“What moves as a body, returns as a movement of thought.”
“A process set up anywhere, reverberates everywhere.”
“Concepts must be experienced. They are lived.” (Erin Manning and Brian Massumi)
References
Goodman, S (2010) Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect and the Ecology of Fear. MIT
Manning. E (2009) Relationscapes: Movement, Art, Philosophy. MIT
Collins. N (2009) Handmade Electronic Music. Routledge
Treatment
A darkened room is intersected by red lasers – malignant entities, whose role is uncertain. As visitors enter the space, their bodies activate the room installation. At the centre of the space, a black monolith is picked out by a single white spotlight – three sub-bass speakers are incorporated into this dense sculptural form and the room is filled with a thick wash of bass, sub bass and, sub-sub bass frequency. A feeling of dread denseness, at one time a comforting, unifying physicality, at another a malevolent force creating queasiness, claustrophobia and paranoia. The monolith draws visitors towards it like a black hole. Unknown to the them, the space is intersected by invisible lines of directional audio streams. As they move through the space these virtual channels of paranoiac transmissions, sinister and dreadful streams of intrasubjective terror, are seemingly broadcast into their skulls.
Dr Steve Goodman’s recent publication ‘Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect and The Ecology of Fear’ will provide the experimental theoretical backbone of the proposed work. His discourse unifies a number of areas which are of great interest to me at this time: afrofuturism, entertainment-military sound practices, dub culture and urban experience. The curators approached me with a concept of ‘paranoia’, this, and Goodman’s work slotted together to provide me the inspiration for the proposed piece.
Construction by Don McLoglin and Oliver Gentili http://www.coroflot.com/o_gentili
Custom Circuitry by Michael Fisher, Lisa Hall and Ariel Karsh.
Lasers provided by Will Laslett
Thanks to Joel Cahen, Barbara Fuchs, Caroline Christie, Julia @ ASC and Kirk Woolford. Without whom, this would not have been possible. Diolch yn fawr.
Car Audio Power a car amp from the mains.
Skytronic 13.6V, 15A DC Regulated Power Supply
Juce JA 990 3000W Two channel Amp
2 x Audiobahn 15″ Drivers (AW1500V)
Infrasound
“Recent interest in the potential adverse human health effects of infrasound (generally inaudible sound with a frequency of <20 Hz) arises from health concerns expressed by the residents of Kokomo, Indiana. Several individuals in this community have complained of subjective non-specific symptoms including annoyance, sleep disturbance, headaches, and nausea. These symptoms are perceived by the individuals to be due to a low-frequency hum-like noise in and around their homes that is not clearly audible to everyone. Several local, state, and federal agency officials as well as acoustic experts in the academic community and private sector have been called upon to assist in investigating these health complaints. As yet, no firm conclusions have been reached regarding the relationship between this low-frequency noise and the residents’ health complaints."
(http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/htdocs/Chem_Background/ExSumPdf/Infrasound.pdf. Accessed May 2nd 2011)
Year: 2010
Location: Quare Gallery, London
Worktype: Sound Installation
Materials: found speakers, 5.1 amplifier, squalor, dirt, voices, granulation, resonance, darkness.
Live performance commission based around the concept of ‘source-code’ which became an econo sound installation exploring some of the theoretical writing about sound proposed by Salomé Voegelin in her Listening to Noise and Silence: toward a Philosophy of Sound Arts, Continuum Press, NY, ISBN: 9781441162076
Obstruction Placed: Position 1: (Distant from Art) (exterior)
Obstruction Placed: Position 2: (Approaching the Kunstlerhaus) (exterior)
Obstruction Placed: Position 3: (Inside the “Waterbugs” installation) (interior)
Obstruction Placed: Position 4: (Kunstlerhaus Downstrairs Hallway: In-between the “Waterbugs”, “Skype Glitch.voices (remodelled)” and “Dissolving Ghost Piano” installations) (interior)
Obstruction Placed: Position 5: (Kunstlerhaus Stairwell: Ground/First Floor: “Waterbugs” and “Dissolving Ghost Piano” installations audible) (interior)
Obstruction Placed: Position 6: (Kunstlerhaus First Floor) (interior)
Obstruction Placed: Position 7: (Kunstlerhaus Second Floor Stairwell – leading to open door to “Cat’s Cradle”) (liminal)
Obstruction Placed: Position 8: (Having Crossed the Border) (exterior)
Obstruction Placed: Position 9: Overlooking (Higer Up in the Wooded Hillside Listening Down and Around (exterior)
Materials: white cotton thread, interior, exterior and liminal space, 7 kitchen knives, 7 electric guitar strings, white spray paint,
Of the works created during the residency, ‘Cat’s Cradle’ is perhaps the most complex piece, and the hardest to describe, both in terms of process and in its final form. There are several strands of thought running through this piece, and is the most conceptual and non-sound related work I have created to date. The initial concept for the piece was a direct result of my being detained at the hands of the British Transport Police when leaving King’s Cross Eurostar. I was thinking of a way of evoking an idea of a journey, and a means of expressing obstacles placed in the way of the traveller. This idea came from the concrete experience, but took on a different meaning as I explored the KHSB.
