Manuel Sepulveda

Film, Music and Graphic Arts

Optigram 

Graphic Arts & Design

I cut my teeth as a graphic designer working for record labels such as Warp, R&S and Aphex Twin’s label, Rephlex, but it wasn’t until 2008 that I began working under the name Optigram (a portmanteau of the words optical grammar) and started to explore a visual vocabulary of abstraction, camouflage, geometry and rhythm, often with an emphasis on science fiction concepts.

Since 2009 my work has been closely associated with Kode9’s record label, Hyperdub, and other labels I’ve worked with include Planet Mu, Ninja Tune, Lex and XL. I’ve also had opportunities to work in publishing, fashion, technology and the arts, and clients have included MIT Press, Adidas, Sonos and Unsound Festival.

Whilst almost all of my work as Optigram has been commissioned by clients, a few projects were self-initiated or creative collaborations. These included Ghost Diamond, an experimental film featuring South African dancer Manthe Ribane, and a book published by Hyperdub’s Flatlines imprint that told the story of their Ø series of events at London club, Corsica Studios.

Optigram work has been shown at the Design Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Electronic Music in Frankfurt.

Citinite 

Record Label

Citinite was a record label I initially began so that I could release music by two niche artists whom I loved but who didn’t have a home at the time. It quickly became a retrofuturist outlet for all things electrofunk.

The label launched in 2006 with its first release, Cazelica, a blistering fusion of techno, soul and abstract r&b by Detroit native, Robert O’Dell Jr.

Although based in London, the label took advantage of the then flourishing MySpace community to discover and sign artists from around the world. Artists included Miami electro visionary, Gosub; Jimmy Edgar, under his Her Bad Habit alias; Johannesburg’s hyper funk duo, Sweat.X; Italian funk instrumentalist, AD Bourke; and New York City legends, Death Comet Crew.

Also releasing music from the past that had been forgotten or nearly lost, a highlight was officially issuing Modernaire by Dez Dickerson, a previously unreleased song from the classic film, Purple Rain, which featured Prince on all instruments. As a lifelong Prince fan, this was an unbelievable dream.

In 2015 I launched After Us, a print journal which focused on the nexus between art, science and politics. Through essays, interviews, pictorials and fiction, the journal explored how emerging technologies, philosophies and cultural movements might affect and shape future societies.

Although the journal was short-lived, running for only two issues, I was proud of what the contributors and I were able to achieve.

One of the key essays in Issue 1 was Towards a Poetics of Artificial Superintelligence by
Nora N. Khan and this essay has since been reprinted widely, is taught in universities and has been translated into several languages.

Other contributors include theorists Liam Young, Nick Srnicek, Claire Colebrook and Amy Ireland, and artists Lawrence Lek, Sam Rolfes, LaTurbo Avedon and Daniela Yohannes.

In 2017 writer and director Francesca Castelbuono and I launched the film production company, Strange Machine, with the aim to disrupt conventions in the film industry and bring different perspectives to the screen.

By exploring complex themes via experimental genre films, and using the freedom they offer to push narratives in unexpected directions, we hope to uncover truths about the way we live and who we are.

Our first film is The Inheritors, an intimate sci-fi short that explores themes of race, identity and belonging. The film stars Jordan Loughran (HBO’s Raised by Wolves) and Olivia-Mai Barrett (Apple’s Invasion) and is currently in post-production.

Worldbuilding includes the development of environments, icons, signage, language systems, and all aspects of visual culture. In 2018 I was invited to join a small post-production design team at MPC London to develop the worldbuilding for Legendary Pictures’ live-action film, Pokémon Detective Pikachu. 

I created two visual language systems and designed over 140 brands, from corporate banks to noodle takeaways, to help create believable environments for the story and characters to live in.

During the COVID pandemic that shut down film productions I started a self-initiated project exploring the aesthetics of science fiction. By combining typography, symbols and my own imagery to create a series of production concepts, I wanted to evoke stories set in other and future worlds.

fictionsdesign.persona.co

I’ve hosted a monthly radio show called Nitetrax on London’s NTS Radio since its launch in 2011. The show has evolved over the years but it mainly features club and experimental electronic music from both pioneering and contemporary artists.

Nitetrax is a way for me to showcase interesting sounds and artists but is also an opportunity for me to discover music I may not otherwise have stumbled upon.

Many of the shows are themed around particular genres or musicians (eg, Belgian Rave, or Mica Levi Film Scores) and the show has occasionally featured mixes by guest DJs from around the world, including  DJs from Chicago, Detroit, South Africa and Latin America, as well as the UK.

Nitetrax has also been a platform for occasional live events including a collaboration with Minus One at the ICA in London.