The Ulam Spiral
The Ulam Spiral is an image of the prime numbers. The natural numbers are arranged in a square spiral, with the primes represented by white pixels against a black background of non-primes.
The programming by Dr Richard Christian and production by Allan Parker shows as much of the infinite sequence as can fit within the bounds of the screen. It currently exists on a local server.
The number of each prime number is shown on the screen when the custom cursor passes over it.
It represents the mathematical sublime and embodies a key mystery in mathematics. A unique sound is produced by each pixel as the cursor passes over it which creates complex harmonics as the sounds combine. This work is interactive and can be ‘played’ by visitors to the gallery via a track pad.
The project was developed by Dr. Richard Christian and Allan Parker and the sounds provided by composer Georgina Brett. It was last shown at Alliance Française de Bangalore in Jan 26.
ενυδρείο (enydreío)
Yannis Mihos’s interactive sound installation Enydreío was created in collaboration with Allan Parker while he was a resident at Footnote Centre for Image and Text in Belgrade. The work is a real-time sonification of an aquarium, incorporating processed field recordings and live interactions with visitors via ultrasonic waves.
The Installation was presented at Magacin Arts Centre in Belgrade on Friday 27th August, 2021.
Paradise Lost
46 small LED screens display the first three lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost – one letter per screen.
The randomised/staggered programming of the text by Dr Richard Christian and Allan Parker allows the text to disassemble and reform. This work was inspired by a throw away media comment that the internet was “‘…just another Paradise Lost”.
Each 1.8″ LCD screen is controlled by a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontoller. The software that enables the Pico to drive video was written in C by Dr Richard Christian. Video frames are prepared in PNG format and compiled with framerate and stagger values by the software into a single binary that is flashed to the microcontroller. The software works within the tight limitations of memory and processor speed of the Pico. A compression algorithm finds the optimum weave of images into blocks for compression. A simulator written in Javascript enables large sets of videos to be tested in parallel for arrays of screens. The code written by Dr. Christian is open source and available on a github repository. https://github.com/rpxpx/picovideo
Undivided
19 minute video animation created by Allan Parker for composer Georgina Brett’s ambisonic composition ‘Undivided’, selected for Greenwich University’s Sound/Image Festival in November 2025. The video was projected simultaneously on 6 joined screens encircling the audience
The Fragment Corpora [book]
This book created and designed by Allan Parker forms a significant element of the background research for this project. 144 pages with a wraparound cover published by Pure Land Press
Printed in January 2026 by JAK printers in Mumbai, India.
ISBN 978-0-9564105-7-3
“The air itself is one vast library on whose pages are forever written all that man has ever said or women whispered”
Charles Babbage – Inventor of the Difference Engine (1821)
The images and texts in The Fragment Corpora include a variety of seemingly random elements referencing aerial views, coding, psychological tests, allegories, art history, astronomy, poetry, micro and macro environments, images of wholeness and fragmentation and the mathematical sublime.
Early collections of knowledge about the world, such as libraries and encyclopaedias also include Cabinets of Curiosities. These collections prefigured the museums of modern times, when collectors began to favour taxonomies based on science and history. The digital world, in which we can include AI, is perhaps the most recent episode in this story of ‘completist’ projects which attempt to lay out the world before us.
The book embraces the limitations of such attempts to construct meaningful images of the world we inhabit, acknowledging the optics through which such descriptions are necessarily determined.
The Fragment Corpora seeks to expand the notion of the book into something which can be experienced in a three dimensional space. The pages of the book variously represent projections, prints, lightboxes, screens and online presentations and ultimately a large language model (LLM), which is currently in development.
The first element to be completed was the The Fragment Corpora [Folio], a large format handmade book (280x380mm) of screen prints, plate lithographs, chine collé, colour copies and pigment prints, in an edition of 12 copies. Printed in India at Prati Studios in Bengaluru.
Footnote Centre for Image and Text
Footnote Centre for image and Text was conceived as an artists residency in Belgrade, Serbia by Allan Parker and established by Allan Parker and Mia Cuk. Its mission is to connect the UK with Balkans and Europe, supporting and mentoring initiatives by visiting artists and Belgrade based practitioners. This video from 2022 shows exhibiting visitors and also participants in the International Youth Biennale. Currently we are moving to new premises in Vojvodina (North Serbia) this spring (2026). In the meantime The organisation itself continues to arrange presentations, events and collaborations.