Glitches, Serendipity & Synths: A Conversation with Nico Antwerp

May 23

Written By DAB

Nico Antwerp is a London-based video artist with a passion for mixing digital tools in playful and unexpected ways. With a background in music and sound design, he gradually found his way into motion design and video art — shifting from thinking in milliseconds to frames.

Nico’s work often blends AI-generated imagery, video synths, After Effects, and even VR, creating vibrant and layered visuals that feel experimental, curious, and alive. He loves exploring themes like serendipity and letting the process lead the way — whether that means glitching a simple letter into a custom typeface or reimagining digital tools for something entirely new.

We asked Nico about his art, creative process, and inspirations.

Can you tell us about your background as a digital artist? How did you get started in this field?

I come from a music background, but over time my interests expanded into motion design. I started out by collaborating with Olga Makarchuk at RCA, composing music and doing sound design for her animated films. That’s when I discovered the magical world of animation and I started shifting from thinking in milliseconds to thinking in frames.

Your work has this experimental, layered feel — is there a particular theme or emotion you find yourself returning to often?

Serendipity is definitely one of the recurring themes. There’s something so exciting about starting from an experiment and ending up somewhere completely unexpected.

I enjoy pushing existing tools in new directions. For example, I recently collaborated with video artist Benjamin Sammon. We’ve worked together before, and I’ve always admired his skills with video synths, coding, and sound. One day we thought, 'why hasn’t anyone tried creating custom typography using video synths?'

We started with a simple After Effects animation of the letter A. Then Ben brought it to life with his signature glitches and analogue distortions. The process was playful. We wanted to question conventions and find new approaches to what’s already in front of us.

That same attitude led me into working with AI. While many people were generating hyper-realistic portraits and cute animals, I became more interested in generating abstract, CGI-inspired graphics.

Can you tell us about some of your favorite pieces or a past or upcoming project? What makes them special to you?

One of my favourite projects is a video I made using a macro lens borrowed by my friend Simone Lezzi at The Heath Studio in London. I poured acrylic paint, oil, and milk into a baking tray and moved the liquids with a brush while filming. It was recently screened at the OFFF festival in Barcelona.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve discovered by combining traditional video with AI or VR tech?

That AI isn’t a shortcut, it’s a material. It’s unpredictable, and often messy. But I do love mistakes. They open doors you wouldn’t otherwise notice.

What is a dream project you’d like to make one day?

I’d love to create an immersive audiovisual installation accompanied by a generative album, where every time you press play, the arrangement is different. Not just ambient music, but also genres like electronic, rock, or jazz. I think we’ll see more of this in the future as the tools evolve.

Recently, I’ve been exploring the idea of building from discarded AI generations. AI isn’t environmentally friendly, and the process often produces tons of unusable outputs. So why not recycle them?

In the future I'd like to develop an app that lets people upload their discarded AI generations and turn them into new animated video collages. A kind of creative recycling space where anyone can add visuals and receive something entirely new in return.

What is a profound childhood memory?

Rubbing my eyes to see the strange grey shapes and patterns that moved behind my eyelids. I remember my parents telling me to stop doing that. But I guess that was my early exploration in art and design: observing and experimenting with geometries, being curious about how things look from different perspectives.