TALK: Nøtel and Other Fictions — Steve Goodman (Kode9) in Conversation with Lawrence Lek
Recording of an in conversation between Steve Goodman (Kode9) and Lawrence Lek, as part of the public programme for Lek’s exhibition Life Before Automation (26 Sep–14 Dec 2025) at Goldsmiths CCA.
The exhibition included the work Nøtel (2018-), a multimedia installation for a fictional luxury hotel brand, which began as an audio-visual performance from the track of the same name from Steve Goodman’s (Kode9) album Nothing (2014). The event provided an opportunity to hear both artists discuss the nature of their work together since 2014, across audio essays, music videos, and collaborative soundtracks.
The pair share clips of videos and soundtrack snippets from across their projects, including Nøtel, Black Cloud, AIDOL, Astro-Darien, and Lek’s forthcoming film, Death Drive. Goodman’s label Hyperdub also served as a model for the corporate entity ‘Farsight’, a reoccurring character in Lek’s work, and a parallel investigation of hyperstition; the use of fiction to bring ideas into reality.
In addition, Lek and Goodman discuss their recent interview with philosopher Anna Greenspan published in Machine Decision is Not Final: China and the History and Future of Artificial Intelligence (Urbanomic, 2025).
Read more…BIOGRAPHY
Steve Goodman (aka Kode9) is a musician, artist and writer. He is founder of the record labels Hyperdub and Flatlines, producer of 5 albums, 2 with the late Spaceape (Memories of the Future, 2006 and Black Sun 2012) and 3 solo (Nothing, 2015, Escapology 2022, Astro-Darien 2023), and numerous DJ mix compilations, including Fabric Live 100 in collaboration with Burial in 2018. He has produced sound installations for the Hyundai Commission at the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern (2018) and for the More than Human exhibition (2019) on artificial intelligence at the Barbican in London, among others. His collaborative installation, Fugue Zones (2025) at Canary Test in Los Angeles was recently awarded the Mike Kelley Foundation, Infinite Expansion Grant. His book Sonic Warfare was published on MIT Press in 2010, he co-edited the books Unsound:Undead (2019) and Sonic Faction (2024) both published by Urbanomic Press. He was a former member of the Ccru and Audint.
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