Darren Shaw
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anexium.bsky.social
Darren Shaw
@anexium.bsky.social
86 followers 50 following 520 posts
Musician. Photographer. Occasional maker of short films. www.anexium.com - www.youtube.com/@darrencshaw
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anexium.bsky.social
Just put a new gallery up on the website - www.anexium.com/photos/paint.... This one is some abstract work based on the detritus from some paintings I did a few years back.
A coloured circle sits sounded by a white, blown-out background. There are splatters of colour on around the circle, almost like they've been exploded from the core coloured centre. The centre itself looks like a satellite map of a coastal region, with the land being colour yellow and green and the water-region being red at the top of the circle and blue at the bottom. A coloured circle sits in the centre of the image. It's blue and silver in colour with white dendritic lines coming inwards from the lower-left corner. Around the circle are darker regions extending towards the viewer. It's what you'd think falling into a wormhole would look like.
November 27, 2025 at 9:42 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Shot some photos at @rochdalecouncil.bsky.social's fireworks show a couple of days ago. Full gallery here - www.anexium.com/photos/firew...
A close-up shot of around a dozen - if not more - fireworks so exploding simultaneously. It looks like the leaves on a bush, only in yellow rather than green.
November 8, 2025 at 1:32 PM
anexium.bsky.social
I'm not one for Christmas jumpers, but the 303 from @sirpaintalot.bsky.social's Seasons Tweakings jumper would make for a cracking scarf.
A close in shot of a Christmas jumper. It's a green background. Along the top and bottom is a row of acid house smiley faces wearing Santa hats. In the centre is the phrase Season's Tweakings on two separate lines, with a Roland TB-303 in between.
November 7, 2025 at 12:28 PM
anexium.bsky.social
With the clocks going back tonight, here's something which might help you in the morning.
An image with four items and a description of how to set the clock back. Smartphone: leave it alone, it dies its magic. Sundial: move over house to the left. Oven: you'll need a Masters in Electronic Engineering or a hammer. Car radio: not worth it, wait six months.
October 26, 2025 at 12:34 AM
anexium.bsky.social
This setup (with a different telly) is what I wrote all the Anexium tracks on from around 1999 to 2011. After 14 years I've set it back up again and plan to rerecord all the tracks - of which there is a *lot*. There's tracks who's names I barely remember, let alone what the track sounds like.
An Amiga A1200 sits on front of a Yamaha A3000 sampler on a table. Stop the Yamaha is a small colour flatscreen television. On the screen is OctaMED V6 which is running on the Amiga. OctaMED is a tracker where each track runs vertically rather than horizontally. The image may be rotated 90° because the bluesky client is struggling to figure out which way is up.
October 7, 2025 at 10:51 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Grandpa Simpson is stood addressing them crown in the town hall. He's pointing with his left hand. He's saying "my car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I like it"
October 5, 2025 at 10:16 PM
anexium.bsky.social
I went down to photograph the artwork from Rochdale's recent Common Walls International Mural Festival. Gallery here - www.anexium.com/photos/commo...

@rochdalecouncil.bsky.social
A piece of large street art. It's called Wild Wonder by the artist Insane 51. It shows a young person looking plaintive with their head on their hand. The person is coloured in shades of red. Over the top is their skeleton painted in a team colour to create a pseudo 3d affect. The person is surrounded by red poppies. The wall the image is painted on is car park, so in the forefront are two cars - one yellow and the other silver. A large piece of street art. It's called Total Wired by the artist Epod. The image shows a young girl with shorter dark coloured hair. She has bright red lipstick on, a red and a black rectangular mark on the side of her face and large hooped earrings. She's wearing what could be a baggy, purple-coloured tracksuit, with three wite stripes down each arm. The sleeves draw in at the cuffs, revealing white flower cuffs. A simmilar 'cuff' is on the left shoulder. She's reaching out with her right hand towards the left-hand side of the image, while her left hand is directed in the other direction. Lines of colour are coming from her right hand and off the frame of the image. She has red and white wires coming off her hair, leaving frame right.
