Every biennial year NOISE invites a panel of leading creative professionals across each major creative discipline to select the best work submitted to NOISE Festival for media showcase. Each curator selected 5-10 pieces of work as their top choices during the summer of 2008, and gave individual feedback on their selections. Curators' choices were announced during the festival in October 2008.

Click here to see the NOISE 2008 Curator Choice artists in our smashing interactive, Curators gallery!

NOISE 2008 Curator for Graphics and New Media, James Sommerville, is the co-founder of Attik, a company that has evolved design sensibility.
By the mid-90s, the company became known for working in just about every medium conceivable, from broadcast to Web to music videos.
James is currently the Group Creative Director and maintains his involvement in all European projects.
He has already showed his support towards young creative talent by conceiving the world's first creative industry-based Master's Degree course (in partnership with the University of Huddersfield) to help nurture postgraduate creatives from around the world to become tomorrow's commercial talent. So he's sure to fit right in with NOISE!

NOISE 2008 Curator for Music, Mercury Prize-winning indie singer-songwriter Damon Gough (nicknamed Badly Drawn Boy) was named in Q magazine list of "50 Bands To See Before You Die" in 2002.

Gough's recording career began in September 1997 with the five track vinyl release "EP1"
With 4 successful albums, and film music score under his arm Damon went on to record his recent album 'Born in the UK'.

NOISE 2008 Curator Zaha Hadid, is an architect who consistently pushes the boundaries of architecture and urban design. Her work experiments with new spatial concepts intensifying existing urban landscapes in the pursuit of a visionary aesthetic that encompasses all fields of design, ranging from urban scale through to products, interiors and furniture. Best known for her seminal built works (Vitra Fire Station, Land Formation-One, Bergisel Ski-Jump, Strasbourg Tram Station, the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, the Hotel Puerta America (interior) in Madrid, the Ordrupgaard Museum Extension in Copenhagen, and the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg, her central concerns involve a simultaneous engagement in practice, teaching and research.

NOISE 2008 Curator for Photography, Richard Billingham, who studied at the RCA, is best known for his final show which featured gritty documentary photos that he later revealed were of his own family. In 1997 he was included in Saatchi's Sensation show of young British artists at the Royal Academy in London. In the same year he won the Citigroup Photography Prize.

Richard, originally from Birmingham, was shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2001, for his solo show at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. The prize is widely recognised as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe. More recently he has completed a body of photographs and video pieces about the psychological effects of captivity on zoo animals. A major survey show of Billinghams photography and video work was exhibited in Melbourne, Australia earlier this year. He now lives and works in Brighton, UK.

NOISE 2008 Curator for Product Design, Tom Dixon was born in Tunisia in 1959 and grew up in London from the age of four. A true pioneer in design, Dixon attended Chelsea Art School for six months before a motorbike accident cut short his artistic ambitions and left him in a hospital bed for three months. After dropping out of school, Dixon spent two years as a musician until yet another motorcycle accident left him unable to play. When he was 20, he organised events on the 'Favolous' English party scene "? a lifestyle that gave him plenty of time in the day to experiment with welded structures and put into practice the skills he'd acquired while mending his bike.

As a self-educated maverick his only qualification is a one-day course in plastic bumper repair, Dixon dismisses the need for formal education when it comes to design, and instead stresses the importance of making something that is both unique and desirable. In 1991 he founded his own studio 'space' and launched 'Eurolounge', a series of multifunctional furnishing items. During the 90s he conceived a number of exhibitions on 'Creative Recycling' and designed objects and interiors for the likes of Jean-Paul Gaultier, Ralph Lauren and Vivienne Westwood..

Dixon's work is part of the collections of London's V&A, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the MOMA in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and the Vitra in Basle. The designer won the Millennium Mark for Great British Design in 1998 and was awarded an OBE for services to British Design in 2000. He currently leads his own design shop, is part owner of the Finnish firm Artek and is Head of Design for major retailer Habitat.

Warp Film, NOISE 2008 Curator for moving image was established by Steve Beckett, founder of pioneering indie record label Warp Records, and Mark Herbert, Warp Films is behind some of the most exciting pieces of British filmmaking in the last five years.

In 2003, Warp won the Best Short Film BAFTA for the Chris Morris short 'My Wrongs # 8245 "? 8249 and 117'. This success was followed up a year later with Warp's first feature, Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes. The film garnered eight nominations from the British Independent Film Awards, and won the Hitchcock D'Or at Dinard Film Festival and the Southbank Show Award for Best Film.

In 2006 Warp produced This Is England, again by Shane Meadows. The film grossed over $4 million internationally, scooped Best Film at the British Independent Film Awards and Best British Film at the BAFTAs. And at the same award ceremony Warp collected its third BAFTA, with Paddy Considine's directorial debut Dog Altogether won Best Short Film.

Warp Films has produced two music videos for Arctic Monkeys, and also collaborated on the short film Scummy Man starring Stephen Graham, which won Best Music Video at the 2007 NME Awards.

Warp Films is currently working on new projects with Shane Meadows and Chris Morris, as well as Chris Cunningham, the man behind the infamous music video 'Come To Daddy' by Aphex Twin, and David Slade, Director of Hard Candy.

Warp X is a brand new digital venture for Warp Films. The first two releases from the digital-only slate, Donkey Punch and A Complete History of Sexual Failures, played at the Sundance Festival and were released in the UK in summer 2008.

