Damien Roach

‘Afterglow (Cosmic Microwave Background)’, (2026), Jacquard woven textiles, 91x128cm One of a series. More soon. Info below… The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the oldest light in the universe, echoing faintly from the Big Bang. Its reverberations are still present to this day, constituting a small percentage of the TV static seen on detuned analogue televisions. A CMB map is a strictly non-optical, computational visualisation of this phenomena, derived from aggregated statistical microwave radiation data, invisible to the human eye. It is a technical image (Flusser), an operational image (Farocki), or a form of non-human photography (Zylinska). Unlike the deceptively smooth, seemingly-whole surface of a high-resolution print, the woven CMB image is transparently fragmentary, bringing its constructed nature to the fore. It readily admits and declares its own resolution. Through the binary logic of warp and weft, and the loom’s ancestral hardware of computation (Plant), each thread functions as a discrete pixel, an indivisible unit of information that holds its structural integrity while contributing to the whole. As such it could be seen as a haptic ‘Poor Image’ (Steyerl), refusing the seamless illusion of the digital screen. By moving the CMB data from the historically patriarchal space of ‘hard science’, the observatory, and today’s analogue of Silicon Valley tech, to the ‘soft’ domain of textiles, the work also performs a feminist intervention. It reclaims the ‘fabric of the universe’ from the abstract domain of physics, grounding it in an alternative, institutionally-sidelined, and tactile realm of knowing. The work highlights a counter throughline from the origins of the universe, of computation, and of knowledge-making, that acknowledges and incorporates indigenous, queer, female, and myriad othered positionalities in understanding reality as a complex and mobile mesh of relations, knots, and tensions.

‘Sensing’, (2026), computer, LCD screens, carbon steel support structure, subwoofer, portable broadband router, internet connectivity, real-time meteorological data (lightning strikes), locally-run energy-efficient realtime generative AI system, steel alloy electron micrograph custom AI diffusion model, software, sound, infrasonic frequencies, light, time, electricity In ‘Sensing’, the live operation of a bespoke generative AI model trained on Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of steel alloy microstructures is interrupted by realtime global lightning strike data. Because of their origin in processes driven by computational analysis of microscopic phenomena, SEMs are a fundamentally non-optical, algorithmic form of media, transforming data from microscopic interactions between electrons and materials into topological imaging. Steel forms the skeleton of capitalism’s global logistical world, from the server racks that house ‘The Cloud’ to the shipping containers that circulate its commodities. The realtime global lightning data severs the AI’s cognitive mechanisms mid-calculation, producing ‘untamed’ outputs of digital noise and glitches. The stronger the strike, the less time the system has to resolve the image, resulting in increasingly fractured visual outputs. By staging a collision between the logistical infrastructure of capital and the unpredictable volatility of the biosphere, ‘Sensing’ interrogates the physical, algorithmic, and perceptual materiality of planetary computation and the ‘algorithmic event’, producing a sensuous and hallucinatory ‘Acid Realism’ through this encounter.

‘Topos’, (2026), screen display architecture, locally-run energy-efficient realtime generative AI system, live motion capture, sound, light, software, electricity ‘Topos’ situates the audience within an ever-changing environment whose morphing aerial imagery shifts in response to the movement of their bodies via live motion capture. By implicating viewers’ bodily agency in the constant dissolving and reforming of the land, the work attempts to rewire the machinic, extractivist, capitalist embeddings of satellite imaging, destabilising the familiar detached and totalising impartiality of Donna Haraway’s illusory ‘God trick’. Through sensuous experiential means, ‘Topos’ foregrounds a perspective shift towards the interconnected, non-anthropocentric ways of seeing, interacting with, and being-in-the-world articulated across numerous indigenous aerials from the Aztec codices to Aboriginal painting at a time when rapidly escalating climate emergency and unrelenting sociopolitical polycrisis demand it. Thanks to all who came to experience the work and special thanks to @rian.stephens at the @royalcollegeofart VisLab.