October 1, 2025 at 7:50 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Found an old image I made around 2001-ish with a couple of quotes from a live gig and a demo review. Sadly the Manchester Music website is no more, but a shout out to Mike and Jon for everything they did for that early 2000s scene.
Two quotes. They read - "One man and his dog, er I mean computer, Anexium supplies his version of dark electronica. Walls shake, eardrums bounce, and that's not all due to the bottles of Scorpion." - Ged Camera, Music in Manchester www.cameral.free-online.co.uk {Live review from '25th Summer'} "So its not dance music, but I can tell you that its highly original...whilst everyone is looking for the perfect 'block rockin' beat', someone is actually trying to find some new (and listenable) ways to take electronica a step forward." - A.S. www.manchestermusic.co.uk {Review of first demo}
September 25, 2025 at 10:29 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Did a bit of #lightpainting the other day. First time doing it with a multicoloured light wand. Kinda fun, going to do some more in the future. #photography
A light painting image. This one is coloured like a rainbow with the light exploding from a central point. A light painting image. This one is made of blue and yellow colours. They've making what appears like a stylised letter "S". A light painting image. This one is made up of a full rainbow, shakes almost like an hourglass shape. A light painting image. This one is in the rainbow colours. It's shaped like the theoretical shape of a black hole. Think of it like an inverted traffic cone.
September 20, 2025 at 10:18 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Sometimes the algorithm plays it well. Despite the caption I'm assuming these two have just won Wimbledon doubles.
A screenshot of the original opinion with another post beneath it. The lower is better Brian Groom and is a photo from 1971 by Don McPhee of two men in long coats and flat caps "sunbathing" on Blackpool beach.
August 25, 2025 at 3:50 PM
anexium.bsky.social
It does it with sayings or idioms too. If you just make up something and ask it to explain it'll just make up some random guff.
A screenshot of Google's AI just making up a nonsense meaning for the phrase "never close a purse if it's raining"
July 21, 2025 at 11:31 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Last night I went to Heywood to watch The Herds parade through the streets and into the park.

Check out the gallery - www.anexium.com/photos/thehe...

(cc: @rochdalecouncil.bsky.social)
A man in a hat holding a trombone walks ahead of a live-sized puppetry giraffe as they come down the road into the park. The giraffe is made from cardboard and plywood so doesn't have the natural colouring. At each side of the giraffe are the crowds, all slightly wowed by the specticle. A closer-up shot of the puppet giraffe. Shot from the giraffe's left side, the neck comes in from camera right with the sizeable head looking down towards the ground in the centre of the image. Three puppeteers hold a hyena. They are on the far side of the hyena, so we can get a clear view of it's left side. In the background is a puppet antelope - possibly a kudu as it has spiral horns. Again the side of the image show the crowds watching the animals pass.
July 5, 2025 at 9:59 PM
anexium.bsky.social
The most beautiful juxtaposition.
A screenshot of Dog Rates post, accompanied by a Anon Opinion post espousing how good it is to met a fart tickle you're bits when you dart in the car.
May 21, 2025 at 12:48 AM
anexium.bsky.social
Had another play with taking infrared photographs while out and about yesterday. Still need to sort out a proper processing workflow to sort out the false-colour, but they're not bad so far.
A shot of the treetop canopy. The shot is taken from high up so you can just see the tops of the trees. In the distance the horizon is a bloom of light. The leaves on the trees are various shades of blue and dark-yellow due to the false-colour processing. A shot of the treetop canopy - facing the other way than the previous shot. The shot is taken from high up so you can just see the tops of the trees. The leaves on the trees are various shades of blue and dark-yellow due to the false-colour processing. The sky has taken on a really dark blue tone. In this shot we're on a path atop a viaduct. We're at one side looking towards the far end. To the left and right-hand side the viaduct has metal safety railings. A mountain bike is in the bottom left of frame, propped up against the railings. At the end of the viaduct the path disappears into the trees. The leaves on the trees are various shades of blue and dark-yellow due to the false-colour processing, the path is shade of off-white and the railings are a bright blue. A shot looking up a narrow cobbled lane. The lane is lined by trees either side, with the light filtering through from right to left. The leaves on the trees are various shades of blue and dark-yellow due to the false-colour processing, while the path has taken on an understated shade of blue.
