Talking to a robot and what to expect from the Wuthering Bytes tech festival

“I don’t think you should ever worry about not being too technical for something. If technology doesn’t make itself clear for you then the technology isn’t doing its job well,” she said.

“Wuthering Bytes has been going for around ten years and I always think it is the most special tech event that I’ve ever been to. It is really unique in that it is genuinely diverse and brings together all kinds of technology, not just ‘tech tech’ but technology’s intersection with art and music, science or the way we live today.

“There are a lot of different things for everyone who comes along. The Festival Day on Friday is a day with talks and presentations from some of the most amazing people working on technology from around the UK.

“We’ve had such a selection of weird and wonderful talks and demonstrations over the years, from dancing umbrellas through to particle acceleration, tech history through to what may be coming in the future. It’s an eclectic selection of diverse things which is open to anyone who is curious – I don’t think you need to be technical, but if you’re interested in any aspect of technology then you will learn something new.

“It’s not just talks too, we have demonstrations too so we’ve set off rockets and sending balloons to the edge of space – lots of cool and quirky ideas spanning tech, culture and arts and science.”

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The festival began in 2013 when over a pint in a local pub Andrew Back and Tim Harbour came up with the idea of putting on a festival of interesting and inspiring technology in the small market town of Hebden Bridge.

Dr James says the location, in the heart of the north just 35 minutes from both Leeds and Manchester, is part of its appeal: “I think it is really important it’s not in London. London sucks so much energy out of the rest of the country. It’s great to showcase some of the most awesome and exciting British technology somewhere that isn’t London and provide access to communities that just don’t get these top tier speakers regularly.

“What Wuthering Bytes does really well is spark your curiosity and inspire you to learn something new or try something new. It has a really British angle on tech rather than something like Silicon Valley which is about building huge monopolies.

“The festival is a great example about how technology can be something that is inspiring, interesting and unexpected and enriches our lives in different ways.”

Women in technology will be front and centre of this year’s festival with Professor Simon Lavington, who is an emeritus professor of Computer Science at the University of Essex, delivering a talk on the life and work of Dina St Johnston who founded the UK’s first software house.

And, before she takes to the decks as DJ at the opening night’s social, Loula Yorke will chart the evolution of modular synthesis – an early form of music technology – and share her journey in demystifying this ‘dark art’ and making music of her own.

Yorke’s musical universe has been expansive over the past decade. She spent six years in live rave duo TR-33N, which took her from playing underground warehouse parties to the all-night area of Glastonbury, before her debut solo release on techno veteran Marshall Applewhite’s Detroit label Junted in 2019.

It will be Yorke’s first appearance at the festival after she was spotted on social media by the organisers. She says she’s very much looking forward to explaining her craft.

"Modular synthesis, which is a music technology, is actually really old so I’ll be delving into its genesis. What is intriguing about it is that it’s an old technology but has become popular in the last 15 years,” she said.

“People make most music on computers these days but alongside this there has been a counter-wave of people using this old technology which used controlled voltage instead of computer language – it’s a really basic way of doing stuff.

“Modular synth is taking all the components of a fixed architecture synth and breaking them out into small units. You have a powered case and you can recombine those units in any way you like. You have patch cables that cross between the different modules and you send signals all over the place that make these really crazy sounds.

“You get really into the making of a patch and it can be meditative so my talk is called Zen and the Art of Modular Synthesis which is a bit of joke based on the book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

“I’ll delve into how the practice of patching can make you feel really like you’re in a trance and asking whether there are any connections between esoteric philosophy and the development of that technology from the 1960s which is exactly when a lot of those ideas became into popular consciousness with the beginning of the self-help movement.

“I’ll also do a demo of a software modulation of a modular synth so if people are taken with the idea by the end of the talk they have an accessible way of getting into it.”

The festival runs from August 23 – 31 with the ‘Festival Day’ tomorrow. Tickets are available from wutheringbytes.com