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Electromagnetic Sound Art - “National Grid” by Disinformation + Strange Attractor [Joe Banks + Mark Pilkington]

Recorded live at New Corsica Studios - 19 Nov 2004

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_AP2LlN6E

“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

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

Electromagnetic Sound Art - “National Grid” by Disinformation

Commissioned and exhibited by Fabrica Gallery, Nov 2001

Raw video by Barry Hale - video processing by Joe Banks

“National Grid” audio by Joe Banks - first published 1996

NB: poor audio compression

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_AP2LlN6E

“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

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

Disinformation – “Antithesis”
Virtual exhibition for Schemata Art
Hosted by New Art City + Corsica Studios
March 2022 onwards (indefinite exhibition)

Full description + user guide – rorschachaudio.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/disinformation...

3D view – newart.city/show/schemata-disinformation-antithesis

Catalogue view - newart.city/catalog/schemata-disinformation-antithesis

Curated and designed by Alice Hoffmann-Fuller, the latest exhibition in Schemata, Corsica Studios’ new experimental arts platform, takes place in a 3D digital rendering of Corsica Studios, hosted by on-line gallery platform New Art City. The “Antithesis” exhibition features brand new and archival work by the highly innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation.

The Disinformation project’s exhibition for Schemata is in part inspired by the close proximity of Corsica Studios to the Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon’s iconic memorial to the electrical scientist Michael Faraday, installed, close to Corsica Studios, at the Elephant & Castle in 1961. The Disinformation sound artwork “National Grid” was first released on LP and performed live in 1996, and first exhibited as an art gallery sound installation in 1997. “National Grid” uses electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity to create a monolithic and immersive sound installation, which is conceived as a musical tribute to “the (creative) genius of electrification” [1]. The Michael Faraday memorial itself contains an electrical substation, which feeds high-voltage power to the London Underground; and it is consistent with the assertion that “art is not necessarily science, but science is always art” [2] that the original design for the Michael Faraday memorial envisaged this important work of public art as being a glass container (not, as it stands at present, a highly reflective steel box). On this basis, and in terms that are equally antithetical to the conventional wisdom of mainstream contemporary art, it can be argued that the true purpose of the architect’s original design was to enable members of the public to view what can be seen as the “real” work of art - meaning to view the electrical infrastructure.

[1] Hull Time Based Arts TOOT Festival Programme, Mute Magazine (special supplement) Oct 1999
[2] Joe Banks “The Rumble” (catalogue) Royal Society of Sculptors, March 2001

“Virtually all the physical phenomena we experience, such as light, chemical reactions, the properties of materials, and the transmission of signals along nerve fibres, are electrical in nature. In fact, the only non-electrical force we experience every day is the force of gravity.” – Harris Benson “University Physics” Wiley 1991

See also - www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/

Disinformation – “Antithesis”
Virtual exhibition for Schemata Art
Hosted by New Art City + Corsica Studios
March 2022 onwards (indefinite exhibition)

Full description + user guide - rorschachaudio.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/disinformation...

3D view – newart.city/show/schemata-disinformation-antithesis

Catalogue view - newart.city/catalog/schemata-disinformation-antithesis

Curated and designed by Alice Hoffmann-Fuller, the latest exhibition in Schemata, Corsica Studios’ new experimental arts platform, takes place in a 3D digital rendering of Corsica Studios, hosted by on-line gallery platform New Art City. The “Antithesis” exhibition features brand new and archival work by the highly innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation.

The Disinformation project’s exhibition for Schemata is in part inspired by the close proximity of Corsica Studios to the Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon’s iconic memorial to the electrical scientist Michael Faraday, installed, close to Corsica Studios, at the Elephant & Castle in 1961. The Disinformation sound artwork “National Grid” was first released on LP and performed live in 1996, and first exhibited as an art gallery sound installation in 1997. “National Grid” uses electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity to create a monolithic and immersive sound installation, which is conceived as a musical tribute to “the (creative) genius of electrification” [1]. The Michael Faraday memorial itself contains an electrical substation, which feeds high-voltage power to the London Underground; and it is consistent with the assertion that “art is not necessarily science, but science is always art” [2] that the original design for the Michael Faraday memorial envisaged this important work of public art as being a glass container (not, as it stands at present, a highly reflective steel box). On this basis, and in terms that are equally antithetical to the conventional wisdom of mainstream contemporary art, it can be argued that the true purpose of the architect’s original design was to enable members of the public to view what can be seen as the “real” work of art - meaning to view the electrical infrastructure.

