The Flickr Artscatalyst Image Generatr

De Britse kunstenaar onderzoekt in zijn werk de microfiche als medium. Hij ontwikkelde zijn 'microzine' over het laboratorium Hades, een experimentele site onder de Kempense grond waar onderzoek wordt gedaan naar de geologische opslag van radioactief afval in België. Hij wijst op de lange bewaartijd van microfiches in tegenstelling tot vele digitale opslagmedia.
i.s.m. Arts Catalyst, Z33, Belgische Nationale Instelling voor Radioactief Afval en verrijkte Splijtstoffen NIROND/NIRAS.
Photo by Kristof Vrancken

The quote “while art is not necessarily science, science is always art” first appeared in the introduction to the catalogue for “The Rumble” exhibition, curated by Joe Banks, staged at the Royal Society of Sculptors (formerly Royal Society of British Sculptors), London, March 2001. The quote also appears on page 55 of the book “Rorschach Audio - Art & Illusion for Sound”, published in 2012, in “Shoppinghour” magazine, issue 10, spring 2013, and appears in a booklet entitled “If you could give 200 words worth of advice to a Fine Art student in 2015”, published by the University of Leeds (in conjunction with the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds Art Gallery, Pavilion and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park), May 2015...

www.flickr.com/photos/disinfo/29864046243/

“The Rumble” exhibition and catalogue were sponsored by the Arts Council England and by the Royal Society of Sculptors. The catalogue also features a commentary entitled “Art & Science - Towards a New Unity” by the art critic Andrew Lambirth. The “Rorschach Audio” monograph was sponsored by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, and produced during an AHRC funded Research Fellowship at Goldsmiths College and the University of Westminster. “The Rumble” catalogue is out-of-print, although available in the library of the Courtauld Institute.

Original promotional graphic for the “National Grid” performance by Disinformation, staged at the Royal College of Art, London, 5 Dec 1996. This second ever presentation of “National Grid” was performed live by sound artist Joe Banks, and organised for the RCA by Jon Wozencroft. “National Grid” was performed using a VLF converted shortwave radio, to intercept and to make audible the ambient electromagnetic waves, which are generated by live mains electricity, and which surround us, normally undetected, in the environment. The fundamental resonant frequency of mains alternating current is standardised at 50Hz, however, in performance, the output signals from the radio were tuned to different musical frequencies using the upper and lower sideband filter (effectively a kind of electronic pitch-shifter or ring-modulator) on the radio. Later versions of “National Grid” used live outputs from mains electrical transformers as the source of the 50Hz signal.

The first “National Grid” performance at club Disobey, 10 Oct 1996, received publicity in The Evening Standard newspaper, and in the MTV music magazine “Blah Blah Blah” (the documentation will be posted here in due course).

This graphic also appears on page 25 of “Noisegate” magazine, issue 5, published 1996. The magazine also features a review of a sound installation by Christina Kubisch at the Sonambiente Festival, Berlin, in 1996 (which seems to have featured amplified street sounds and construction site noise), and features an advertisement for a performance by Christina Kubisch, scheduled for the following year, to be held at the Goethe Institut in London. Nearly a decade later, Christina Kubisch presented her “Electrical Walks”, in collaboration with the Goethe Institut and South London Gallery - the latter having published a recording of “National Grid” on their “Sound Factory” CD in 1998. For more information about the earlier project please follow this link -

www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/

“Pulsing sub-bass audio suggests associations with the most primal anthropomorphic element in music - the rhythms of the human heart, with foetal and infant hypnagogic sense memories, with seismic activity, the rumble of thunder (Jimi Hendrix claimed that his earliest childhood memory was of a thunderstorm) and even with war. Disinformation's National Grid is a sub-bass installation sourced either from the ambient VLF field radiated by electricity pylons and mains circuits, or directly from the output cables of mains transformers. National Grid offers live physical evidence of environmental electromagnetic pollution, a demonstration of the intrinsic musical properties of alternating current, beat-frequency effects, the architectural acoustics of its own exhibition space, a formula for the realisation and suppression of Futurist sound art, a cathartic response to the pressures of urban life, a monolithic soundtrack for the genius of electrification and for the bitter conflicts between government and organised labour for control over the nation's electrical infrastructure.” - Disinformation “Stargate” + “National Grid” LP - Ash International, Ash 3.2, copyright © 1996

