Step into Tate Modern’s new exhibition with Shanti Celeste, KILIMANJARO and Girls Don’t Sync

At Tate Modern, technology doesn’t just sit in the background, it pulses through every frame and frequency. Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet is the gallery’s latest landmark exhibition, offering a deep dive into the way artists have engaged with technology from the 1950s to the 1980s, long before the digital revolution reshaped the world we live in today. Open now until 1st June, the exhibition walks you through mind-bending, unforgettable, immersive installations designed to engage all your senses, to discover artists from around the world and how they imagined the visual language of the future.

Spanning video, sound, installation, and kinetic sculpture, the exhibition captures a moment when technology was still tactile, experimental, and full of radical possibility. Featuring pioneering artists such as Nam June Paik, Carlos Cruz Diez, Brion Gysin, Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss, Electric Dreams explores how early innovators turned emerging technologies into tools for creative disruption. The show draws on influences from television, computing, cybernetics, and electronic music, showing how these artists imagined alternative futures in an analogue age: using cathode-ray tubes, neon light, computer code, and experimental sound long before the smartphone era. Works range from playful robotic sculptures to immersive environments that still feel futuristic today.

To bring this spirit to life for a new generation, NOTION has worked with Tate and Tate Collective to spotlight a selection of trailblazing artists from the electronic music world. In an exclusive video series filmed inside the exhibition, Shanti Celeste, KILIMANJARO and Girls Don’t Sync reflect on the shifting relationship between art, sound, and technology, and how these forces continue to shape their work today.

For Girls Don’t Sync – the DJ, producer and curators collective made up of Matty Chiabi, G33, Sophia Violet and Hannah Lynch – the past holds powerful clues to the present. “We can all say that we’ve looked back at pictures and videos of raves and of music culture in the past: that’s really shaped the atmosphere and the environment that we want to create,” the group shared, set against the immersive, flickering backdrops of Electric Dreams. It’s a reminder that digital nostalgia is woven into the DNA of club culture, even as it evolves.

Shanti Celeste – the rising Chilean DJ, producer, record label owner, radio host and illustrator now based in London – meanwhile, points to the blurring boundaries between sonic and visual forms. “I think the line between visual art and music is blurring more than ever,” she says, speaking to a reality where multidisciplinary creativity is now the norm rather than the exception. In an era of immersive installations, VR performances, and AI experimentation, Shanti’s take feels particularly timely.

For electronic producer and DJ KILIMANJARO, it’s about the senses, how visual energy feeds emotional connection. “Visual art has helped and does continue to influence my music—a lot of that is found in the senses and how people feel,” he explains. His perspective echoes one of the key themes of Electric Dreams: technology is not just about hardware and software, but about transforming human experience.

Supported by Gucci and Anthropic, Electric Dreams looks back at our technological journey so far, and looks forward to imagine the future. Recognising that the questions artists were asking decades ago around tech, identity, and society are more urgent than ever. As Val Ravaglia, the exhibition’s curator, said: “Many of the works in Electric Dreams were at the cutting edge of what was technically possible when they were first made, and this is a rare opportunity to see them back in action in the 21st century. It’s been a complex process restaging so many installations and kinetic machines powered by retro technology, but it’s been wonderful seeing visitors discover and experience the amazing effects these artists created.” Connecting the legacy of early tech-art pioneers with a new wave of musicians and creatives who are pushing boundaries in their own right, Electric Dreams is an unmissable experience.

Electric Dreams is open at the Tate Modern until 1st June, find out more here. 16-25? Join Tate Collective to get £5 tickets for all Tate exhibitions, including Electric Dreams. Plus, enjoy 20% off food and drink at all Tate cafés and bars, 10% off at Tate Shop (online and in-store), and be the first to know about unmissable free events and creative opportunities. Sign up for free today here. Listen to Shanti Celeste, Girls Don’t Sync and KILIMANJARO‘s Electric Dreams inspired playlists below now.