[1] Hull Time Based Arts TOOT Festival Programme, Mute Magazine (special supplement) Oct 1999
[2] Joe Banks “The Rumble” (catalogue) Royal Society of Sculptors, March 2001

“Virtually all the physical phenomena we experience, such as light, chemical reactions, the properties of materials, and the transmission of signals along nerve fibres, are electrical in nature. In fact, the only non-electrical force we experience every day is the force of gravity.” – Harris Benson “University Physics” Wiley 1991

See also - www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/

Electromagnetic sound art in virtual exhibition space...

Disinformation – “Antithesis”
Virtual exhibition for Schemata Art
Hosted by New Art City + Corsica Studios
March 2022 onwards (indefinite exhibition)

Full description + user guide – rorschachaudio.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/disinformation...

3D view – newart.city/show/schemata-disinformation-antithesis

Catalogue view - newart.city/catalog/schemata-disinformation-antithesis

Curated and designed by Alice Hoffmann-Fuller, the latest exhibition in Schemata, Corsica Studios’ new experimental arts platform, takes place in a 3D digital rendering of Corsica Studios, hosted by on-line gallery platform New Art City. The “Antithesis” exhibition features brand new and archival work by the highly innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation.

The Disinformation project’s exhibition for Schemata is in part inspired by the close proximity of Corsica Studios to the Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon’s iconic memorial to the electrical scientist Michael Faraday, installed, close to Corsica Studios, at the Elephant & Castle in 1961. The Disinformation sound artwork “National Grid” was first released on LP and performed live in 1996, and first exhibited as an art gallery sound installation in 1997. “National Grid” uses electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity to create a monolithic and immersive sound installation, which is conceived as a musical tribute to “the (creative) genius of electrification” [1]. The Michael Faraday memorial itself contains an electrical substation, which feeds high-voltage power to the London Underground; and it is consistent with the assertion that “art is not necessarily science, but science is always art” [2] that the original design for the Michael Faraday memorial envisaged this important work of public art as being a glass container (not, as it stands at present, a highly reflective steel box). On this basis, and in terms that are equally antithetical to the conventional wisdom of mainstream contemporary art, it can be argued that the true purpose of the architect’s original design was to enable members of the public to view what can be seen as the “real” work of art - meaning to view the electrical infrastructure.

[1] Hull Time Based Arts TOOT Festival Programme, Mute Magazine (special supplement) Oct 1999
[2] Joe Banks “The Rumble” (catalogue) Royal Society of Sculptors, March 2001

“Virtually all the physical phenomena we experience, such as light, chemical reactions, the properties of materials, and the transmission of signals along nerve fibres, are electrical in nature. In fact, the only non-electrical force we experience every day is the force of gravity.” – Harris Benson “University Physics” Wiley 1991

See also - www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/

Electromagnetic sound art in virtual exhibition space...

Disinformation – “Antithesis”
Virtual exhibition for Schemata Art
Hosted by New Art City + Corsica Studios
March 2022 onwards (indefinite exhibition)

Full description + user guide – rorschachaudio.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/disinformation...

3D view – newart.city/show/schemata-disinformation-antithesis

Catalogue view - newart.city/catalog/schemata-disinformation-antithesis

Curated and designed by Alice Hoffmann-Fuller, the latest exhibition in Schemata, Corsica Studios’ new experimental arts platform, takes place in a 3D digital rendering of Corsica Studios, hosted by on-line gallery platform New Art City. The “Antithesis” exhibition features brand new and archival work by the highly innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation.

