DJs, Smeejays. The dance world has moved on from staring at a middle-aged guy-in-a-baseball-cap’s shadow on an empty stage while he bangs out the tunes. From Soulwax’s awesome live album cover mixing at their Radio Soulwax gigs through to the Chemical Brothers‘ hypnotising digital images (erm, does the giant mouthing clown freak anyone else out, too?) these dance legends have amped up the art of DJing several million notches or two. But what’s next for the DJ without the odd million dollars to spend on production? Video artist and music video director Saam Farahmand could well have the answer.

Fresh from creating the world’s first visual interpretation of an album, where he revealed a series of striking audio statues for the xx’s debut, Saam has now fixed his talented eyes (and ears) on creating a new club treat.

Saam spent his summer filming hundreds of video portraits of his friends – including Dev Hynes aka Lightspeed Champion, David Dewaele from Soulwax and Jamie Reynolds from the Klaxons – bopping to their favourite track that gets them throwing their hands in the air. The resulting bank of hotsteppers will then be mixed live with the chosen tracks at the Video Portraits Party in the Wilkinson Gallery on Friday February 5th, along with a special live set from electro lords Simian Mobile Disco and an appearance by DJ Matthew Stone.

Is it music? Is it art? Whatever, the East London brigade will no doubt be out in force to play “Ooh, there’s me!” this Friday when these two worlds collide. The night will include:

A screening of Saam Farahmand’s new 20-minute film, Study After Cruel Intentions, inspired by the Simian Mobile Disco / Beth Ditto single “Cruel Intentions”.

A unique analogue and synth-infused set from Simian Mobile Disco

A DJ set from renowned artist Matthew Stone.

A performance of Saam Farahmand’s AV show, VideoPortraits.

Tickets from here.