May 18, 2025 at 8:43 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Trim the bushes and the chimney looks bigger. No, you're being childish and smutty...
A shot of a large chimney. The kind found at old mills. We're at the base of the chimney, looking up. The chimney extends out into the blue sky. There are some bushes around the bottom of the chimney.
May 7, 2025 at 12:25 AM
anexium.bsky.social
Went down to last night's Flight of Fancy event put on by @rochdalecouncil.bsky.social as part of their Greater Manchester Town of Culture 2025/26. Here's a gallery of the Batala Manchester Afro-Brazilian samba band and Handmade Productions' large-scale puppets.
www.anexium.com/photos/fligh...
A large puppet of an owl comes towards the camera. The owl is internally illuminated, setting it off against the dusk of the environment. Below the owl is its pilot. The Batala Manchester drum band are playing outside Rochdale townhall. Their drums have lights illuminating their drums skins. In the background the large owl from the other picture is flies past.
April 11, 2025 at 8:32 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Meanwhile, on Twitter.
A Simpsons meme. We're in Apu's Kwik-E-Mart. James Woods is stood behind the counter in shopkeeper attire. A robber is pointing a gun at him. Apu is throwing himself between the bullet and James Woods. James Woods is labelled as "Elon Musk", the robber as "valid criticism" and Apu as "weird nerds".
April 2, 2025 at 8:43 PM
anexium.bsky.social
I've been in Manchester today. I took some photos - www.anexium.com/photos/manca...
Down the side of Manchester Central (nee G-Mex) and roughly on the junction with the Bridgewater Hall and Britons Protection, the walls have been clad with a white patterned set of tiles. They're very three dimensional and have a bulge that resembles a rugby ball. The shot shoes the wall in the foreground. In the background is a tower, done in a similar - yet slightly different - style. The tower's pattern is inset. The lower half of the tower is straight, while the upper takes on a set of curves - similar to branches - the interact and overlay each other.
April 2, 2025 at 8:32 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Very cloudy round here, so it was difficult to get much of the #eclipse.
A photograph of the sun. The top right-hand quarter is obscured by the moon. In the foreground there are silhouettes of tree branches.
March 29, 2025 at 11:48 AM
anexium.bsky.social
This popped up on another feed and seemed appropriate.
A cartoon. The title says "when u find a dog at the party" (sic). The image is dog lying down with a person next to them saying "how's it going down here are you ok". The art style is simple, almost childlike, with just outlines and no shading.
March 7, 2025 at 12:21 AM
anexium.bsky.social
Here's Corbel. I'm sure you all knew what it looked like... It's alright. Nothing special. Aptos is the new default that Microsoft Office now uses. Again, I'm sure you all knew that. And again, it's alright I suppose.
February 28, 2025 at 9:04 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Just found my wiring diagram for making a light controlled Atari Punk Console. Also works for making a normal version with dials. An easy build on perf board. Need 9v power.
A wiring diagram showing how to make an Atari Punk Console. Lists the parts needed and which to substitute in should you want to go with normal dials instead of light dependent resistors.
February 21, 2025 at 3:16 PM
anexium.bsky.social
I've been playing with Powershell again. This time it's a looping Lorenz Attractor where the variables are subtly changed at each run. Lacks the resolution to be of any use but it's a bit of fun. Code will be on my website at the weekend.
February 6, 2025 at 12:24 PM
anexium.bsky.social
Found the 2x extender for my 500mm lens (which is really an 800mm because it's one crop sensor). Just shot this in the back garden. #photography #moon
A close up shot of a half moon. The shadow line goes bottom left to upper right, with the right-hand side lit. The various craters and different tones of the moon's surface are nice and clear. Sadly there's no Mr Spoon visible.
February 5, 2025 at 8:35 PM
anexium.bsky.social
I've just made an analogue clock in Powershell. Not done any "proper"programming in a while so it was nice to stretch my brain again. It scales too, so you can make it any size you want - with the caveat that the screen update is slower.
February 5, 2025 at 4:25 PM