The Disinformation project’s exhibition for Schemata is in part inspired by the close proximity of Corsica Studios to the Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon’s iconic memorial to the electrical scientist Michael Faraday, installed, close to Corsica Studios, at the Elephant & Castle in 1961. The Disinformation sound artwork “National Grid” was first released on LP and performed live in 1996, and first exhibited as an art gallery sound installation in 1997. “National Grid” uses electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity to create a monolithic and immersive sound installation, which is conceived as a musical tribute to “the (creative) genius of electrification” [1]. The Michael Faraday memorial itself contains an electrical substation, which feeds high-voltage power to the London Underground; and it is consistent with the assertion that “art is not necessarily science, but science is always art” [2] that the original design for the Michael Faraday memorial envisaged this important work of public art as being a glass container (not, as it stands at present, a highly reflective steel box). On this basis, and in terms that are equally antithetical to the conventional wisdom of mainstream contemporary art, it can be argued that the true purpose of the architect’s original design was to enable members of the public to view what can be seen as the “real” work of art - meaning to view the electrical infrastructure.

[1] Hull Time Based Arts TOOT Festival Programme, Mute Magazine (special supplement) Oct 1999
[2] Joe Banks “The Rumble” (catalogue) Royal Society of Sculptors, March 2001

“Virtually all the physical phenomena we experience, such as light, chemical reactions, the properties of materials, and the transmission of signals along nerve fibres, are electrical in nature. In fact, the only non-electrical force we experience every day is the force of gravity.” – Harris Benson “University Physics” Wiley 1991

See also - www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/

Page 4 and (part of) page 5 from the brochure for the TOOT (Totally Out of Tune) Festival, organised by Hull Time Based Arts, October 1999. The article describes ideas and thought-processes influencing the sonic arts project Disinformation, focussing particularly on the project’s engagement with VLF radio and electromagnetic noise. The article argues that “recordings of atmospheric electromagnetic activity - radio from outside the realm of conventional broadcast activity… can be understood as a futuristic analogue of traditional wildlife recording”, and argues that “it can be productive to look beyond the pejorative associations of the word noise… because doing so exposes listeners to phenomena of surprising complexity and importance”. Similarly, in keeping with the notion of radio art as “neurological body art”, the article further states that “radio realises unprecedented synaesthetic opportunities, expanding perceptual bandwidth, and opening afferent [neural] pathways to floods of unfamiliar impulses”.

The article discusses ideas of and research by Benoit Mandelbrot, Karl Jansky, Rudolph Arnheim, Albert Einstein, Norbert Weiner, Jean Perrin, Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, Robert Helliwell and Heinrich Barkhausen, and describes the sound installations “Theophany” and “National Grid” by Disinformation. Anticipating the “Re-sounding” installation exhibited by Susan Hiller in Edinburgh 15 years later, the article also emphasises the cultural importance of the discovery of microwave background radiation - describing the so-called “echo” of the Big Bang as “the observational backbone of contemporary scientific cosmology”.

The brochure features an introduction written by the artist-curator David Toop, plus texts by Mike Stubbs and Gillian Dyson, and lists (on page 15) the contributing artists as Aaron Williamson, Alexi Shulgin, Ansuman Biswas, Benoit Maubrey, Caroline Bergvall, Charlemagne Palestine, Chris Gladwin, Eike, Erwin Stache, Gebhard Stengmuller, Hayley Newman, Helmut Lemke, James Bailey, Jean Toussaint, Jim Y Wood, Joe Banks, Jon Rose, Kevin Henderson, Kypros Kyprianou, Laurence Lane, Lone Twin, Mark Fell, Nigel Helyer, Paul Burwell, Rachel Baker & Heath Bunting, Peter Bosch & Simone Simons, Susan Philipsz, The User, Vicky Bennett and Kisspal Szabolcs. The festival also featured film programmes from EMARE and Film & Video Umbrella. Joe Banks was invited to exhibit in the TOOT Festival by Mike Stubbs (later director of FACT, Liverpool), and the festival was organised for Hull Time Based Arts by Mike Stubbs, Gillian Dyson, Rob Gawthrop and the HTBA team.

