Watch the recording of the seminar here:

Title: Daphne Oram and Oramics
Time: 11am UK time, 26th March 2026
URL: YouTube Livestream

Daphne Oram (1925 – 2003, UK) was a pioneering British composer, electronic musician, and the inventor of the Oramics Machine (1966). The Oramics Machine allowed Daphne Oram to synthesize and sequence sound by painting lines and other marks on glass slides and film strips. Oram invented it as a new means of musical expression, one that enabled her to finely control and vary sounds in ways that surpassed the capabilities of audio tape manipulation, which was the primary method of electronic music production at the time.The initial Oramics Machine was quite large and was permanently installed in Oram’s Kent studio, making it impractical for use by the majority of musicians. Tom Richards has constructed the Mini-Oramics machine (2016) as part of his doctoral studies. The design of this machine is based on Oram's own ideas for a second more portable version of her original invention. In this lecture and demonstration, the story of Oramics will be followed by a hands-on demonstration of Richards’ Mini Oramics interface.

‍

Presenter Biography: Tom Richards is an artist, musician, sound designer, and instrument maker, based in West Yorkshire. He has been working between sonic art, sculpture, film and music since graduating with an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art in 2004. He has performed and exhibited widely in the UK, as well as internationally in the US, Brazil, Germany, Peru, Singapore, Hungary, Japan and Sweden.Selected works and live performances have taken place at Tate Britain, Fabric, Barbican, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, The Science Museum, Spike Island, Cafe Oto, MK Gallery, Focal Point, and Camden Arts Centre.In 2018 he completed his PhD (Goldsmiths/Science Museum) on the work of Daphne Oram: electronic music pioneer, and founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. This research included the creation of Oram’s unrealised Mini Oramics ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36651270 ) synthesizer design (Circa 1975), a project that has since gained worldwide attention.He is represented by Nonclassical ( https://www.nonclassical.co.uk/tom-richards ).