said to be a book about fascism and state control, but it’s a bit more than that. It tells of a vile and gritty world where a totalitarian government wages perpetual war against a changing enemy. 1984 is also a world where all actions and even thoughts are under inescapable surveillance only to be used as weapons of destruction against the individual. Words have no meaning and history no longer exists. Does the concept of inescapable surveillance seem familiar? Instead of a totalitarian state of Big Brother, we might have sub-contracted this control to tech giants who can read your emails , hear your conversations , and monitor your search history. Even Winston Smith had a private notebook. Between WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook (Meta?), Google, Apple, and Amazon, you could probably learn more about a person than Orwell could have imagined the Ministry of Love would be able to do. [..] Information, Truth, and Media. The biggest direct comparison between these three books, these three worlds and our own is the way in which information, truth and the media are categorised. They are a tool of escapism, sedation, and oppression. In Brave New World characters have everything they need to avoid facing the truth about their own situations whereas the antipode of this is in 1984, the absence of education and lack of information veracity hide the truth. As a combination to these, in Fahrenheit 451 people are simultaneously denied the truth and bombarded with mass-saturated media to distract them. [...] Overall, we are not in one dystopia, we are not in a dystopia at all. We are in the most liberal, peaceful and progressive time in global history; but there are frankly quite scary existential concepts in fiction that are becoming real. Rejection of modernity, technology and progress is not the cure, but one must be wary of such quickly evolving societal norms, for what today seems progressive may turn out to be Orwellian. Author: Alexander Archer , Dec 5, 2021 https://medium.com/@TheWorldIsHard/a-dystopian-nightmare-when-our-fiction-is-real-675b938b3d7c For more: Algorithm, Neural Network, VR Previous Next

A full Fourth Portal with a packed performance roster for the first Hypermedia Open Space of 2024 of DIY poetry, spoken word, music, open mic, visuals, art, and discussion. Curated by Gravesend’s own Hypermedia Events, the night attracted audiences and performers from across Kent, London, and Gravesham. Hypermedia DIY Open Space 6 < Back 7 February 2024 A full Fourth Portal with a packed performance roster for the first Hypermedia Open Space of 2024 of DIY poetry, spoken word, music, open mic, visuals, art, and discussion. Curated by Gravesend’s own Hypermedia Events, the night attracted audiences and performers from across Kent, London, and Gravesham. Previous Next Hypermedia Open Space 6 Hypermedia Open Space is an emerging new kind of performance gathering. Developed at Fourth Portal over the past six months by local curators Harriet Hammond and Joe Cleary, Hypermedia offers a unique alternative to standard open mic events. The open-format approach attracts performers and audiences from across London, the Kent coast, and beyond. As Joe Cleary, one of the founders, puts it: "Hypermedia is inclusive to any medium of art." Blending gathering spaces, 1960s happenings, living room gigs, and open mic, Hypermedia creates an alternative experience that’s hard to categorise. Friendly, supportive, and open to all creative disciplines, it is gaining a reputation for transforming the arts scene in Gravesend and North Kent. https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2fcede_706b4890e94a40698b068d920925a30b/1080p/mp4/file.mp4 Performers at Hypermedia 6 Joseph Cleary Clementine Canpont Anthony Hart Sophie Sirota Simeon Smith Chris Porcas Zach Davies Smelliot Lee Campbell Pip McDonald Nic Tony Thorley Dan Clifford Knitted Tongues (Meej Douglas, Em Doodles, Sandra Zanetti) Amy Boyle Borje Melanie Sapiets https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2fcede_0f143f039c4e40f08a53c12d6110f658/1080p/mp4/file.mp4 Knitted Tongues Knitted Tongues Knitted Tongues is a London-based experimental music collective known for its avant-garde performances and innovative soundscapes. Their debut album, No One in Europe Knows How to Scream Anymore, is available for streaming and download. Next Event: Hypermedia Open Space 7 | https://www.instagram.com/knittedtongues/ The next Hypermedia will take place on Wednesday, 13 March 2024. Get in touch: https://www.instagram.com/hypermediaevents/ This event has ended, but the Hypermedia series continues. Visit Event Page MORE ON THIS EVENT BELOW Previous Next Event Documentation Previous Next