The brochure was produced and distributed as a special insert in Mute magazine, and was designed and printed in black and pale yellow… page 4 was designed with white text reversed-out of a faint yellow-and-black duotone, with the effect that one paragraph in particular was almost impossible to read. For this reason the colours in the scan posted here have been reversed to render the text readable (click on the image to enlarge). The design was produced by Tom McCarthy - later the author of “C” and “Satin Island” etc. Page 11 of the brochure (not shown) introduces the Disinformation sound installations on the Arctic Corsair museum ship.

Article copyright © Joe Banks 1999

Photo of “National Grid” - the electromagnetic sound installation by the art project Disinformation, in the basement of the Museum of Installation [art gallery], London, in July 1997. The “Soundproofs” exhibition featured installations by Joe Banks, David Clegg, Bruce Gilbert (from the band Wire) and Javier Marchán, performances by Joe Banks, Martin Creed and Keiko Owada, Bruce Gilbert, and Hayley Newman, plus a panel discussion chaired by Robert Worby (from BBC Radio 3) and the late Paul Burwell. “National Grid” was sponsored by Bowers & Wilkins loudspeakers (who also sponsored the Disinformation solo exhibition at Fabrica in 2001). This photo appears on page 157 of “Installation Art in the New Millennium” by MOI curators Nicolas de Oliviera, Nicola Oxley and Michael Petry, published by Thames & Hudson in 2003, and on page 25 of the magazine “Musica Falsa”, published in Paris in 1997 (photo by Edward Woodman and courtesy of the MOI). The opening event was attended by the artist Gustav Metzger, and by Mika Vainio (of the electronic music group Panasonic).

The “Installation Art in the New Millennium” book describes how “in his work for Soundproofs the British sound artist Joe Banks used the live frequency of the national electricity grid”, and how “the resulting compression of sound was amplified through a series of sensitive nodes [antennas] and produced a loud tremor, which vibrated through the building”. David Clegg claimed that vibrations from “National Grid” triggered car alarms in the street outside and caused masonry to fall from the front of the building.

The text from the original exhibition proposal reads as follows…

“This installation involves setting up a specially adapted shortwave radio to intercept the sine-wave radiated into the VLF radio band by alternating-current electrical supply, at its resonant frequency of 50Hz, interpret this signal, and amplify the results into a live acoustic mass via loudspeakers. National Grid manifests a genuine geomagnetic phenomenon – the electromagnetic signature of the built environment. National Grid is the ultimate realisation of Futurist noise mechanics – drawing not on a stylised simulation of industrial processes, as precedent dictates, but directly upon electricity itself as both a real and metaphorical source of creative energy.”

“Cette installation nécessite l’utilisation d’une radio onde-courtes conçue de manière à intercepter les ondes-sinus émises dans la bande très basse fréquence par le courant électrique alternatif fourni à sa fréquence résonnante de 50Hz, à l’interpréter, et à amplifier le résultat en une masse acoustique projetée dans des haut parleurs. National Grid met au jour un pur et simple phénomène géomagnétique - la signature électromagnétique d’une construction ou d’une bâtiment. National Grid est la réalisation ultimes des mécaniques sonores Futurist- élèves non sur la simulation stylisée d’un process industriel, comme le veut tradition, mais directement sur l’électricité elle-même en tant qu’elle est le sources la fois réelle et métaphorique de l’énergie créatrice” [translation as printed in “Musica Falsa”].

“National Grid” was first published on LP in 1996, and has been exhibited and performed nearly 40 times since…

www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/

Report by journalist Craig McLean from the MTV music magazine “Blah Blah Blah”, about the live premiere of “National Grid” by Disinformation, at club Disobey, 10 October 1996 [1]. The first recorded version of “National Grid” was published on the Disinformation “Stargate” LP by the avant-garde record label Ash International (an imprint of Touch Records) in 1996 (see links). The first performance was programmed at the Disobey club night by Blast First - the record company responsible for publishing artists like Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr., Suicide and Panasonic, alongside audio work by the artist Jeremy Deller, etc.

