adamjohnwilliams

[adamjohnwilliams]

Tune into Threads Radio today to hear some previously unreleased music of mine while I’m interviewed by my good friend Paula

The Path to Perceptions is a show that discovers alternative and expansive ways of life through creativity that defy conformism and human conditioning to inspire a path to new humanity.

Our guest this week is Adam John Williams, aka Chemical Adam - a multidisciplinary artist, musician and inventor. As well as talking about Adam’s inventions and creative processes, we are also investigating the radical struggles and changes in their life that have made them into the person they are today. This includes conversations about altered states of consciousness, near-death experience and overcoming adversity as a disabled artist after many years of debilitating neurological illness. And of course along the way some we’ll hear some of Adam’s music to accompany our journey.

Listen to Threads live @ www.threadsradio.com

[adamjohnwilliams]

Is 2020 kicking your butt? Mine too, but your ol’ pal Chemical Adam has something that will help. I expect you’re experiencing a lack of powerful sonic energies in your lives, what with no festivals or clubs being allowed to run right now.

Fear not, my dear friends, as I can provide you with some specially designed vibes to hopefully oscillate you out of the feelings of corona-boredom & global-bullshit-exhaustion and instead into the pleasurable feeling of your whole body tingling with big bass vibrations, with brain & body entrainment stimuli to energise & elevate you away from the viral funk and towards loving life & manifesting abundance. (As you can tell, I am now a Level 7 Hippy and have once again become the very thing I was once trying to make fun of)

Want to experience it? Hit me up! Come visit OVERMORROW, the immersive labyrinthine art show at Salon Zur Wilden Renate, Berlin. Amongst the work of many other fantastic artists & performers, I have created several rooms of immersive audiovisual art, including the first Berlin appearance of my audio/visual/somatosensory brain-entrainment artwork, “A God Appears in the Forest”.

This enlightening vibratory encounter with an entity from another reality is a creation I’m very proud of, and it serves as an experiential Aperitif of sorts, before you get to explore the rest of what I can only describe as an unmissable exhibition // TICKETS

[adamjohnwilliams]

REALITY IS NOW CLOSED FOR CLEANING UNTIL 2021 // Lately I've been working on a collection of what I'm calling "3D poetry" - stay tuned for more of that // #artistsoninstagram #digitalart #poetry #anaglyph3d #sneakyhaiku #senryu #haiku #corona #covid_19 #gimp #gnuimagemanipulationprogram #glitcheapp #glitch #3d #visualpoetry https://www.instagram.com/p/B97o5ryKe08/?igshid=12zz9db4k28gj

[adamjohnwilliams]

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ENGAGE FUTURE HARDER // 2020 // 3dcg sculpture mockup & UI/UX design for alien computer equipment // Soundtrack is some of my new vaporwave flashcore // #artistsoninstagram #digitalart #3dcg #vaporwave @c74connect #maxmsp #opengl #maxmspjitter #korggadget #digitalsculpture #sculpture #rendering3d #futurism #aesthetic #flashcore #200bpm #engagefutureharder https://www.instagram.com/p/B9ztNUmqT33/?igshid=1wi3ei26hjpsz

[adamjohnwilliams]

Some of my work will shortly be featuring at an amazing Sex Tech Party in London, including my extremely popular creation the Bass Orgasm Machine as well as some sexy new generative 3DCG visuals! Sounds like it will be a blast:

'UNSENSORED nights' are unique sex-positive parties full of immersive entertainment and performances that extend sexual experiences with the use of technology. 

Following the 2nd edition of 'UNSENSORED talks' Sex Robots: Are We Ready?, [S-Bots] night will fully immerse our guests into what sex robots have to offer. Spread across the main floor and hidden rooms, this hedonistic playground will stimulate all of Your senses in the most unpredictable and unusual ways. Consensual and respectful sexual activities are welcomed.

Get your tickets HERE

[adamjohnwilliams]

I have been involved with some top quality nonsense this year, and it’s not over yet!

[adamjohnwilliams]

Do you know about O.Z.O.R.A.? You should - it’s one of the world’s largest festivals celebrating psychedelic music, art & culture. As I write this we are en route to Hungary’s Ozora valley again. Like last year, and the year before that, you can catch me at the Artibarn with the awesome team from The University of Pécs who lead Ozora’s Sound Hacking Workshop. We’ll be teaching electronics, music production, VJing and all sorts of sound & light hacking madness.

This year, I am honoured to have also been invited to present some of my recent work at the lecture & performance venue, Chambok House, so come along and join your ol’ pal Chemical Adam at 11:15am on Friday if you’d like your brain to be bent, mashed or melted!