“London was the capital of the electricity of the mind” - Geoffrey Grigson © 1957

Disobey, Holloway, London, 10 Oct 1996
Royal College of Art, Kensington, 5 Dec 1996
Museum of Installation, Deptford, July 1997
South London Gallery, Camberwell, 15 Aug 1998
Nuclear Warfare Command Centre, Anstruther, 25 Sept 1998
Lux Cinema, Hoxton, 9 Dec 1998
Volksbühne, Berlin, 27 June 1999
ZKM, Karlsruhe, 16 July 1999
Arctic Corsair, Hull, Oct 1999
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, Jan to March 2000
Sonic Boom, Hayward Gallery, 2 June 2000
The Dom, Moscow, 26 Sept 2000
Fabrica, Brighton, Nov to Dec 2001
The Royal Institution, Mayfair, 22 May 2004
Corsica Studios, Elephant & Castle, 19 Nov 2004 *
The Guardian Science Writers Xmas Party, 13 Dec 2004 *
Hull Art Lab (Humber Street, Kingston-upon-Hull) 4 Feb 2005 *
Cargo Nightclub, Hoxton, 17 Feb 2005 *
The Foundry, Hoxton, Oct 2005
Westbourne Studios, Notting Hill, 18 Sept 2006 *
The Junction, Cambridge, 27 April 2007 *
Centre for Life, Newcastle, 5 March 2008 *
Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, NZ, Aug 2009
When the Dust Settles, Dalston Bunker, Oct 2010
Living Rooms, Auckland, NZ, April 2011
Frequency Festival, Lincoln, Oct 2011
Usurp Gallery, Harrow, 8 Nov 2011
GV Art, Marylebone, Nov to Dec 2013
Inspace, Edinburgh, 29 Nov 2013
Le Bon Accueil, Rennes, Oct to Nov 2014
The Auricle, Christchurch, NZ, Feb 2015
The Morgue, Chelsea College of Arts, 16 March 2017
Assembly of Disturbance, Shoreditch, 7 Oct 2017
Gallery 46, Whitechapel, 15 Feb 2018
Kino Siska, Ljubljana, 21 March 2018
CMK, Koper, 22 March 2018
Caponier Tunnel, Newhaven Fort, 22 Sept 2018
Antithesis, Schemata Art, Elephant & Castle, March 2022
Ealing Extranormal Volume 22, 16 Dec 2023
Farsight Collective, St. Giles, 11 + 12 Oct 2024

* Disinformation + Strange Attractor

soundcloud.com/erratum_musical/disinformation-national-gr... -
[listen with headphones or good quality hi-fi loudspeakers]

HeHe - Metronome
MOSI Manchester
(Museum of Science & Industry) 08/2012

HeHe - Metronome
MOSI Manchester
(Museum of Science & Industry) 08/2012

HeHe - Metronome
MOSI Manchester
(Museum of Science & Industry) 08/2012

HeHe - Metronome
MOSI Manchester
(Museum of Science & Industry) 08/2012

HeHe - Metronome
MOSI Manchester
(Museum of Science & Industry) 08/2012

HeHe - Metronome
MOSI Manchester
(Museum of Science & Industry) 08/2012

HeHe - Metronome
MOSI Manchester
(Museum of Science & Industry) 08/2012

HeHe - Metronome
MOSI Manchester
(Museum of Science & Industry) 08/2012

HeHe - Metronome
MOSI Manchester
(Museum of Science & Industry) 08/2012