‘A Tap, a Click, and a Thump’ is a sound, light, and animated text installation commissioned by Manchester Histories Festival to celebrate 200 years of the University of Manchester and was exhibited at the Whitworth Art Gallery in 2024.

A collaboration with sound artist and composer, Caro C, and students at the Royal Northern College of Music, Sarah Keirle and Nico Garcia-Peguinho. Artesero created a series of text artworks inspired by the lives and legacies of Alan Turing and Delia Derbyshire. Drawing on Turing’s work with computation/codebreaking, and Derbyshire’s experimental approach to sound, Artesero explored hidden systems of communication, translation and code; experimenting with a more concrete visual poetry to echo the methods of making by Derbyshire, and incorporating binary code, one of the foundations of contemporary life (computers, smartphones, etc.), which is often hidden in plain sight.

Caro C included lots of unconventional instrumentation, including the use of Coolicon metal lampshades, which were Derbyshire’s “favourite instrument” that she recorded to analyse the harmonic content to create her evocative music.