DIGITAL DRUGS: Hacking human perception with music & AV art

Is the world around you as real as it seems? How fallible is the human brain? Is it possible to fool your senses with deceptive data? Can music & other forms of sensory stimulus elevate you to a higher state of consciousness? In this combined talk & performance Chemical Adam will attempt to answer these questions whilst raising many others, so prepare for a dose of DIGITAL DRUGS. Created using a combination of techniques gleaned from the fields of neuroscience, VR, cymatics, brainwave entrainment & psychoacoustics, you’ll be treated to a variety of sensory illusions which will leave you thinking there is a glitch in the matrix. Expect music which appears to accelerate indefinitely, or switches genres when played forwards & backwards, as well as visual projections of optical illusions & animated 3D “Magic Eye” pictures. For best effects, arrive spangled or simply with an open mind. CAUTION: This presentation contains flashing images & other hallucination-inducing strobe effects which make it unsuitable for children & sufferers of epilepsy.

[adamjohnwilliams]

MY MUSIC IS AVAILABLE FOR FREE ON BANDCAMP BUT ALSO PLEASE BUY IT BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO AFFORD TO LIVE

http://chemicaladam.bandcamp.com In other news, apologies for the sparse content & infrequent updates around here lately. Rest assured, dear readers, that I am still here - and am still a busy bee with many fascinating projects and a short attention span. Expect incoming new treasures & music very soon, I’m excited to share some of what I’ve been up to... and there’s plenty more in store.

[adamjohnwilliams]

HOT TAKE: Muff Wiggler’s time is over

So, if you’re a synthesizer person you probably already know that Mike McGrath, creator of the “Muff Wiggler” synthesizer forum has died. There has been an outpouring of support & tributes from its user-base, as well as from the synth world at large.

There is no doubt that Mike’s forum has been an integral part of the enormous growth of the modular synthesis scene in recent years, but it would seem that it was also an unending source of toxically masculine bullshit.

The forum seemingly has a largely male user-base, although it’s hard to tell the actual balance since many users choose not to “out” themselves as women or members of the LGBTQI+ community, and a quick scan through the boards there make it quickly clear why people were reluctant to associate themselves to any marginalised group, with rife misogyny, sexism, homophobia & transphobia.

“Muff Wiggler” Mike himself admitted on multiple occasions that he was aware of the problematic nature of the name he had chosen, although he was clearly quite smitten with it since he chose it first as his band name, then his blog’s name, then his username & finally also the name of the forum. Hmmm. I betcha think thought you were pretty funny, eh Mike?

Now, I’m not saying that Muff Wiggler himself was some sexist asshole, I did not know the man & can’t comment on that, however it did seem that he was someone who didn’t care that the community he created was teeming with toxic, sexist, abusive MEN. Of the multiple times this sort of stuff was brought up in conversation on the forum & elsewhere, Mike made it clear that he didn’t care - often giving responses along the lines of “the internet is a large place, if you don’t like it here then go somewhere else”.

So people, it seems we’ve reached a crossroads in what will be looked back upon as a part of the history of synthesizer culture online.

Muff Wiggler, the man, is dead. Perhaps it’s time for Muff Wiggler, the place, to die also. Whilst it has become a home to many, and a community hub for the users & makers of synthesizers the world over, it is also a cesspit, overrun with the kind of shithead guys who think that, in 2019, it’s clever to make innuendous attempts at jokes about “playing with a banana jack” when speaking about a prominent & talented transgender musician. NO! STOP IT!

At the very least, the moderation of the site needs a complete overhaul. Zero tolerance for abusive behaviour should be #1 on the list. Any synth manufacturer who hosts their support forum there should demand this.

IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Further reading: Muff Wiggler - Sexism In Audio Cultures MUFF WIGGLER Forum -> Is "Muff Wiggler" offensive?

[adamjohnwilliams]

Chemical Adam Mixtape 01 // “Strictly Commercial”

A meandering multipurpose mixtape of certifiable bangers, leaning somewhat towards pop & the more commercial, along with a few of my own Chemical Adam creations & mashups, all served up with an extra helping of beefy basslines, phat beats & singalong silliness.

Should be equally functional as a playlist for pre-drinks, a gym session, warehouse rave or a sweaty basement fetish party. Enjoy!

[adamjohnwilliams]

Greetings, people of 2019! I can hardly believe we’ve made it this far. I’m a very lucky soy boi and got to see in the new year by performing at Berlin’s iconic KitKat Club just like I did last year.