All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Delia Betitus Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs SKRONK #176 15 July 2025 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Andrea Bazzicalupo Guitar Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs FlimFlam 29 October 2025 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Helen Tate Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs SKRONK #5 9 August 2016 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

< Back Freesound In The Era Of Generative Artificial Intelligence Freesound was started in 2005 in the Music Technology Group of Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Freesound aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, and all sorts of bleeps, released under Creative Commons licenses that allow reuse. In an era of AI, what is the future of this important resource. Freesound Blog 9 Jun 2024 Opening and closing paragraphs from the Freesound blog. Opening Paragraph In recent years, the phrase Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become part of our everyday conversations. In particular, since the explosion of generative AI models like ChatGPT or other models that can generate high-quality audio (e.g. AudioGen , AudioLDM 2 , and Stable Audio Open , which has just been released and is trained with Freesound sounds), AI systems have demonstrated being capable of doing things which were unimaginable only some years ago. We don’t know how AI will impact society at large, but it is very clear that AI is here to stay and that it will more and more become an important element in our lives. This is raising concerns, for example, within the artistic community, AI can be seen as a potential threat to the way in which many artists make their living, and one that questions the values of effort, skill and creativity. Concerns about the potential impact of AI on a platform like Freesound have also been expressed in the Freesound forums. Here, at the Music Technology Group of Universitat Pompeu Fabra where Freesound happens , we have also been discussing such concerns. [...] Closing Paragraph The overall question is how to use and integrate AI technology in a way that benefits the Freesound community, and this is what we are starting to address with this blog post. At the Music Technology Group, we conduct cutting-edge AI research while considering its social, economic, legal, ethical, cultural, and artistic implications . Research is being carried out, not only by us but also by many other research institutions, which provides new ways to address the threats raised by AI, contributing to a fair and responsible AI. And, again, Freesound is a very important resource for such research. In a similar way in which Freesound became a great example of a sound-sharing ecosystem based on Creative Commons licences, we have the opportunity now to become an inspiring example of how AI can be used to empower a community and to articulate positive experiences for sound practitioners alike. https://blog.freesound.org/?p=2082 For more: AI, Audio, LLM, Machine Learning Previous Next

All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Phase IV Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs ImproVox #11 29 September 2025 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Stale Liavik Solberg Drums Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs Flimflam 30 July 2025 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Ansuman Biswas Viola Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs Boat-Ting Nov24 4 November 2024 Boat-Ting Oct25 6 October 2025 Boat-Ting Nov 2024 http://Website or social media email or phone number

All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Alan Newcombe Tenor Saxophone Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs London Improvisers Orchestra #36 7 June 2025 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number

< Back Tony Thorley Anthony John Thorley. Brought up and lived until 1996 in Northfleet/ Gravesend. Retired papermaker and care assistant. Aged 83 years. Married to Rita for 54years. Resident in Sittingbourne Kent. Discovered Fourth Portal through my daughter. With my papermaking experience became involved in the artist in residence paper project. Q1: How and when did you first discover the Fourth Portal? Discovered Fourth Portal through my daughter. With my papermaking experience became involved in the artist in residence paper project. Q2: What were your initial impressions? My initial impressions were of a somewhat bemused nature, having some trouble with getting my head around the concept of AI being used as a tool for social enhancement and the melding of people with ideas in art or industry creating opportunity. Q3: How has Fourth Portal inspired you? I have been inspired to value the Fourth Portal as a comfortable space where I can meet people of diverse background, ethnicity, religion etc. with the facility to discuss ideas supported by the knowledge that it is a safe space. With the facility to explore my artistic attributes anew and become aware of new technologies and materials. The use of which has the potential to reinvigorate the community of Gravesend. Q4: Will the inspiration be of benefit in the future? I can only see the inspiration that I am getting from the Fourth Portal carrying on into the future reinvigorating the community of my mind. Q5: (optional) Anything you wish to add? Nothing further added Previous Next

All Improv Perfomers All Improv Gigs Vivienne Soan Voice & Recorder Performer Bio (Max 1000 characters) London and South East improv gigs ImproVox #02 30 August 2024 Performer notes, message or style description http://Website or social media email or phone number