The closing night of Science Week’s Museum of the Moon activities is programmed in partnership with Beta Festival and brings together three pioneering artists whose practices bridge sound, science, and technology to explore the boundaries of perception and connection. From live coding and an Algorave to electronic blends.
Exploring patterns and sound architectures as part of his autoparallel project, Jürgen Simpson, composer and researcher at DMARC/University Limerick, merges algorithmic composition with live performance, transforming data and code into evolving musical systems. His performances integrate open-source software and modular synthesis, with algorithmic structures that slip in and out of reach and using the sounds of physical modelling and analogue synthesis.
Char Stiles, an artist-coder and creative technologist, creates performances that reveal the poetry of computation. Come dance to music and visuals made with javascript, live compiling in front of you! Algorave is a new kind of electronic music concert, you get to watch the electronic music and visuals be coded right in front of you. You don’t have to understand code to enjoy this performance the same way you don't need to understand how to play guitar to enjoy a guitar performance.
Elaine Mai is a Galway-based electronic artist, producer, and songwriter whose work blends intricate production with deep emotional resonance. Mai performs an evocative electronic set inspired by the Moon’s rhythm and movement, weaving beats, live loops, and instrumentation into a hypnotic sonic experience created in direct response to the installation. Drawing inspiration from the Moon’s rhythm, movement, and emotional resonance, she fuses layered beats, live looping, and expressive instrumentation to create an immersive experience. Mai’s work sits at the intersection of technology and feeling, transforming electronic production into something melodic and human.
Together, their performances illuminate how art and technology intertwine to make science felt, transforming algorithms and atmospheres into acts of collective discovery.
This event is part of Research Ireland’s Science Weeks programme created by So Simpatico in partnership with Beta Festival.
Jürgen Simpson has been committed to the field of electronic music and sound since the mid-1990’s. His work in dance, sound art, film and opera has been presented widely and his collaborators include composer Michael Nyman, film maker Clare Langan and rock band The Jimmy Cake for whom he produced their third album “Spectre and Crown”. Since 2020 he has returned to live electronic music with performances including Body and Soul, New Music Dublin, Greenwich Loudspeaker Orchestra, Dublin Fringe, Hedge School and ICLC Barcelona ’25. He is currently developing new live electronic music performance works under the moniker ‘autoparallel’ and as ‘Stokes Flow’ with live coder Giuseppe Torre. He is co-founder of Light Moves Festival and works at the Digital Media and Arts Research Centre at University Limerick.
Char Stiles is a computational artist, educator and programmer based in Brooklyn, NY. She works creatively in the lower levels of graphical computational systems & makes jokes about how computers work. She is currently at the MIT Media Lab’s Future Sketches group. She is an active member of the Livecode.nyc collective & she co-founded Hex House, an artist studio and event space in East Williamsburg. She has performed internationally, including festivals such as Electric Forest, and Mutek Nexus. She has lectured and led workshops at Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, University of Limerick, MIT and NYU.
Elaine Mai is a Galway-based electronic artist, producer, and songwriter whose work blends intricate production with deep emotional resonance. Since her debut, she has become a defining voice in Ireland’s electronic scene, earning Choice Music Prize nominations for her acclaimed album Home. Known for her dynamic live performances, Mai has collaborated with artists such as MayKay, Soda Blonde, Pillow Queens, and MuRLi, and performed at major festivals including Electric Picnic, All Together Now and Beyond the Pale. Her music explores themes of connection, transformation, and loss, creating soundscapes that feel both intimate and expansive.
Image Credit: Char Stiles - Filip Wolak, Elaine Mai - Ruth Medjber, Jurgen Simpson ICLCL