Go take a listen to the recording on my SoundCloud (as usual it’s a free download!), and if you fancy taking a peek into the wild mind of Chemical Adam then read below for the description I wrote for my set whilst I was traveling & finishing my preparations. All the tracks are my own, or my remixes & mashups. Tracklist:

Chromeo vs. Spekular - Fancy Footwork / Ratpack [Chemical Adam’s accelerando mix] Chemical Adam - Sneaky Psy [Fresh Prince Sandwiches mix feat. Will Smith & Detroit Grand Pubahs] Hindi Zahra - Stand Up [Artemis Beats blissing out mix] Junior Senior - Move Your Feet [Chemical Adam’s re-edit] Frank Zappa - Disco Boy [Chemical Adam’s club remix] Klangspagat vs. Bobby McFerrin - Don’t Worry Be Happy [interlude] Chemical Adam - Bobby’s Baseline Junkies & Hoes [feat. Bobby McFerrin, Dizzee Rascal & DJ Slugo] Chemical Adam - Last Party Ever Toto - Africa [Chemical Adam’s drum & bass remix] Candy Ken - Fuck Gender [Chemical Adam’s tekno mix] Chemical Adam vs. Psy - Gangnam Style [dub/d&b remix] Peaches vs. Smooth - Fuck The Pain Away / Drone [Chemical Adam’s sex party mashup mix] Chemical Adam - Broken in Berlin [Kitkat basement gabber mix]

“Heading back to Berlin ready to see in 2019 in exactly the same way as I saw in 2018 - performing at my favorite sexy party Disco Bizarre at the one & only KitKatClub!

Making final tweaks to my set as I sit at the airport. Last year I attempted a Kitkat first by incorporating beatboxing & live-looping into my performance.

This time I've prepared a special set with everything I'll need being mapped to a few wireless devices, which will allow me to leave the DJ booth and perform from the dancefloor, surrounded by the crowd as well as the speaker system. I want to be where the subwoofers are.

To squeeze the very best sound possible from the PA in Kitkat's 4th Dimension room, I've been using the acoustic analysis data produced when I played some long sine sweeps through the system there earlier this year.

So, what a treat it should be for myself & anyone else who loves feeling their whole body shaken by bass. The set itself is a carefully considered journey through many genres & styles, themed for the New Year about resolution, catharsis, acceptance, and readiness for what is new.

It will include the first performance of the track I made for Disco Boy, a wonderful friend whom we lost this year, and whose amazing artworks adorn the walls of our room at Kitkat. He somehow had never heard the Frank Zappa song that shared his name, and when I told him I'd make a remix of it to play at a party, he said he'd wait to hear that version. So, this one is for you, Disco Boy! I'll be at your disco monument while I play it for you <3

So, there it is. Come see in the New Year in style. 3-4am in the big basement of Kitkat. Wear dancing shoes. Seriously, wear dancing shoes - I'm gonna start you off at 38BPM at 3am and we'll slowly climb to 189BPM over the hour so get ready to move. Rumour has it that nobody has ever played gabber & speedy breaks to the crowd at Kitkat... But just like frogs in water that is slowly heating up, they won't know to hop out until they are already being boiled.“

[adamjohnwilliams]

I’m very pleased to announce that one of the things I’ll be doing on our upcoming trip to the UK is hosting the main room of Fire for London’s Burning Man Decompression party.

So, say hello to the ♔DIGITAL DANCE DANDIES♕

We’ve curated an amazing selection of installations, art & performances. If you’ve caught any of my recent talks (or seen me at a party rocking a stethoscope) you may have heard about Kikazaru, a DJ friend of mine who is completely deaf, and thanks to his Subpac wearable subwoofer setup he’s able to rock a set of awesome rhythmic techno music which would sound right at home in Berghain or Fabric.

We’ll also be joined by Canadian soprano Adanya Dunn for #OPEREMIX, the live Opera & Techno mashup project which has been making waves in Berlin & Amsterdam.

Multidisciplinary creative technologist & one of my best friends, the fabulous Emi Mitchell will be bringing her interactive Kinect visual installation indepth back after it went down so well at last year’s decom, and as Courier she’ll be treating us to a DJ set that I cannot wait for. Seriously, if you knew how many of the tracks on my “Party Bangers” playlist were things first played to me by Emi, you’d be as excited as I am.

If, like us, you enjoyed the Space Tunnel at any of the burns & festivals at which it has appeared (it's been described as "The ultimate hippy trap") you'll be pleased to know that it's creator Amy Goodchild will be bringing her beautiful new LED geodesic dome installation!

Of course, I’ll also be playing some brain melting psychoacoustically-infused dance music, as well as performing some of my hits from YouTube. Fire has a bangin’ Nova soundsystem, so bring earplugs because I’m going LOUD. I can’t wait!

Also, as a small note I’d like to say that moving to Berlin has given me a great escape from the London party/clubbing scenes which often had a really toxic “boys club” vibe, with the promoters, organizers & DJs being of an overwhelmingly heterosexual cisgendered male flavour. The more diverse & inclusive vibe of the parties here has meant that I’ve personally experienced fewer problems, and has just generally taught me some of the things that could be done better, and in the spirit of radical inclusion I’ve decided to bring some of that vibe back to London with me. Don’t get me wrong, I have no inherent problem with hetero cismen - it’s just nice to have some variety, so it gives me great pleasure to have curated an awesome night of partying with none of those on my team or lineup.

