An umbrella organisation for digital artists in Lincoln (UK) has been set up & I'm part of it. The website is fairly skeletal as yet but can be found here.

old news

Voice Peace at the Bluecoat, Liverpool was a real delight. I spent the day recording members of the public speaking a few lyrics from Give Peace a Chance with Daz Disley operating the audio equipment from the bed.
Thanks to everyone who gave their voices - from Stefan, visiting from Germany, with the lovely accent, to the group of uniformed schoolgirls who blended their voices in perfect unison, to the guy who suggested, off his own bat, that he should run from door to door shouting the words - what a great idea - to the many who let themselves be tucked under the duvet with the mic for audio effect.
The staff of the Bluecoat were all stars, too, being ultra helpful & joining in when needed. In fact, I think we all had loads of fun.
Now, to whittle down the hours of audio to something entertaining that can be heard online & in the gallery later in the month.

The 3 min mix is now up on soundcloud & a slideshow of photos on YouTube

I'm preparing for an upcoming event at the Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool. It's part of a series of installations to commemorate the Lennon/Ono bed-in of 1969. My work, " voice peace ", will entail recording groups of people speaking lyrics from Give Peace a Chance, which I will conduct & then mix into a version. Daz Disley will be assisting. Should be a lorra fun.

The evening at X-Church Gainsborough was great. Well done to Slumgothic & Marcus.
My track sounded absolutely unrecognizable - due to the immensely long reverb of the place. I think I'll be putting three versions up online: one recorded from the organ loft, one recorded at ground level & the original piece. Crazy.
Here's the organ loft version Soundcloud.

I'm composing a new sound piece for an evening of teen music/dark folk at X-church, Gainsborough. The event takes place on Saturday 16th October, 6.30 - 10.30pm, costs £4 & is the brainchild of Marcus Hammond of slumgothic .

THE MERRYWEATHER MESMERIC MOOD MODULATOR sonic event went very well at " Weekend at the Asylum " - the Steampunk festival in uphill Lincoln 10/11/12 September 2010. The room I used was a lovely, large first floor meeting room in the Victorian prison with two enormous tables which I covered with assorted items relating, I hope, to the sounds. It was daylit & had two rows of seating. My audience consisted of amazingly attired Steampunkers & members of the public whose responses to the work were, as usual, varied & fascinating.

The full audio is up on Soundcloud. & some stills are on YouTube.

I'm in the throes of composing for a new sonic event - The Merryweather Mesmeric Mood Modulator - which will be part of the Steampunk festival in uphill Lincoln.
It will take place over the weekend of 11th/12th September in the Merryweather Meeting Room - part of the Victorian prison in Lincoln Castle - a drop-in event between the hours of 2pm & 5pm on Saturday & Sunday afternoons.
On the Sunday the Castle is also free to the public as it's Heritage Weekend.

The airing of my latest sonic event - Open to Interpretation - went well at the Drill Hall, Lincoln & led to all sorts of fascinating interpretations by members of the audience ( almost none of which coincided with my original inspirations for the piece ).
It was a joy to be able to use the whole empty auditorium this time. Thanks to the Drill Hall team.

As usual, the audio is up on Soundcloud. & some stills are on YouTube.
A brief description & excerpt is on my sound installations page.

My newest sonic event - Open to Interpretation - will be aired in the auditorium, Lincoln Drill Hall on Saturday 7th August between the hours of 12 & 4pm.
As usual the audience can drop in & out as they wish throughout the afternoon & - as it's a slightly more abstract piece than usual - they can make of it whatever they will.

The version of Take Time for the European House of Arts festival went excellently. The room offered a completely different slant which some people even preferred to the theatricality of the piece's last outing. I rejigged the jigsaw set-up & it went down a ( quiet ) storm. I have to say my high point came when the Bishop had a look round!

I've uploaded slideshows of stills from this & my previous few sound installations on YouTube & the full audio is online at Soundcloud.

