Shelly Knotts

Shelly Knotts is a composer, performer and improviser of live electronic, coded and network music.

Knotts gained a Masters degree in composition at the University of Birmingham in 2012, was a member of BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre) and completed a PhD in Live Computer Music at Durham University with a focus on collaboration in Network Music. She is currently a Research Fellow at SensiLab, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) working on Improvisational Interfaces.

Her work has has been presented at various festivals and events in the UK and Worldwide including at /* Vivo */ 2014 (Mexico City); International Symposium of Electronic Arts 2015 (Vancouver, CA); Earzoom 2013 (Ljubljana, Slovenia); Grande Exposition d’Art (Nantes, FR); Ton:art 2011 (Karlsruhe, DE); Inventionen 2010 (Berlin, DE); Supersonic Festival 2011 & 2012 (Birmingham, UK); Noisefloor Festival (Leicester, UK); Network Music Festival 2012 (Birmingham, UK).

In 2017 she was a winner of PRSF The Oram Awards for innovation in sound and music.

Knotts produces live-coded and network music performances and projects which explore aspects of code, data and collaboration. Her experimental and collaborative tendencies have seen her engage with diverse musical practices and styles ranging from electroacoustic tape music to live-coded dance music. Her work often has a political dimension, using network music to explore social structures, and live coding to explore failure as an alternative to virtuosity, as well as exploring and encouraging diversity through workshops and hackathons.

She organises, numerous Algoraves (which present live algorithmic music for dancing) and live coding events and has performed at online festivals and broadcast performances both as a solo performer and as part of G.I.A.S.O (Great international Audio Streaming Orchestra). Her current collaborative projects include a PRS for Music commission with Annie Mahtani, algo-pop duo ALGOBABEZ (with Joanne Armitage), OFFAL (Orchestra For Females And Laptops), the Birmingham Laptop Ensemble and live coding performance [Sisesta Pealkiri with Alo Allik.