“Blah Blah Blah” was produced for MTV by Ray Gun Publishing, boasting a circulation of 120,000 copies [2] and featuring (in the case of this issue) interviews with Noel Gallagher, Robert Carlyle, Kate Winslett, Snoop Dogg and Steve Buscemi etc - giving some indication of the role that Disinformation played in influencing sonic arts practice, and in promoting what were at that time still highly controversial ideas, to audiences outside the (very small) world of the underground noise music micro-culture.

“National Grid” was also described in a full page feature covering the Disobey event, which was printed in London’s Evening Standard newspaper, with a readership of over 800,000 people. In terms of public access to information about relatively obscure technical concepts (eg - about VLF radio) and cultural trends, it’s also worth pointing out that these events took place in the earliest days of the internet - the domain name for Google wasn’t even registered until Sept 1997 - with the effect that many of the informative resources we now take for granted did at that time simply not exist.

“National Grid” was originally performed and recorded using the Upper and Lower Side-Band filter on a VLF converted shortwave radio, to musically tune interference from live mains electricity. Later versions use electric guitar pedals to tune direct-line outputs from mains electrical transformers… “Heavy Metal for the 23rd century”!

Disinformation founder Joe Banks met Craig McLean at the Disobey performance, with the photographer John Horsley visiting Joe in Tooting some time later, photographing different equipment - the photo features the Low Frequency Engineering L500 VLF receiver used to record the Disinformation track “Ghost Shells”, plus in fact the National Grid PLC team rugby shirt (donated by Tony Charles) which originally inspired the title “National Grid”.

The “small club” referred to in the article was the (moderately large) upstairs space at The Garage (music venue) at London’s Highbury Corner. Far from being a properly underground event, Blast First engaged a professional PR company to (successfully) promote Disobey to the media as an amazing “in crowd” night, attended by celebrities such as Jarvis Cocker. The event sold-out, queues formed in the street outside, and celebrity photographers from Esquire magazine and Harper's Bazaar etc were surprised to have their expectations confounded by performances from Disinformation and DJ Beekeeper (Bruce Gilbert from the band Wire).

For a full list of “National Grid” performances and gallery sound installations to date please follow this link -

www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/

[1] “Blah Blah Blah” issue 11, Feb 1997, page 4
[2] “Billboard”, 24 Feb 1996, page 94

www.discogs.com/Disinformation-Stargate/release/66465

A scan of the Disobey + DJ Beekeeper beermat can be found here -

weedsuptomeknees.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/disobey-beer...

Full page advertisement for the “Noise” exhibition at Kettle’s Yard gallery, Cambridge, Jan to March 2000. “Noise” was curated by (the artist and conservator) Adam Lowe and by (the historian of science) Prof. Simon Schaffer, and featured the “National Grid” sound installation by Disinformation, in the 13th century chapel adjacent to Kettle’s Yard, plus “The Analysis of Beauty” by Disinformation, in the Kettle’s Yard gallery itself.

“The Analysis of Beauty” was exhibited next to a video by the artist Marc Quinn, and directly opposite one of Francis Crick and James Watson’s original working models of DNA. “The Analysis of Beauty” was described as “visually sophisticated’ and “distinctive and intelligent” by Laura Moffat, writing in Art Monthly magazine, and as “particularly sensuous” by Rob Young, writing in The Wire. A short video about (a later version of) “The Analysis of Beauty” installation, as exhibited in the Georgian Gallery at Talbot Rice, Edinburgh, in Nov 2014, can be viewed here…

aestheticamagazine.com/disinformation-analysis-beauty-tal...

