Symposium: Tune in to Reality! at the Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, 2/3 May 2024

Coming up on 2/3 May 2024 is the symposium Tune in to Reality! exploring the life and work of the artist Lily Greenham. Part of the exhibition Lily Greenham: An Art of Living that I have been fortunate enough to co-curate with Anja Casser, Andrew Walsh-Lister and Alex Balgiu, the symposium is going to feature a number of performance responses to Greenham’s work, as well as an incredible array of talks exploring different parts of Greenham’s practice and life. The event, co-hosted by Bricks from the Kiln and the Kunsteverein, also marks the launch of a new publication of Tendentious Neo-Semantics, a record by Greenham originally released by Edition Hoffman. Full information below, the event is free to access.

Tune in to Reality! A symposium on the life and work of Lily Greenham at the Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany. 2/3 May 2024.

The cover of Tendentious Neo-Semantics (1970) by Lily Greenham

Talk: Lucerne University - Practice Research

On the 2nd of May at Lucerne University, Switzerland at the School of Music, I’ll be giving a keynote on practice research as part of an excellent program that explores artistic and art education research. Details of the symposium which is free to attend can be found here.

Photograph of toaster as part of The Toaster Project by Thomas Thwaites. © Daniel Alexander 2009.

Event: Longplayer Conversation at the British Library - Sada Mire and Richard Sabin

Each year, as a way of celebrating the vision behind Longplayer’s long term aspirations, the trustees of Longplayer invite leading cultural thinkers to conduct a public conversation inspired by the philosophical premise of Longplayer, a project which unfolds, in real time, over the course of a millennium.

This year’s extraordinary speakers are Dr Sada Mire (Archaeology Professor at UCL) and Richard Sabin (Principal Curator of Mammals at the Natural History Museum)

28 Sept at the British Library, London

Tickets available here

longplayer.org

Dr Sada Mire

Richard Sabin

Event: Other Rooms, Other Voices

For further information about attending the private view on Friday January 13, or the public exhibition of Other Rooms, Other Voices please see here.

James Lovelock (1919–2022)

I was sad last week to be told of the passing of James Lovelock, who died on the 26 July, his 103rd birthday. His was a monumental mind housed in an extraordinary person, and he continues to be a huge inspiration and influence on both myself and many of those I work and collaborate with. Jim recorded a Longplayer Conversation with John Gray back in 2011, which is linked to below. What follows is a short statement from the Longplayer Trust, of which I am a trustee:

As a scientist, James Lovelock’s far-reaching, cross-disciplinary work was often innovative and sometimes controversial. This included the Gaia theory of the Earth as a self-regulating system, which he proposed in the 1960s and developed with the US biologist Lynn Margulis. The Gaia theory also points towards Lovelock’s interest in the long-term sustainability and development of our planet, which included (sometimes critical) engagement with the green movement and the corporate sector.

Each year, as a way of celebrating the vision behind Longplayer’s long term aspirations, we invite leading cultural thinkers to conduct a public conversation inspired by the philosophical premise of Longplayer, a project which unfolds, in real time, over the course of a millennium. In 2011, the Artangel Longplayer Conversation was between James Lovelock and John Gray, which can be viewed below.

The Guardian’s obituary of James Lovelock can be read here.

You can view the complete set of Conversations here.

For more about Longplayer, see longplayer.org

Publication: 'Tune in to Reality!' by Lily Greenham – Distance No Object

Lily Greenham’s ‘Tune in to Reality!’ has been republished in the last few weeks by Luke Roberts at Distance No Object. A big thanks to Luke and all involved - you can buy the book here. I’ll post more about Lily Greenham’s work in the future, especially in relation to the Lily Greenham Archive at Goldsmiths, where myself and other members of the Lily Greenham advisory board have been developing and preserving Greenham’s extraordinary work for future generations.

Lily Greenham was born in Vienna in 1924. She was a visual artist, writer, and composer, and a performer of concrete and sound poetry. You can listen to her here and here, and there’s a 1972 interview here.

Tune in to Reality! was her only published book of poems, appearing in an edition of c.100 copies from Bob Cobbing’s Writers Forum in 1974. This new edition is transcribed from the original, and presents Greenham’s wildly inventive ‘neo-semantics’ in their full glory. 23 poems, 7 translations (into German, French, Danish, and Spanish), all of them daring you to blink first.

In her own words ‘an outsider even amongst outsiders’, Greenham’s later career involved collaborations with film-makers including Lis Rhodes, and work based in computer graphics. She died in London in 2011.

