Centrala presents Digital Nostalgia, a new audio-visual installation created in collaboration with West Midlands-based artist _kyjhi, produced and curated by Centrala
Digital Nostalgia reimagines Birmingham through the aesthetics of retro game design. Using low-resolution textures, low-poly models, and the distinctive visual grammar of 90s and early 2000s consoles, the exhibition transforms everyday urban spaces, tower blocks, graffiti-covered walls, underpasses, into haunting digital landscapes. The result is a city both familiar and distant, blending memory and simulation in unexpected ways.
Accompanying the visuals is a specially composed ambient soundtrack by _kyjhi, crafted to deepen the atmosphere of the installation. This meditative, melancholic soundscape invites visitors to move slowly through the space, engaging with the city from a new, dreamlike perspective.
Known for their work across digital art, music production, and photography, _kyjhi has gained a strong following online for their distinctive renderings of Birmingham, capturing the poetry in its everyday architecture. Digital Nostalgia marks the first time these works are presented at scale — shifting from phone screens to immersive projection, revealing new details and dimensions that can only be experienced in person.
Join Centrala on Friday 6 June, 6–9PM, for a special launch as part of Digbeth First Friday, and explore this unique vision of Birmingham through sound, image, and memory.