BigShinyThing

Last night we went to Cybersonica‘s Late at Tate night. Some very fine things, including loops of Illustrious‘s spatialised audio in the Rotunda, accompanied by visuals from Body>Data>Space (shown above), and the Modified Toy Orchestra‘s set of circuit-bending retro electronica, fittingly introduced by Brian Duffy as

No laptops, no MIDI, no instruments that work.

All good stuff. We’ll be uploading more pix after Easter. And of course there are already many photos from others on Flickr and some footage (not ours), on YouTube. Enjoy.

[Thanks as always to Lisa Devaney]

For the next four months, some of the most interesting sound artists working in the UK are on tour, under the banner of Future of Sound (FoS).

Crossover stars such as Scanner, field recordist Chris Watson (ex Cabaret Voltaire) and the Modified Toy Orchestra are performing alongside less well-known artists deserving of a wider audience. And that’s exactly what FoS hopes to offer. If not exactly music for the masses, FoS is about getting experimental, exploratory sonic art in front of punters, not academics.

BST was fortunate to be invited to the FoS launch [thanks again to Lisa Devaney], where we had a chance to hear more about the project from organiser Martyn Ware. He describes the tour (see the FoS calendar for dates) as an opportunity for the artists involved to refine works in progress, while reaching a UK-wide audience.

The tour focus is on sound in space. 3D surround systems designed by Ware and Vince Clarke (see previous interview) are an integral part of the experience — as is enthusiasm for cross-disciplinary collaboration and experiment. Consider for example the work of conceptualist Brian Duffy:

A new musical instrument that uses six specially adapted telescopes; sensors built into the eye pieces convert the light from stars into sound — this information returns to a central control panel, allowing each sound to be manipulated and played in real time…

As Duffy (pictured above, with one of his circuit-bending toy hacks) sees it, today’s segmentation of creativity and thought into categories of ‘science’, ‘art’, or ‘music’ is a modern constraint:

400 years ago you had to make your own instruments and tools, whatever you needed.

Duffy’s spirit of convergent co-creation is at the heart of what promises to make the Future of Sound tour something special.

Tickets are selling fast. Check dates, and book early. Prepare to be awed.

[update 25 Jan: The BBC has some footage...]

Philip Worthington’s Shadow Monsters is an updated digital version of shadow puppets where participants’ hand shapes are augmented with animation and sound — kind of like an interactive Vib Ribbon. There are more sounds and visuals on Worthington’s website.

We were charmed also by pe lang & zimoun‘s untitled sound objects — a scattering of solenoids earnestly tapping out a death watch beetle stacatto in an echoey stairwell.

This exhibition is just one strand of the Cybersonica festival of music, sound, art and technology, which itself [like seemingly everything good in London this week], is affiliated with the Encompass electronic music festival.

Check out the shadow monsters and the rest downstairs at Phonica Records, 51 Poland Street, London.