This book appears with the co-operation of the trustees of the Lily Greenham Archive (Goldsmiths Special Collections), with grateful thanks.

Read an excerpt here.

(text quoted from Distance No Object)

Event: The Rising Sun by David Shearing

The last few weeks have been spent working with the studio Variable Matter, led by artist and long term collaborator, David Shearing. Shearing has been working in partnership with communities in and around Romford, East London over the last year, interviewing and celebrating the voices of 100 people in Havering, mapping their histories and futures.

This has culminated in the spatial installation work The Rising Sun, an immersive environment situated in the centre of Romford Market that envelopes audiences in haze, light, and sound, evolving as time passes. It has been a great privilege working on the piece with David, and hugely insightful exploring and composing the voices of the people involved in the project.

Technically, the piece involved developing a custom spatialised system of 52 speakers (for which I must thank Ed Borgnis and Max Hunter), from which unfolds a long durational score of voices, music and field recordings shifting and moving around the space as the day unfolds.

The Rising Sun is open 15–30 July 2022 0800–2000 at Romford Market, London RM1 3ER

For more information on visiting and to access an online version of the work, please see the project website here.

The Rising Sun - Romford Market. Photograph: David Shearing.

The Rising Sun - Romford Market. Photograph: Hannah Davis.

Review: 'Evolver' in the Independent

A 5* review of Evolver in the Independent this morning, highlighting some of the core motivations behind the work.

Event: VCS4 2022

Forthcoming on Thursday 23 June is VCS4: 2022, which is taking place at Goldsmiths, University of London. The day marks the arrival of the VCS4 synthesiser at Goldsmiths, a project I have been fortunate to take part in, alongside Simon Desorgher and Dr Marcus Leadley from Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios. Further information about the event, including a link for watching a live stream, can be found below.

VCS4: 2022
23 June 2022, 1400–2000 BST.
Curzon Cinema, Goldsmiths. University of London.

The VCS4 was built by the world-renowned Electronic Music Studios Ltd (EMS) company in London more than 50 years ago and was one of a number of synthesisers used in the 1970s by pioneers of British electronic music. This is a key element of Goldsmiths’ modular synthesizer suite at the Electronic Music Studios in the Department of Music, where it is available for use by our music students, researchers and visiting artists.

The VCS4 was built for Harrison Birtwistle’s performance of Medusa at South Bank in 1970. It was moved to the EMS studio in Putney before it was taken to the Royal College of Music by composer Tristram Cary. It was subsequently owned by Simon Desorgher, a former RCM student. The VCS4 was restored to functional order in 2006 by Robin Wood at EMS and acquired by Goldsmiths in 2019. Additional restoration and repair work has since been carried out by Steven Thomas of Digitana Electronics.

The VCS4 is based on two EMS VCS3 synthesisers – a portable analogue synthesiser developed in 1969. These were widely used by such luminaries as Delia Derbyshire, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Brian Eno, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Robert Fripp and Aphex Twin. The VCS3’s in the VCS4 have been heavily modified and incorporated into a base station featuring keyboard, external audio input mixer, and signal processing inside a wooden cabinet. It is a completely unique instrument. A second, but very different, VCS4 model is owned by Matt Black of Coldcut.

 The VCS4 was acquired for the Department by Research Associate Dr James Bulley with support from the Goldsmiths Friends and Alumni Fund. For more detailed information on the VCS4 at Goldsmiths see: https://www.gold.ac.uk/ems/resourcesie/

VC4 Day 2022 will feature performances from Lawrence Casserley, Simon Desorgher, Alina Kalancea, Olivir Haylett and Ingrid Plum. The full programme of talks and discussion for VCS4:2022 will be confirmed shortly.

See Goldsmith’s event page for updates: https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=13966

Join via livestream for a day of performances, talks and discussions featuring the unique EMS VCS4 Live Performance Module: https://youtu.be/VP4Tg_E0cCQ

Event: Evolver at Tribeca, NY

After two years of extraordinary and mind-expanding work, Evolver premieres tomorrow at Tribeca Festival in New York, where it is then open for a week. Tickets and further information can be found here. It is a genuinely extraordinary piece, and it has been a great privilege working with Marshmallow Laser Feast, Henrik Oppermann, Daisy Lafarge and Natan Sinigaglia / Imaginary Friends on this journey.

Event: City of Trees

City of Trees by Matthew Rosier is now open, and runs from 5–11pm November 4–10 2021 outside St Mary Aldermary Church in the City of London, England.

