Twenty Nine Of The Best Recordings I Never Got Round To Making (2012)
labelled cassettes
50cm x 12cm x 8cm
Twenty nine cassette boxes each with a typewritten label on the spine. The labels come from a book of potential titles collected by the artist since May 2007, the majority of which have never been used.
Shown at On The Ledge gallery, London, July 2012.
For Posterity (2012)
Annotated documents, tape machine.
Dimensions Variable
Found footage of a family’s audio journal from 1958-1967 plays from a reel-to-reel tape machine. Documents on the walls detail the artist’s attempt to make contact with the family having found the tapes discarded. Names are blanked from the documents and occluded with sine tones on the tape.
Shown at SoundFjord, London, March 2012.
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Your Luton Symphony (2011)
Record players, dubplates, amplification.
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by Luton Culture as an installation for families, this interactive, multi-channel work consists of ten record players each with a dubplate of a field recording from around the local area. Visitors are invited to play the records individually or in combination to create their own abstract soundtrack for Luton.
Shown at Luton Summer Festival, August 2011.
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Y Gwylwyr (Sentinels) (2011)
Microphones, solar panel, electronics, headphones.
2m x 2m x 3m (approx)
Site-specific installation in rural West Wales: contact microphones in two elevated bird-houses are amplified to a pair of headphones by solar power, each unit feeding to a different stereo channel. Environmental sound is amplified and subtly distorted through the reverberant characteristics of the bird-house chambers.
Shown at Rhôd, West Wales, June 2011.
And a Word Carries Far (2011)
Annotated book, microphone, headphones, electronics
1m x 1m x 1.5m (approx)
“There is a weird power in a spoken word… And a word carries far — very far — deals destruction through time as the bullets go flying through space.”
- Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim
Site-specific installation for the LV21 decommissioned Light Ship. Viewers are invited to read aloud from a copy of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim in which phrases relating to either sound or sea collisions have been underlined. The signal from the microphone is amplified inside a large metal tank two decks below, picked up again by a stereo pair of microphones and fed back into the headphones, causing a long, metallic reverberation effect.
Shown at LV21, Gillingham, Kent, April 2011.
Visitor Centre (2010)
Excavations, display cabinet, found objects, solar amplifiers, speakers, audio guide.
12m x 25m x 2.5m (approx)
A large scale site specific installation as the culmination of a twelve week residency. Outside, excavations, objects uncovered, a monolith, architectural features turned into microphones, solar panels, various numeric labels. Two sheds, the first containing a display cabinet showing archaeological finds and a composite record made of shards of shellac records set in resin; The second contains a sound installation with three speakers, each amplifying the environmental sound, via microphones utilising the sites’ archetectural features and purpose-built solar-powered amplifiers.
In addition, two portable mp3 players allow visitors to listen to an “audio guide” consisting of a composition made from field recordings, improvisations with objects at the site and samples from broken record pieces excavated from the site.
Shown at The Rea Garden, Birmingham, September 2010.
Three Artefacts (2010)
Record players, dubplates.
2.5m x 0.5m x 1m (approx)
Three record players each with a dubplate of a sound recorded at The Rea Garden, a former industrial site in Birmingham. Viewers are invited to play the sounds either individually or in combination. Listen here.
Shown at Solihull Gallery, September 2010
Magical Worlds of Melody (2010)
Records, nails, matches, dirt, record sleeves, wood.
Dimensions variable
A college of cut-up record sleeves and several records which have been altered or retextured. The college features the words “Magical Worlds of Melody” arranged in different permutations. Various records are coated with dirt, have nails attached or have burn marks. The elements can be displayed in different combinations.
Individual elements refer to works including Man Ray’s Cadeau, Robert Rauschenberg’s Dirt Painting for John Cage and Brion Gysin’s permutation poems.
Shown at Contact Theatre, Manchester, May 2010.
Untitled (2010)
Tape machines, three channel audio.
Dimensions variable.
Three reel-to-reel tape players placed within the space play a three-channel audio piece through their speakers. The sounds come from edited-down found recordings from approximately 1958 to 1975, and feature children and adults singing and speaking nursery rhymes alongside various clicks, crackles, rumbles and hums.
Shown at Kraak, Manchester, April 2010 and Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Art, February 2011.
Ring a bell until you tell yourself to stop (2010)
Tape machine, tape loop, bell.
1m x 3m x 0.4m (approx)
A reel-to-reel tape machine plays a loop of sounds from a bell recorded at different tape speeds to give different pitches. The bell which was used to make the sounds acts as a capstan for the tape loop. The title of the work is also the instruction that the piece was made in response to. This piece was made as part of sixty_six_events.
Shown at Islington Mill, Salford, January 2010.
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Untitled with Records and Hammer (2009)
Workbench, records, hammer.
1m x 1m x 1m (approx.)
Viewers are invited to smash a vinyl record with a hammer on a workbench. The diminishing pile of unbroken records and the growing amount of detritus form part of the installation. The records used are unsold copies of a release from the artist’s former band.
Shown at Kraak, Manchester, December 2009 and AC Institute, New York, September 2011.
Stutter (2009)
Microphone and stand, headphones, books, electronics.
1m x 1m x 2m (approx.)
Visitors are invited to read into a microphone from children’s books while wearing headphones. The sound from the microphone is delayed and fed back to the reader, mixed with masking white noise. This causes them to stutter and slur their speech.
Shown at Kraak, Manchester, December 2009 and AC Institute, New York, September 2011.
Long Railing (2009)
Video
6’07”
A drum stick is run along a long railing creating a monotonous, rhythmical sound. The railing was used as a physical score for making the sound recording, which was recorded by the aritst using a hand-held audio recorder. The viewpoint of the camera was chosen to suggest a narrative.
Shown at Outlet (temporary gallery space), Manchester, 2009.
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Untitled (2008)
Bottles, cotton thread, audio.
3m x 1m x 2m (approx)
Found bottles are hung from cotton thread at heights determined by the numbers on their bases. A corresponding sound recording consists of the pitched down sound of each bottle being tapped, assigned a note over four octaves according to the same numbers. The work was the culmination of a pseudo-scientific/archeological investigation into the properties of the bottles.
Shown at ArToll, Bedberg Hau, Germany, January 2009 and AC Institute, New York, September 2011.
