Circuit 06: Creative Tension (2025)

For Circuit 06 we commissioned four works and ran an open call for public submissions. In the end we received 72 fluxworks from 16 countries. Our creative partner for Circuit 06: Creative Tension was Hastings (UK)-based artist, activist and knitter, Lorna Hamilton Brown. Specifically, we drew inspiration from Lorna’s Tension Birds project, which explores the mental health benefits of knitting. Listen to our commissioned fluxworks and winners from the open call (“Circuit Selects”) below.

Our Circuit 06 theme and prompts were designed with Lorna, and directly inspired by her art practice. For this circuit, each fluxwork must:

Run exactly three minutes long
Take inspiration from the theme CREATIVE TENSION
Include audible REPETITION (knodding to the rhythm of knitting)

We also asked producers:

What COLOR is your fluxwork?

Circuit 06: Creative Tension debuted October 8, 2025 at the RESONATE Podcast Festival in Richmond, Virginia.

CIRCUIT 06 COMMISSIONED WORKS:

How Do Bunnies Gump So High? (yellow), by Sarah Geis / USA
Sharing is Complicated (blue) by Mo Isu and FayFay Odudu / Nigeria
Wake, Spider, Wake! (maroon) by Axel Kacoutié / UK
Nobody Told Me (white) by Colette Kinsella / Ireland & Netherlands

CIRCUIT 06 CIRCUIT SELECTS:

Rubber Bands (most commonly beige) by Joyce de Badts & Frederik De Clercq / Belgium
My Bip Bip Neighbour (blue, like Nico’s eyes) by Sarah-Lou Lepers with neighbours Nicolas Defoor & Carine Rey / France
Reconfiguring (bright red) by Phoebe McIndoe / Germany
Very Fine People (white) by Lisa Woolfork / USA

CIRCUIT 06 FINALISTS: POTATO (aquamarine) by Emma Alabaster with Tenaz and Rafa / USA, Red Card (red) by Vivien Schütz & Laura Rojas Aponte / USA, Crash Out (silvery duct tape) by Kaitlin Jade Armstrong / USA, COLORFUL TENSIONS OF MALAPROPISM - RGB (white light) by Sundus Hassan Nooli / USA & Netherlands, How to Play Guitar (silver) by Alex Lewis / USA, One Chest of Breasts (neon black) by Lusen Mendel / USA, xoxox0xo (blue), by Thomas Lu / USA, The Orb Weavers (gossamer), by Sara McCrea with Hannis Brown / USA, Red Card (red) by Vivien Schütz & Laura Rojas Aponte / USA

THANKS THANKS THANKS TO: Lorna Hamilton-Brown, Lucia Scazzocchio and the XMTR Festival, Brian Baynes, Chioke I’Anson and the RESONATE Podcast Festival, Andrew Grace, AIR Media, Chris Kalafarski