Future Art and Culture Connect

Marc Boothe (Founder and Creative Director, B3 Media)

Marc Boothe is Founder and Creative Director of B3 Media, supporting diverse artists across film, digital culture and immersive storytelling. His work focuses on access as creative infrastructure — how artists build practice, confidence and networks outside dominant institutional pathways. This approach is realised through year-round development programmes and studio-based practice, including Creative Catalyst, the B3 Microstudio, and Future Art and Culture Connect, developed in collaboration with British Underground.

Contact: marc@b3media.net

Beining (Rosie) Chen (Creative Technologist and Interactive Designer)

Beining (Rosie) Chen is a creative technologist and interactive designer working at the intersection of narrative, code and participatory systems. With an MA in Virtual Reality (Distinction) from University of the Arts London and a background in engineering, she brings technical depth to conceptually driven work. She has contributed environment art and lighting for IYO, a VR puzzle game on the Meta Quest Store, and developed immersive prototypes and AR applications for clients including Niantic Labs and Snap Inc. Her festival experience includes delivering public-facing VR experiences at the BFI London Film Festival, Raindance and Aesthetica. Her practice explores how emerging technologies can be reimagined to serve underrepresented voices, designing systems that invite experimentation without losing human connection. At SXSW, she is exploring how interactive storytelling can operate across platforms while remaining grounded in cultural context.

Contact: bn.chen@outlook.com

Elijah Maja (Sound Artist and Composer)

Elijah Maja is a British-Nigerian sound artist and composer creating spatial audio works that reframe how audiences inhabit space. Working across installation, live performance and experimental composition, his practice centres on listening as an active, cultural act. Drawing from electronic production and field recording, Elijah builds immersive sonic environments that foreground texture, rhythm and memory. His work includes commissions from Sound and Music and LUX/Brent Biennial, and research for Jenn Nkiru’s Black to Techno and Elissa Blount Moorhead and Bradford Young’s Back and Song. Through both solo and collaborative projects, he expands storytelling beyond the visual, using sound as structure rather than backdrop. At SXSW, he is engaging with new contexts for sonic storytelling and spatial sound practice.

Contact: elijahmaja@gmail.com

Esme Allman (Poet and Interdisciplinary Storyteller)

Esme Allman is a poet and interdisciplinary storyteller working across spoken word, performance and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Her practice explores memory, intimacy and the politics of voice, creating work that invites audiences into shared reflection rather than spectacle. Her debut poetry collection Sweet Bone Girl was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2025. She has received commissions from the Barbican, Pace Gallery, the ICA and English Heritage, and leads the Transgressive Poetics collective, a space for Black creatives to explore transgression in art-making. Esme is interested in how language shifts when it enters new spaces, and how poetic practice can reshape rooms not designed to hear it. At SXSW, she is exploring how voice-led storytelling travels across contexts while staying grounded in lived experience.

Contact: esmeallman@hotmail.com

Ricardo Cezar Bonfim Rodrigues (Product Developer, Salve Games, Brazil)

Ricardo Bonfim is a Brazilian computer engineer with a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence from one of Brazil’s leading engineering institutes. He has collaborated with research centers in Brazil and France, building a career across data science, academia, and product innovation. Ricardo co-founded a startup recognized by global innovation programs for developing AI-driven technologies that humanize digital marketing, later acquired by a major Latin American technology company. He currently contributes to product and technology development in collaboration with Salve Games, bridging creativity and cultural innovation.

Salve Games is a São Paulo-based game studio innovating at the intersection of music and interactive entertainment by transforming artists and albums into playable experiences. Influenced by hip-hop culture and peripheral youth narratives, the studio develops games as music release strategies, combining playable videoclips, storytelling, and original soundtracks. Projects such as Music Drive and Sonho Trapstar merge gameplay, urban culture, and music, offering artists new channels for visibility, fan engagement, and differentiation. Recognized at major game events in Brazil, Salve Games positions the periphery as the protagonist of the next generation of digital culture.