Bless Beats is the youngest ever curator for NOISE. At just 21, the London-based Grime producer already had seminal releases 'A Hard Day's Graft' and 'My Mistakes' under his belt before being propelled into the mainstream as producer and co-writer of 2008's biggest crossover hit, Wiley's 'Wearing My Rolex', leading to a worldwide publishing deal with Sony ATV.

A resident of Bow, the Mecca of the London Grime scene, Bless fine-tuned his producing skills at East London's club night 'Who The F*ck Said Dance Was Dead?' and has collaborated with the likes of Yo Majesty, Fat Man Scoop, DJ Ironik and Princess Superstar. Bless Beats' debut album for his Presidential Sounds project with label partner Most Wanted is set for 2009.

Bless Beats was included in the MTV Base 'About To Blow' showcase and featured in DJ Mag, Dazed & Confused and NME. His single 'Sex In The City' featuring Janee and Tinchy Stryder is currently enjoying success on Radio 1, 1XTRA and BBC Asian Network. Tim Westwood was spot on when he called Bless Beats 'the one to watch'!

NOISE 2008 Curator for fashion, Noki, is an artist, visionary and conceptualist frockmacker who creates sustainable one-off fashion, inspired by street art. His Early Nineties T-shirt dresses were distressed, punched, tagged, gaffer taped, inverted and labelled with messed up brand logos like "No Coco"? from Coca Cola or "Hard Cock"? for Hard Rock Caf?. Noki's trademark balaclava masks are used for all of his media interviews and public appearances as a stand against celebrity culture.

When the former art student from Aberdeen settled in London, he worked as an MTV stylist and hung out with fellow fashion designers and party heads Fee Doran and Giles Deacon. His first catwalk show in 2002 was held in a derelict East London music hall with quirky fashion pieces that were made from 100% recycled materials.

Since his first catwalk show Noki turns urban spaces into art installations, plastering the walls with paintings, prints and graffiti; creating a unique stage for fashion and live music performances. His latest venture brings the master of re-invention back to East London, where he set up a workshop/ vintage store/ fashion gallery, welcoming visitors to his NHS. The "Noki House of Sustainability"? promises to rejuvenate fashion victims under the supervision of "Dr Noki"? and his staff nurses behind the sales counter.

NOISE 2008 Curator for Fine Art, Norman Rosenthal is responsible for transforming the Royal Academy into a vibrant success over recent years.
Norman worked at the Royal Academy for a fantastic 31 years making it into a world class venue for contemporary art. Rosenthal also initiated a cycle of survey exhibitions of 20th Century work that promoted the Academy to the first division of exhibition venues.
He is well known for his controversial 'Sensation' exhibition which consisted of work from Charles Saatchi's collection, including controversial work by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.

NOISE 2008 Curator for Illustration, Big Active, are a D&AD award-winning creative consultancy specialising in art direction, graphic design and the management of leading illustrators and photographers. Big Active believes in creative networks. Its aim is to produce creative design and commercial art based upon ideas and with an accessible common touch.

The design team is best known for it its work in the area of music graphics including the award winning album cover for 'The Information' by Beck as well as 'Under The Iron Sea' by Keane and their collaborative creative relationship with Goldfrapp. Former Illustrator and lecturer, Greg Burne and ex record company marketing executive, Richard Newton, started the Illustration division of Big Active in 1998. Over the past decade they have established themselves as one of the world's leading resources for contemporary illustration and graphic art, working with celebrated creatives including Jasper Goodall, Kate Gibb, David Foldvari, Genevieve Gauckler, and Kam Tang.

The design team is best known for its work in the area of music graphics, including the award-winning album cover for The Information by Beck as well as Under The Iron Sea by Keane, and their collaborative creative relationship with Goldfrapp.

Former Illustrator and lecturer Greg Burne and ex-record company marketing executive Richard Newton started the Illustration division of Big Active in 1998. Over the past decade, they have established themselves as one of the world's leading resources for contemporary illustration and graphic art, working with celebrated creatives including Jasper Goodall, Kate Gibb, David Foldvari, Genevieve Gauckler and Kam Tang.

Under Greg's curatorship, Big Active has become a multi award-winning agency. In 2006, Greg Burne acted as foreman of the prestigious D&AD Illustration Award panel. In 2007, following persistent public demand, he launched the acclaimed online gallery www.productofgod.net with the aim of further establishing a market for contemporary image makers while providing a fresh outlet for their work.

NOISE 2008 Curator for Written Word, London-based novelist Niven Govinden, was born in Sussex in 1973 and raised in Surrey. He's the author of two novels: We Are The New Romantics, a break-neck take on Euro-trash culture, following two best friends as they bum around Europe; and Graffiti My Soul, a coming of age story of a mixed race 15 year old boy growing up in the Surrey suburbs.

Govinden studied film at Goldsmith's College before ending up in urban music promotion at a major label, where he stayed for over 10 years. After landing a deal for his debut novel, which received critical acclaim, Govinden decided to write full-time. His second novel, named after a Girls Aloud song and replete with hip-hop references, led to critics hailing him as the new voice of British youth culture. Govinden has been compared to Hanif Kureishi but he, like his literary hero, eschews any lazy pigeon-holing as an 'Asian writer'. Instead, his knack for vividly describing what it means to be young, bored and broke has granted him serious kudos among the likes of Bad Idea, while New Statesman even called him "gritty"?

Govinden's short stories have been published in Stimulus Respond magazine and 3:AM's anthology, 3:AM London , New York , Paris , and also broadcast on BBC Radio Three's The Verb. He's currently working hard on his third novel.