Saturday 9th May 2026, 7 for 7:30pm. £15
Lauriston Castle, 2 Cramond Rd S, Edinburgh EH4 6AD

Before the cinematic term Film Noir was coined there was the very noir 'Piccadilly' (1929) a silent with sound drama released after the emergence of the Talkies. Directed by E.A. Dupont, it features the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood, fashion icon Anna May Wong as Shosho.

Set in an eponymous nightclub and restaurant in London's Piccadilly Circus, dishwasher Shosho becomes an instant sensation when she is promoted to lead dancer after a series of unfortunate events. Personal jealousies result in a crime of passion that only the courts can decide.

Cycle 15 Alt-w Exhibition Award - Lindsey Carr
lindseycarrart.com

4th February to 3rd April 2026. FREE
Level 2, EFI, 1 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9EF

Originally developed as a tool for the creation of a series of lithographs based on Ernst Haeckel’s ‘Kunstformen Der Natur’ - the tool has now been reformatted for Edinburgh Futures Institute. Organisms on screen are generated by machine learning and animated using latent space interpolation to calculate the best trajectory between each.

You can find aspects of our programme archived here by clicking on the tags below.

Cycle 13 Alt-w Production Award - Ray Interactive
Sam Healy & Brendan McCarthy

1st December 2025 to 3rd February 2026. FREE
Level 2, EFI, 1 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9EF

In this map of the stars directly above Edinburgh Futures Institute, updated live as time passes, the incoming light generates unique abstract animations. By taking this stellar data set and a computer algorithm called reaction/diffusion, they literally bring the heavens alive.

Restless, vital patterns emerge looking like cells, fingerprints, fungi, animal markings or brain cross-sections. They remind us that all life originates in the stars. Each iteration hints at the fragile balance between growth and death on which beauty, harmony and meaning depend.