Book launch this Friday. ‘Rough Version, The NTS Interviews, 2022-2024’ the second volume of transcribed @ntsradio interviews by Francesca Gavin (@roughversion ). Published by @atlast.books . Sharing a couple of audio clips from the featured 2023 interview where we spoke about my then-forthcoming @patttten album ‘Mirage FM’ (the first ever made from text-to-audio AI samples), life, creativity, & everything else. Big thanks to Fran as always for this & all of the incredible things she does out there. Force of nature. Launch is this Fri 15th May. 6-8pm, Plaster Shop (@plastermagazine ), 20 Great Chapel Street, Soho, London. Interviews with: cultureoflies, @alvarobarrington , @hart.art9 , @anyapaintsil , @barby_as , Coco Fusco, @damienroach_ , @ladydangfua , David Douard, @dominiquehwhite , Elizabeth Price, @evan_ife , @everyisland.xyz & Andrea Mancini, @friedrichkunath , Gary Simmons, @glennligon , @hamishpearch , @hewdjlocke , Hilary Lloyd, @invernomuto_hq , James Richards, @jermainefrancisstudio , @julianknxx , Lonnie Holley, Louis Morlae, cattmonnors, Megan Rooney, @nicovascellari , Sandra Mujinga, Scott Covert, Sedrick Chisom, @somayacritchlow , @tishanhsu , Umar Rashid, @wu_tsang , @zadiexa ‘Rough Version, The NTS Interviews, 2022-2024’ 13 cm x 21 cm 422 pages Softcover Published May 2026 ISBN 978-87-85336-13-2

Huge thanks to n-Space curator Linda Rocco (@lindaonmars ) & the whole @somersethousestudios team for ’States of Exception’ this weekend. Fostering spaces for forging alternative paths of thought, modes of being, and strategies of resistance, through deep critical discourse, sharing, & exchange is incredibly vital at this time. Audience clips and photos from my presentation for ‘The Algorithmic Sovereign’ alongside @max.haiven and Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan. @ual_cci @gold.computing @abandon_normal_devices @schoolofdigitalarts

Talking about my practice and research at @somersethousestudios this Saturday as part of ‘States of Exception’, curated by the always-amazing Linda Rocco (@lindaonmars ). Full info below. Hope to see you there. The event has been developed as part of n-Space, a new space at Somerset House Studios for research and experimentation across art and technology. in partnership with @ual_cci , @gold.computing , and @abandon_normal_devices in collaboration with @schoolofdigitalarts . “Join us on Sat 2 May for a day of talks and performances at States of Exception, an ongoing series from n-Space at Somerset House Studios exploring art, technology, and governance. From data centres reconfiguring energy grids to AI systems determining credit ratings, the convergence of technology and governance is reengineering everyday life. This day event stages encounters where artists, technologists, and researchers challenge contemporary sociotechnical systems and rehearse new possibilities together: 3pm: The Algorithmic Sovereign with @max.haiven , Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan, and @damienroach_ (@patttten ) 5.15pm: Prophets and Protocols with @gunseliiiiii Yalcinkaya, wassimulacrum, and Ruby Justice Thelot (@being_on_line ) 7.30pm: Artist’s Model by Sarah Friend (@isthisanart ) Plus, Trial Trial, an invite-only role-played court hearing that puts contemporary dual-use technology on trial, devised by n-Space fellows @agnes.cameron , @dmstfctn , @eddfornieles , @hannnah__c , @leelajadha.v . n-Space is curated by Linda Rocco (@lindaonmars ) for Somerset House Studios. Image: Damien Roach, ‘Sensing’, (2026)”

I was invited to guest on the @royalcollegeofart Podcast hosted by Professor Christoph Lindner (RCA President & Vice Chancellor), alongside Professor Zey Suka-Bill (RCA Pro Vice Chancellor for Education & Student Success) to discuss the power of a multi-hyphenate career, finding inspiration in the things that really matter, resilience, intuition, trusting your instincts, and sustaining a practice in today’s unpredictable world. Link in bio to listen (via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, & YouTube)

