I've been about 10 digests behind for the last few weeks; finally caught
up.
Anyway, although I've been speed-reading the list traffic, there didn't seem
to be any mention of the Sonic Boom exhibition at the South Bank Center in
London, which closed a couple of weeks ago.
I was pretty impressed, and made (unfulfilled) plans to go a second time.
For me, highlights were:
* Brian Eno's "Quiet Club" installation: I'm a sucker for this sort of
stuff, and could have just sat there for ages, though my friend wasn't
so keen (hence the planned revisit). Nothing particularly new, though
much more use of vocal textures than in "equivalent" works such as
"Thursday Afternoon" & "Neroli"
* Paul Schuetze's "Third Site" installation: a small room with abstract
colour projections over the walls; a glassy floor over sketches &
descriptions of the site; his trademark jazz/rhodes-tinged ambience.
* Scanner's collaborative installation: a projection of butterflies,
positioned as if pinned for display, changing about twice a second;
gentle ambience that was beginning to become more harsh & industrial as I
left the room; the butterfly images become mesmeric.
* A balcony looking out on the concrete beauty of the South Bank Center,
installed with overhead wires which "broadcast" a variety of outdoor/
jungle noises which were picked up by (modified) headphones; the effect,
as you wander around, being that the different sounds fade in and out.
* A wall coated with photosensitive paint and a number of powerful flash
units set up to trigger in unison every few minutes; people would pose
against the wall (often in silly positions and too early, so they'd begin
to totter) & the flashes would leave overlapping shadows on the wall
which would slowly fade; accompanied by a mad-scientist modulated sine
which peaked at the flash moment (and which was an annoying intrusion
into the Eno room); slightly evocative of Hiroshima.
The art gallery solemnity was lightened on a number of occasions by my
friend's comment, in an Ali G style(e): "I'm just going to add a little bit
of drums...". Kinda true, pretty funny, and rather infectious: I ended up
saying it a lot too.
-- Richard
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