Keiken, at Amos Rex, photo by Niclas Warius

Commons at SODA: A New Era of Digital Experimentation with AND

Abandon Normal Devices (AND) has spent the last 15 years being deeply curious about the development of the ever-shifting digital landscape, inviting artists and audiences to challenge normative perspectives on the intersection of emerging technologies and human connection. 

Initially founded in 2009 from a collaboration between FACT, Cornerhouse (now HOME) and Folly, AND has continued to thrive in the liminal spaces between emerging technology, radical cross-sector collaboration, and artist development. Even in the early days, AND was probing the ethics of artificial intelligence, the surveillance state and digital identity, collaborating with hundreds of artists who creatively unraveled provocations about the technology that now governs our everyday lives. 

We Dwell Below (2018), comissioned by AND © Mark Savage

AND also delivers AND Festival – a digital arts festival with every edition imagined on a new site in the North West. From augmented reality seascapes on the Manchester Ship Canal to music residencies inside caverns in the Peak District – the festival invites artists from across the world to work in collaboration with academics and radical thinkers from across the realms of technology, science and film.

Now as part of a long-term collaboration with the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, AND has found a temporary playground to experiment in with in Manchester through Commons – a unique programme fostering innovative approaches to digital practice, inviting digital practitioners to draw upon new opportunities for collaborating, making and resourcing. The partnership will produce a programme of live residencies, creative exchanges and exhibitions exhibitions at SODA’s digital art gallery, Modal, launching with Keiken’s Worldbuilding and the Nature of Reality (until 7 May) and Jazmin Morris’ Sandbox (28 July – 14 Aug).

AND’s Creative Director Yinka Danmole explores what marks this collaboration as a significant moment to advance creative play and experimentation in digital spaces.

The beauty of experimental collaboration

What emerges when we nurture and enable the capacity for experimentation in community? How do we enable even more cross-disciplinary collaborations in emergent digital spaces? And how can we, as organisations, truly support artists navigating the complex, rapidly shifting landscape of digital practice today?

These questions are the driving force behind Commons, our exciting new programme launching in April 2025, developed in close partnership with the SODA. For AND, Commons is deeply rooted in our mission whilst pushing us in vital new directions. We’ve always aimed to be a catalyst for new ideas and artforms, so we are deliberately disrupting the traditional exhibition format, shifting the focus towards dialogue, iteration, and exchange. Commons is about fostering a deeply supportive incubation environment and leveraging our combined influence in a truly complementary way. We think it’s a more honest, dynamic and ultimately more generative way to support artists who will shape the future of immersive storytelling and digital practice.

Artists will have direct access to SODA’s cutting-edge digital facilities, labs, specialist equipment, and invaluable technical expertise.

Turning SODA into a creative laboratory

We’ll be placing artists within a dynamic ecosystem brimming with technologists, theorists, researchers, and crucially, the next generation of emerging practitioners. It’s this specific, rich mix, the everyday proximity of critical thinking and making that truly excites us, creating fertile ground for sparking unexpected conversations and cross-disciplinary innovation whilst artists and the SODA academic network temporarily share space.

School of Digital Arts Credit: Manchester Metropolitan University

Partnering with SODA offers possibilities we couldn’t achieve alone. Artists will have direct access to SODA’s cutting-edge digital facilities, labs, specialist equipment, and invaluable technical expertise. This level of resource is transformative, directly enabling and supporting the creation of ambitious projects and complex digital worlds that might otherwise remain purely conceptual. Commons turns SODA into a unique kind of live laboratory. Fostering a supportive environment where artists can openly experiment, test fragile new ideas, and receive immediate, informed feedback directly from this diverse, built-in academic and creative community. It’s a rare chance to move beyond the echo chamber of the studio and collect engaged, real-time perspectives for works-in-progress. 

Taking artistic risks

By embedding artists deeply within this vibrant hub and fostering such intense periods of exchange as part of a live residency, we believe we’re planting seeds for the future. We fully expect this proximity and shared exploration to seed future collaborations, new research questions, unforeseen creative partnerships, or new ideas emerge.

_{Worldbuilding and the Nature of Reality by Keiken runs until Wed 7 May 2025. Sandbox by Jazmin Morris runs Mon 28 Jul — Thu 14 Aug 2025 at Modal gallery. A programme of public events can be found on Modal gallery’s website.}

Keiken – Worldbuilding and the Nature of Reality

Modal Gallery Until 7 May 2025

Keiken explores interconnectedness, perception, and sensory experience, shaping reality through an intimate, immersive gaming world.

Jazmin Morris – Sandbox

Modal Gallery Until 14 August 2025

Jazmin Morris transforms Modal into a dynamic space for talks, workshops, and an interactive library exploring knowledge, play, and resistance.

School of Digital Arts (SODA)

The School of Digital Arts (SODA) is a purpose-built, interdisciplinary school at Manchester Metropolitan University that offers an interdisciplinary approach to creative courses.