I'm reprising a version of Take Time for the European House of Arts cultural festival on 18th & 19th June. It's to be aired in the third floor seminar room, LPAC, Lincoln, between 1 - 4pm on both Friday & Saturday. The piece will take on quite a different tone this time as it's in a smaller room, there'll be daylight instead of theatrical lighting & there will possibly be red chairs. Hopefully, the event will still be interesting.

Take Time went extremely well at the Drill Hall Lincoln ( despite the jigsaw participation not working exactly as I had hoped ). However, the sounds were appreciated by those whose opinions I value & the visuals seemed to appeal across the board - thanks again to Ed Purle for his simple but effective lighting. .I've been asked to re-show the installation later in the year at another venue. Watch this space, as they say.

I'm now working on my newest Sonic Event - Take Time - which will be aired on Saturday March 20th in the auditorium, Drill Hall, Lincoln between the hours of 11am & 2pm. It's free. Please drop by - you can stay as little or as long as you like.
You can probably tell by the title that the event is to do with responses to the concept of time.
I'm using my usual mix of sounds ( found, archive, instruments, samples & voice )- with a visual element enhanced by dramatic lighting - &, this time, a spot of gentle, optional participation.
It should be quite stimulating in a relaxing sort of way.
Hope to see you there.

"Staged" - my latest sonic event, held at the Drill Hall, Lincoln, went off successfully & enjoyably on Saturday Nov 28th - see sound installations.

The newest news is that I'm working on my sound piece STAGED for the Drill Hall, Lincoln - Nov 28th, 11am - 2pm.
It will be an immersive, site-specific sound installation for the auditorium - playing with ideas of illusion, theatre, glamour and all not being as it seems. The sound apect is a fifteen minute looped piece using my usual mix of field recordings from the venue itself, found sounds, voice , instruments and FX. You can pop in for a brief experience or hang around for ages - it's up to you. There will be a visual element, including, I hope, some dramatic lighting.
Please be aware this installation is up for one day only, & for three hours only.

The slightly stale news is that this week, at the Collection, Lincoln, I animated & conducted a crowd to make " audience-type " sounds for Amie Slavin. She'll weave them into an installation that'll be aired on the venue's sound wall in December. I was thrilled with the experience & the evening's surreal performance/sound/art crossover. The audience seemed to have fun, too & Amie now has some rich & expressive sounds to work with.

The quite ancient news is that I have a visual art piece - 3L1 ND - up in the 20x20 exhibition at AccessSpace, Sheffield.

NOW SOLD!

Plus, I have an Autumn of sound projects to work on, including a solo installation at the Drill Hall, Lincoln & work as supporting artist to Amie Slavin for her sound piece, Audience, at the Collection, Lincoln.
Early days for both works, yet.

The oldish news is that I worked on recording & editing a cd of storytelling by Joy Pitt which is available from Tales from the Heartwood, in various galleries & the National Maritime Museum in Cornwall.

The old news is that I worked on two sound installations for June. One was aired in the foyer of AccessSpace, Sheffield, from June 19th to July 20th & was called Anagram ( for transitional space ) - inspired by the fact that " electronics " and " stone circle " are anagrams.
The other piece was heard on June 6th at SlumGothic, X-Church, Gainsborough as part of a day of noise called South West Weird. I worked with sounds influenced by the extreme acoustic of the location & called it " retort ".

The old old news is that my website is on the way to being FINISHED.
I've had the invaluable help of Deedah Design's Steve Withington who has taught me virtually everything I know in the field of HTML.

Steve suggested I learn & appreciate the code before trying my hand at anything else.
Consequently, it's been a long & slightly tortuous process but I can safely say I now understand websites from the inside out as well as the outside in.
Our tutorials have taken place at AccessSpace, Sheffield, a rather wonderful drop-in computer zone
where other assorted geeks & nerds have been only too willing to offer me the benefit of their superior knowledge & experience.
( And a special thank you must go to Martyn Eggleton, who assisted immeasurably with the addition of Mootools widgets.)

Many thanks to all.