“Noise” featured exhibits by Tabatha Andrews, Art & Language, Charles Babbage, Stephen Baker, Joe Banks (Disinformation), Richard Barbrook and HRC, William Bateson, Evgen Bavcar, Patrick Blackett, Jerry Brotton, Soraya de Chadarevian, Adrian Cussins, John Dee, Umberto Eco, Manuel Franquelo, Peter Galison, Joy Garnett, Merrill Garnett, Joseph Grigley, Roger Guillemin, Sebastian Guillié, Mercurius van Helmont, Lynn Hershmann, Jeff Hughes, Margaret Watts Hughes, Lisa Jardine, Bill Jones, Athanasius Kircher, Bruno Latour, Malcolm Longair, Mike Lynch, Paul Miller (DJ Spooky), Gracie Ngale Morton, Iwan Morus, Sven Nebel, Joseph Nechvatal, Ben Neill, Roy Porter, Marc Quinn, Jonathan Ree, Michael Rees, Giles Revell, Kathleen Rogers, Romandson (Antirom), Brian Rotman, Tom van Sant, Lillian Schwartz, Nicola Schwartz, Robert Shannon, Ludwig van Siegen, Julian Simmonds, Paddy Japaljarri Sims, Bessie Nakamarra Sims, Brian Cantwell Smith, Luc Steels, Bruce Sterling, Josue Tanaka, John Tchalenko, Dave Tovee, John Tresch, Burhan Tufail, Stan Vanderbeek, Catherine Wagner, Piers Wardle, Peter Weibel (the director of ZKM), CTR Wilson and John Wilkins.

“Noise” exhibitions ran simultaneously at 4 different venues - at Kettle’s Yard, at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, and at the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, all in Cambridge, and at the Wellcome Collection gallery on the Euston Road in London. The exhibition was supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Henry Moore Foundation and the University of Cambridge.

The advertisement above was designed by Joe Banks, featuring a photomontage that later re-appeared on cover artwork for the Disinformation “Sense Data & Perception” CD. This advertisement was printed on page 7 of Mute magazine, issue 15, Jan 2000, alongside features by Hari Kunzru and Tom McCarthy. Thanks to Colin Banks, Georgina Brett and Simon Worthington. Umberto Eco, Piers Wardle, Paddy and Bessie Sims, and Michael Harrison (RIP).

High resolution scan - click on the image to enlarge

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]

“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]

Promotional graphics advertising the Disinformation performance at The Hayward Gallery, London, 2 June 2000. The performance took place inside “Artificial Lightning” - a hugely successful and wildly interactive sound, light and shadow installation, that since toured extensively under the revised title “The Origin of Painting”. The Hayward Gallery performance consisted of the live electromagnetic soundtrack used in the “Artificial Lightning” installation, mixed with an in-situ performance of “National Grid” (electromagnetic noise from live alternating current), mixed with (pre-recorded) sounds from the Disinformation “Stargate” recordings (radio emissions from the sun), originally released (alongside “National Grid”) by the record company Ash International in 1996. The performance was widely advertised (in for instance Time Out magazine) and physically packed, taking place as part of the “Sonic Boom” exhibition, curated by David Toop and organised by Fiona Bradley, which ran at The Hayward Gallery, April to June 2000.


Sonic Boom exhibitors included Angela Bulloch, Paul Burwell, Disinformation, Heri Dono, Max Eastley, Brian Eno, Paulo Feliciano, Greyworld, Stephan von Huene, Ryoji Ikeda, Philip Jeck, Thomas Köner, Christina Kubisch, Chico MacMurtie, Christian Marclay, Katarina Matiasek, Russell Mills, Mariko Mori, John Oswald, Pan Sonic, Project Dark, Lee Ranaldo, Scanner, Paul Schütze, Rafael Toral and Ian Walton. “Artificial Lightning” was installed directly adjacent to Brian Eno’s exhibit. Siân Ede (of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation) described “Artificial Lightning” as (quote) “way and ahead the best piece in Sonic Boom”, sci-fi author Jeff Noon wrote in The Independent newspaper that “people are fascinated by this work; it brings a shiver, a sudden recognition of death... as though we have seen or heard our own ghost”, and, writing in The Financial Times, the art critic William Packer described the Disinformation installation as “actively thrilling”.

Similar graphics were previously produced for Disinformation performances at Disobey (10 Oct 1996), The Royal College of Art (5 Dec 1996) and South London Gallery (15 Aug 1998) etc. The promotional graphics feature 3d computer models of VLF and military radio antennas, which served as de-facto Disinformation logos on various CDs and catalogues etc from 1996 onwards.

rorschachaudio.com/author-info/

Special thanks to Tim Register