Coming to Convergence

Tomorrow afternoon, MVWorks will take to the stage at the third annual Convergence festival in London to break down a few boundaries. As a forum for celebrating the pioneers working at the intersection of music, arts and technology, Convergence couldn’t be a better showcase for the programme, and we’re excited about bringing a selection of some of the people and projects we’re supporting to the attention of the festival’s foreword-thinking audience.

Here, MVWorks’ Christina Hayman outlines how MVWorks came to be involved and what festivalgoers can expect…

What are you looking forward to about Convergence?
Meeting a whole bunch of like-minded people from different areas of arts, music and tech, but with the commonality that stems from creative ambition.

How did the invitation to present come about?
Leah Stuhltrager, who runs the fabulous Wye in Berlin, put us in touch with the Convergence team (and they also know Somerset House who support us) and it became quickly apparent we have loads of common interests.

How do the aims of Makerversity and Convergence overlap?
We’re always out to find new and interesting people along with their outputs, but not too future-focused to neglect the what makes them great or has inspired them. Arts, music and tech is really a huge pigeonhole to fill. MV Works has given them and us a lot of freedom to build a community, put on events and really anything else we want to do. I’d say our main shared goal is to keep activity in the centre of the city diverse, be it making, music or arts, rather than chain shops, tourist attractions and a Pret every 50 metres.

Which MVWorks makers are presenting at the festival?
The session will be led by Makerversity MD, Ursula Davies, who will be joined by Common Works and Becca Rose. The groups will be talking about the programme, their journeys and their projects.

Why were they selected?
We looked for people who were interested in pushing themselves both creatively and entrepreneurially and who had a strong track record of creative practice. Also, people who had ambitious and different projects they wanted to work on during the programme and who weren’t afraid to take some risks.

What themes will you be talking about?
People whose work defies categorisation. The walls different worlds build between them and why that’s crazy. Thinking about different ways of supporting people and the power hierarchies that are often created when you do that. The stories of how amazing work is physically created and the motivations behind it.

What idea of MV Works would you like the audience to leave with?
A brave experiment that crosses boundaries between design, art, tech, research, business (among other things) and is aiming for genuine long-term impact.

The MVWorks session starts at 3pm, Saturday 19 March, at Ace Hotel Shoreditch.