To accompany the release of their album Notes On A Conditional Form, The 1975 and director Ben Ditto have commissioned 14 artists to make artworks that respond to 14 of its tracks, with the artists having complete creative control – bringing out their themes and also offering fresh perspectives on them. The resulting exhibition takes the innovative form of a YouTube playlist and is available to view on the band’s website: THE1975.COM/NOACF.

Working across disciplines like 3D modelling, AI, generative animation, motion-capture animation, performance, robotics and more, artists Ai-Da, Alice Bucknell, Joey Holder, Rindon Johnson, Mia Kerin, Christopher MacInnes, Frederick Paxton, Sondra Perry, Demon Sanctuary, Jacolby Satterwhite, Most Dismal Swamp, Weirdcore, Lu Yang and Agusta Yr explore themes and motifs that resonate with the new album: technology, hope, love, anxiety and violence. Both the album and the exhibition reflect upon the contemporary search for one’s true self online.

The series commenced during lockdown, in May 2020, and new pieces were added throughout the summer, culminating in July with Lu Yang and his alter-ego Doku’s latest film and the launch of a dedicated site hosting everything. Today, our lives are more screen-based, virtual and dematerialized than ever before. We hear so many dystopian forecasts about our technological future, but technology can also have a positive effect and we should learn to embrace its benefits and potential. This online exhibition highlights some of those possibilities: how technology can create beauty and meaning, new forms of expression and new ways of experiencing culture.