”The project seeks to raise awareness of the symbiotic relationship that has always existed between humans and forests in England. Its opening will coincide with COP26 in Glasgow in order to highlight the value of productive, truly sustainable and biodiverse forestry in addressing climate change and restoring our woodland habitat.”

The work features life-size video portraits of Oak, Beech and Hornbeam pollards from Epping Forest projected into the heart of the City, accompanied by spatial soundscapes that I have composed alongside musicians NYX (https://nyx-edc.com/) and Laura Misch (https://lauramisch.bandcamp.com/).
A commission from the City of London Corporation. Further information including a visitor guide here.

Recording session for City of Trees with Nyx and Laura Misch. Photograph: Gregory White (August 2021).

Talk: Enhancing searchability – archiving practice research

I’ll be a panellist at the following discussion surrounding the sharing and preservation of practice research, hosted by the UK Reproducibility Network on Monday 15 November 2021. Link here: https://www.ukrn.org/event/enhancing-searchability/

Here is an outline of what the workshop will be about:

This workshop will deal with some of the challenges and issues involved with documenting and archiving practice research. Some of the questions this panel will aim to address include:

- How can we ensure that practice research is fully searchable and visible in the public domain?

- Are university repositories able to host the research findings of practice research projects run within, or in collaboration with, universities in the UK?

- What kinds of practices can we design and share that allow for the most effective and efficient means of sharing the research findings of work in this area?

- How do we consider the ways in which disciplinary differences warrant different considerations in devising systems (technological or otherwise) for archiving and disseminating practice research?

Panellists

Chair: Professor Mark d’Inverno, Goldsmiths, University of London

Professor Oriana Baddeley, Former Dead of Research, University of the Arts London

Dr Lauren Redhead, Senion Lecturer in Music, Goldsmiths, University of London

Professor Bambo Syinka, Professor of Story, Bath Spa University

Dr Scott McLaughlin, Lecturer in Composition and Music Technology, Leeds University

Dr James Bulley, artist and composer, co-author of Bulley-Şahin reports on practice research for Research England (2021)

Interview: 'Still Point' on Relevant Tones

A recent interview with podcast Relevant Tones, where Shiva Feshareki and I discuss the research and work that went into the 2018 world premiere of Daphne Oram’s Still Point at the BBC Proms, is now accessible online here. Thank you to composer and broadcaster Seth Boustead for this.

'Sonic Ray' by Jem Finer

Last night I attended a launch for Jem Finer’s Sonic Ray — it is a mesmerising thing to see a laser beam of sound traversing the river Thames, journeying back and forth across darkened waters beneath it. The work opens to the public from 30 September–21 November 2021 and you can book tickets here.

Sonic Ray – a new installation produced by Artangel, celebrating the 1,000 year-long musical composition Longplayer, created by artist Jem Finer. Originally scheduled for 2020, Sonic Ray was commissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of Longplayer, which began playing from the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf at midday on 31 December 1999 and will continue to play until 2,999 when it completes its cycle as the longest piece of music in history.

From the lighthouse, a bridge of light is beamed across the river to North Greenwich, encoding and transmitting the sound of Longplayer to a new temporary listening post aboard Richard Wilson’s nautical sculpture Slice of Reality. A short ferry ride will connect the two locations, allowing visitors to experience Longplayer as a bridge of light across the river at both locations.

Built in 1864 the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf in East London was known as the “Experimental Lighthouse”, a landmark housing the workshop where Faraday conducted his optical tests. It has been the home of Longplayer for 21 years

Sonic Ray transmitting Longplayer from Trinity Buoy Wharf Lighthouse

The receiver at Richard Wilson’s Slice of Reality

Drawings by Jem finer in Richard Wilson’s Slice of Reality

BBC Radio 6 Music - Laura Misch Mix

Some recent experiments of mine with Geofóns, Hydrophones and contact microphones can be heard in this 6Music mix from Laura Misch. Listen here.

Event: Pontefract Giants – Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire, 25–26 September 2021

The weekend of the Autumn Equinox (25-26 September 2021) will see the opening of a forthcoming film-sound installation, Pontefract Giants, created with Matthew Rosier and Daisy Lafarge at Pontefract Castle, Pontefract, West Yorkshire:

Pontefract Giants will transform the castle into an immersive landscape where the ancestors of past residents of Pontefract will greet you and transport you on an expansive and poetic journey through time from the first inhabitants of the area some 300,000 years ago.

