A decade ago, Dots+Loops was a one-person operation.

“It started because there was this combination of me feeling like a square peg in a round hole musically and finding an amazing community that felt the way that I did,” founder Kieran Welch tells Limelight.

A performance for Dots+Loops. Photo supplied

“I was also starting to realise that what I wanted to do on a Friday or Saturday night isn’t usually to go and sit in a concert hall and be quiet for two or three hours. Sometimes that’s great, but sometimes I just want to see a gig at some random Queenslander and have a couple of drinks with my mates. I wanted to find a space that was welcoming and non-hierarchical for whoever wanted to come.”

Welch is a violist, composer, curator and DJ (and occasional Limelight reviewer) with a fierce passion for the art music scene and making sure people feel comfortable within it. These objectives were at the centre of the first Dots+Loops show. Subtitled From the concert hall to the dance floor, it was hosted in a now-gone Wolloongabba photography studio and attracted...