Contact: ricardo@salve.games

About Drake Music

At Drake Music we are leaders in music, disability and technology. We are innovators, educators, curators and advocates. We believe everyone has the right to express themselves creatively through music. We use new technologies and ideas to open up access to music for all. Our vision is a world where Disabled and Non-Disabled musicians work together as equals.

Sally Currie (CEO, Drake Music)

Sally Currie is the CEO at Drake Music and is based in Kingston-Upon-Hull. A qualified accountant, she has worked in finance and business management for arts organisations such as Freedom Festival Arts Trust, Jazz North, The New Adelphi Club CIC and The Old Market. Sally was born partially deaf and is also a musician. She is passionate about developing the infrastructure and technologies to ensure that Disabled musicians and Non-Disabled musicians can work together as equals.

Contact: sallycurrie@drakemusic.org

About Paraorchestra

We are a fearless collective of disabled and non-disabled musicians: a platform that pushes the boundaries of music-making to create art with passion and purpose. With a diverse ensemble led by the remarkable vision of our artistic director Charles Hazlewood, our performances are a fusion of emotion, innovation, and intrepid artistry. Behind the scenes, we focus on developing careers, building confidence, and fostering collaboration to inspire a fierce ambition and excellence that matches our artistic programme.

www.paraorchestra.com

Helen Edwards she/her (Senior Producer for Artist Development)

Helen is Paraorchestra’s Senior Producer for Artist Development, leading the organisation’s Modulate programme. Designed with and for members of Paraorchestra, Modulate is a broad programme of residencies, funding, career development and skill-building opportunities, empowering disabled musicians and composers to thrive as independent artists and leaders.

Prior to this role Helen worked extensively as a producer on Paraorchestra’s touring shows including SMOOSH!, The Anatomy of the Orchestra, Death Songbook with Brett Anderson and The Unfolding with Hannah Peel. She was previously an independent producer for organisations including Bristol Old Vic and the National Theatre.

Contact: helen@paraorchestra.com

Liza Bec they/them (lizabec.com)

Liza is an innovative contemporary performer, composer and author working at the intersection of science and magic. They built their own instrument, the roborecorder, which has been displayed in the Museum of Science and Industry, presented at Classical:NEXT 2024 and featured in New Scientist and Insider magazines. They were awarded the cross-disciplinary Fusion Fund by Help Musicians UK to create audiovisual EP and short story INNERVATE. In 2024 they held residencies at Britten Pears and Paraorchestra. Debut album The End Times (2025) was recorded at Real World Studios in Dolby Atmos and features an electroacoustic musical blackboard.

Contact: liza@bmvrecords.com

Simone Seales they/them (simoneseales.com)

Originally from Florida, Simone Seales is a Glasgow-based cellist and performance artist working with free improvisation, live looping, poetry, and theatre.

Their practice centres play, silliness, and connection, exploring sound as an embodiment of emotion. Their creative influences come from Black feminist leaders such as Audre Lorde, Assata Shakur and bell hooks. Within Simone's work, they centre Blackness, sexuality, intersectional feminism and anti-racism.

They were commissioned by the 2025 Edinburgh International Book Festival to perform Dearest with Mele Broomes, ahead of the album’s debut release in November 2025.

They are Musician in Residence with Paraorchestra, and have performed across the UK and internationally.

Contact: intersectionalcellist@gmail.com

Sophie Harley she/her

Sophie is a Creative Producer working across circus, music, and inter-disciplinary arts. For the past 10 years, Sophie has worked with NPO’s, independent companies and cultural institutions including Britten Pear Arts, DanceEast and Somerset House Trust, producing international touring festivals, artist development and inclusion/access programmes. Most recently, Sophie has joined Gorilla Circus as Producer, developing and touring outdoor work as well as building partnerships and leading on artist development programmes. Sophie is passionate about creating access within combined arts and nurturing artists at any stage of their career, especially in new and developing work. As a freelancer, Sophie works with independent artists, supporting them to secure funding and to develop strategy around their projects. Currently based in London, Sophie maintains her own aerial practice and absorbs as much creative work as she can! Outside of work, Sophie is training to be a breathwork facilitator and spend time exploring green spaces and cold water swimming.

Contact: sophie@bmvrecords.com