There are few artists who have explored the relationship between sound, memory, youth culture and technology as deeply as Mark Leckey.

For more than two decades, Leckey has occupied a unique space between contemporary art and popular culture, treating dancefloors, pirate radio, rave archives, internet folklore and collective memory as legitimate artistic materials.

On 10 June, Thristian joins Mark Leckey for a live conversation as part of Selector, a collaboration between Tate Liverpool and Future Yard exploring the relationship between contemporary art and contemporary music.

The Dancefloor As Archive

Long before social media turned every cultural moment into content, club culture existed as a largely undocumented space.

Mark Leckey’s landmark 1999 film Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore transformed those fleeting moments into something permanent.

Constructed from found footage spanning Northern Soul, casual culture, disco and rave scenes, the work remains one of the most powerful artistic examinations of British youth culture ever produced.

Music From The Age Of Spiritual Machines

Selector arrives as part of a wider programme curated by Leckey under the title Music From The Age Of Spiritual Machines.

The title speaks to the increasingly blurred boundaries between humanity, technology and culture — questions that run throughout Leckey’s work and feel especially relevant today.

How does technology shape memory? What happens when culture becomes data? Can music still create meaningful collective experiences? What remains after a cultural moment has passed?

Why This Conversation Matters

Across Global Roots, Worldwide FM and now TheGRIN.io, Thristian’s work has often returned to culture as a signal.

A signal passed between generations. A signal carried through records, radio broadcasts, clubs, galleries and communities.

Leckey’s work examines exactly these transmissions. His practice demonstrates that culture is never static. It moves, mutates and is reinterpreted by new audiences.

In an era increasingly dominated by algorithms and artificial intelligence, his work reminds us that culture remains fundamentally human. It lives in shared experiences, memories, stories and music.