It’s at the Vauxhall arches, home to Fire & Lightbox on November 17th. It’s a sold out party, but keep your eyes peeled for resale tickets closer to the time, and to any of my friends from the Burner community who’ve got their tickets already - SEE YOU THERE! IT’S GONNA BE HUGE <3

[adamjohnwilliams]

Have you ever had a transformative experience thanks to MDMA, 2C-B, or any of the other fine creations of the handsome molecular chemist I proudly have tattooed on my chest?

Did you know that Erowid Center is now sponsoring the archiving of Ann & Sasha Shulgin’s work? It’s the last day of Erowid’s annual support-a-thon and they might not reach their goal. Donations are being matched (up to $50), and there’s still $1,000 in matching funds available. They are 390 donations short of their goal. If you’ve found ever found the drug harm reduction advice on Erowid useful, please consider making a small donation if you can afford it.

The above is a repost of some words by the wonderful Greg Manning of Team Shulgin. The attached image is one of my proudest achievements: When Erowid's print magazine featured my photo in their issue commemorating the life & works of the most influential psychedelic chemist ever. Please help them out if you can, I am too poor to do so myself right now & their work to archive the cornucopia of unpublished treasures from the Shulgin archives is a noble venture indeed.

Please check out Erowid.org/sept_drive

[adamjohnwilliams]

You may know me more as a performance artist, creative technologist, or as that hackathon person - but chances are some of you know me as a beatboxer / live looper, especially if we met during my times with Music Tech Fest. The image above is from a beatboxing looping jam at one of the London editions of the festival, where I was lucky enough to perform & collaborate with the amazing @skshlomo. As well as being World Looping Champion, Shlomo is one of the giants of both beatboxing & the masterful use of music technology and was always a huge inspiration to me - I feel very lucky to have been able to perform with & learn from beatbox heroes like SK.

Like many of us, SK Shlomo’s musical journey has taken him to the place where music can be used as a powerful vehicle to discuss & express our own difficulties with mental health - I feel you, man (see the “Let’s talk about mental health” playlist on my YouTube channel for more on that...) - and he’s been working on an amazing album of very raw, very real music around this important & under-discussed topic.

So, to those of you who can, could you do me a favour? SK Shlomo’s Pledgemusic campaign is in the final stretch, and close to the goal (95% at the time I write this) so if you want to support the creation of amazing music whilst also helping to raise #mentalhealthawareness then head to http://skshlomo.com/pledge and throw some $$$ towards this excellent cause. PEACE

[adamjohnwilliams]

Been a bit of radio silence on this here blog for a while, but rest assured, dear readers, that I’ve been up to interesting things aplenty during that time, some of which you’ll be seeing in some upcoming videos of mine. Here’s one recent example of what I’ve been doing - my talk from the fabulous EMF Camp, on the topic of my Adventures in Somatosensory Music, Body Hacking & Beyond.

Enjoy!

[adamjohnwilliams]

Speaking on a panel at Roundhouse Rising tomorrow, on a topic that is very dear to my heart: Music, Accessibility, Technology & Disability.

However, feeling slightly conflicted about the fact that it's sponsored & hosted by YouTube, since this week my own YouTube channel was demonetized along with the channels of so many others.

This was due to the change in eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Programme which seems set to shift the type of content creation that will be rewarded away from quality, and instead towards quantity. Expect to see a lot more rambly vlog-style content from your YouTube favorites and the appearance of fewer new channels, since that's what we've all basically been told they want there.

Seems to me like this might turn YouTube into a stagnating echo-chamber of few great producers, surrounded by crapfactories that can churn out terrible yet seemingly endless content...

Time to move to another platform? Or do we take it in stride, use it as another way to separate our ideas from the notions of ownership & monetization, and carry on?

[adamjohnwilliams]

Things are changing around here. I realised that I was more often performing as “Chemical Adam” or simply “Adam John Williams” than as my old production alias, “Artemis Beats”, so I have decided that Artemis Beats (the performer) is retiring. You’ll still sometimes see tracks produced by them, and mention of them in my work occasionally, but the www.artemisbeats.com website will soon disappear, consigned to the archives of the internet.

With that in mind, I’ve been updating my presence on various parts of the internet:

https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/adamjohnwilliams

https://twitter.com/MxChemicalAdam

https://www.facebook.com/AdamJohnWilliamsArtist/

https://www.facebook.com/ChemicalAdamMusic/

https://about.me/AdamJohnWilliams