💭 Can you play it safe as an artist? In the latest Royal College of Art Podcast, we hear honest advice for early-career creatives from Damien Roach @damienroach_ , an artist and PhD Researcher, and Professor Zey Suka-Bill, RCA’s Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Success. They discuss the value of approaching your career with an entrepreneurial mindset, building a multi-hyphenate career, navigating failure and feedback, and the role your classmates and peers can play in building a solid, supportive professional network. Video features work by: - @mireydemircii , MA Fashion - @torimcleanprint , MA Print - Kevin Adorni, MA Architecture - @roushellporter , Graduate Diploma - @loupie__ , MA Animation - @alejandramigueld , MFA Arts & Humanities - Outernet RCA Digital Direction showcase @rca_digitaldirection - @nirrhit , MA Fashion - Dada Ball, MA Contemporary Art Practice @rca_contemporaryartpractice 🔗 Listen now: link in bio. Episode available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. #Art #Artist #CareerAdvice #University

From the street to the stock market, algorithms are rewriting the rules of everyday life. Their rapid, largely unregulated intrusion into public services and personal spaces materialises new forms of social control at unprecedented scale. In this conversation, @max.haiven , Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan, and @damienroach_ (@patttten ) explore how algorithmic systems enforce, speculate, and aestheticise power. Through the lens of security, finance, and art, they discuss how algorithmic sovereignty establishes new regimes of truth about what can be measured and known, and where possibilities for resistance might emerge. Link in bio to book now. . . . . Developed as part of n-Space, a new space at Somerset House Studios for research and experimentation across art and technology. In partnership with @ual_cci , @gold.computing , and @abandon_normal_devices in collaboration with @schoolofdigitalarts . n-Space is curated by Linda Rocco (@lindaonmars ) for Somerset House Studios and supported by the Rothschild Foundation. Image: Damien Roach, ‘Sensing’, (2026)

Excited to announce I’ve been selected by ArtEO (@arteo.earth ), an initiative by Imperative Space in partnership with the European Space Agency (@europeanspaceagency ), to work with Earth Observation and other environmental data over the coming months to create a new multisensory artwork. ArtEO’s ‘Earth Stories’ project has a cohort of 12 artists who will receive mentorship from scientists and creative experts; access to satellite data, research networks, and technical support; along with a public exhibition in 2026. More news soon. 🌍 ✨

⚠️! STROBE WARNING !⚠️ Crashing GenAI with real-time global lightning data. Some raw outputs from ‘Sensing’. Full images & more info a few posts back. ‘Sensing’, (2026), computer, LCD screens, carbon steel support structure, subwoofer, portable broadband router, internet connectivity, real-time meteorological data (lightning strikes), locally-run energy-efficient realtime generative AI system, steel alloy electron micrograph custom AI diffusion model, software, sound, infrasonic frequencies, light, time, electricity In ‘Sensing’, the live operation of a bespoke generative AI model trained on Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of steel alloy microstructures is interrupted by realtime global lightning strike data. Because of their origin in processes driven by computational analysis of microscopic phenomena, SEMs are a fundamentally non-optical, algorithmic form of media, transforming data from microscopic interactions between electrons and materials into topological imaging. Steel forms the skeleton of capitalism’s global logistical world, from the server racks that house ‘The Cloud’ to the shipping containers that circulate its commodities. The realtime global lightning data severs the AI’s cognitive mechanisms mid-calculation, producing ‘untamed’ outputs of digital noise and glitches. The stronger the strike, the less time the system has to resolve the image, resulting in increasingly fractured visual outputs. By staging a collision between the logistical infrastructure of capital and the unpredictable volatility of the biosphere, ‘Sensing’ interrogates the physical, algorithmic, and perceptual materiality of planetary computation and the ‘algorithmic event’, producing a sensuous and hallucinatory ‘Acid Realism’ through this encounter.

Loved seeing how differently people interacted with this. ‘Topos’, (2026), screen display architecture, locally-run energy-efficient realtime generative AI system, live motion capture, sound, light, software, electricity