Featuring projections of current residents representing the towns ancestors, an immersive soundscape and musical score, this light and sound show will allow you to appreciate the site and history of our town like never before.

(Pontefract Castle website)

More information and tickets here.

'A Thousand Fires' by Saeed Taji Farouky

I’ve recently finished the sound design for a new film, A Thousand Fires — by director Saeed Taji Farouky. It is a visceral, temporal portrayal of life in the Magway region of Myanmar — I have loved working with Saeed on it.

Here is a short excerpt from an article written by The Film Stage about the film following a viewing at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Marco Zucchi Award.

What makes A Thousand Fires stand out is Farouky’s ability to yoke the drama to the substance around which their lives gravitate. Underpinning the film is a Herzogian interest in the way oil drilling works, warts and all; time and again we watch Thein Shwe operate his makeshift derrick, scavenging for crude sixteen meters underground. In Farouky’s hands, the act itself acquires a certain nobility, a sacred beauty that’s amplified by Fatima Dunn’s score and Maxence Ciekawy and James Bulley’s sound design. Watching Thein Shwe pound the ground with his pole, I wondered if what I was looking at wasn’t a man digging, but plugging cables to a beating heart chugging somewhere below the Earth’s surface. Forsaking any vague, abstract statements on “the industry,” A Thousand Fires stays small, focusing instead on the connection between oil and the human body—the tactile, painful efforts to dig up the remnants of millions of years of sedimented histories. It’s a beguiling, epic journey.

More information will be available on the public release of A Thousand Fires soon.

'George III: The Man Behind the Myth' exhibition soundtrack at Kew Palace

Kew Palace, London

A recent composition project that has just seen the light of day is a four room spatial soundtrack for the top floors of the Kew Palace exhibition George III: The Mind Behind the Myth. The composition is based on George Frideric Handel’s Keyboard suite in D minor ( HWV 437), which was a favourite of King George III. The work for Kew Palace unfolds across four rooms, with the audience progressing through the composition as they move through the exhibition.

The exhibition overall is a reconsideration of the story of George III’s mental illness from a contemporary standpoint, and asks how much attitudes to mental health have changed over the last two centuries – or more importantly, how much they haven’t.

Tickets are available online here and the exhibition runs from 10th June to 26 September 2021.
Thank you to Simon Hendry and Gregory White for their work on the sound system design and installation of this piece. Further thanks to KEF UK.

'George III: The Man Behind the Myth' exhibition at Kew Palace

'Unseen Being' interview on Soho Radio with Kinda Studios

A recent interview with Robyn Landau and Katehrine Templar Lewis at Kinda Studios for their Soho Radio show Unseen Being, where we discuss sound, science, our bodies and space, also featuring the brilliant Dr. Yewande Pearse. Listen here.

A soundscape to celebrate the launch of BFTK#4

I’ve put together a soundscape to celebrate the launch of Bricks from the Kiln #4. It’s now streaming on Wax Radio.

Bricks from the Kiln #4 Launch
Featuring: A soundscape / broadcast / playlist, compiled by BFTK and mixed by artist and composer James Bulley, to (belatedly) accompany / announce the release of Bricks from the Kiln #4: On Translation, Transmission & Transposition.

Fifty-four minutes of sounds, voices, readings and compositions from Hildegard of Bingen, Ursula K. Le Guin and Caroline Bergvall; through green hues of Hiroshi Yoshimura, Pink Floyd BBC sessions and Vangelis; to James Joyce and Hazel Felman in oral / aural translation, a 1960s Joy dishwashing liquid television commercial and Slapp Happy with Faust as a backing band.

BFTK#4 is edited by Natalie Ferris, Bryony Quinn, Matthew Stuart and Andrew Walsh-Lister, and published as event / publication, after programming in London, Chicago & Edinburgh. Printed in a green of ‘perpetual unrest’, it features contributions from: Helen Marten, Sophie Collins, Don Mee Choi, Kate Briggs, Phil Baber, Joyce Dixon, Florian Roithmayr, Jen Calleja, J.R. Carpenter, Edgar Wind, Rebecca Collins, Naomi Pearce, Karen Di Franco, James Bulley, Saki Mafundikwa, Natalie Ferris, Matthew Stuart, James Langdon, Bryony Quinn, Peter Nencini, Sophie Seita, Caroline Bergvall, Seb McLauchlan and Maria Fusco.

BFTK#4 is available to order at: www.b-f-t-k.info