The Disembodied Art Gallery home page

Recent work by Disembodied Arts:

2008

Ø 25^th May – A new edition of Framework afield on Resonance FM - this time mixed from field recordings by a variety of interesting artists from around the world, following the theme of the classical elements: air, water, earth & sky (Full playlist of the broadcast).

Ø 17^th March - Another instalment of Framework afield on Resonance FM - playing more of my field recordings made around India (with a small diversion to Bangkok). This second instalment of natural sound recordings from India travels to Mumbai, Goa, Jaipur, and Ladakh, as well as more recording made within 1 km of my apartment in Bangalore.

Ø 17^th January - Art’s Birthday 2008. A contribution to this year’s celebration of Art’s Birthday, which was again co-organised in Tokyo by Tetsuo Kogawa. Composition and telephone conversation about the piece.

2007

Ø 13^th June - The first instalment of my field recordings made around India and broadcast on Resonance FM’s - Framework afield programme. This radio journey captures local urban sounds from around the city of Bangalore, as well as recordings from Jodhpur, Udaipur and wind turbines in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan.

2006

· 12^th December: an edition of Framework afield– a guest broadcast made on Resonance FM’s Framework radio show. This broadcast was constructed from a large number of natural field recordings, collected from around the world.

· Electromagnetic Journey – appeared on the 2006 edition of the Deep Wireless cd, from New Adventures in Sound Art, in May 2006.

· Various field recordings by Disembodied Arts were played on NYSAE’s January, February and March editions of the New York Giant Ear internet radio program radio program, and on the April edition of New Zealand’s Radio Kiosk programme – which was originally created and aired by FBi Community Radio in Sydney, Australia.

2005

· Derek Holzer & Sara Kolster plays a selection of Disembodied Art field recordings as part of his Sound Transit broadcast on Radio Days, 8^th April 2005.

· Art’s Birthday 2005 – an international celebration of the “birthday of art”, on January 17^th 2005. The event was organised by Kunstradio in Vienna, connecting Canada, Austria, Germany, Spain, Russia, Sweden, USA, Czech Republic and Japan – all broadcasting on internet radio. I played: “I am singing happy birthday in a room” – an affectionate reworking of Alvin Lucier’s 1970 similarly-titled piece, as part of Radio Kinesonus’ contribution to the party.

· Disembodied Art’s contribution to contemporary telematic art was name-checked in Adriana de Souza e Silva’s article: Art By Telephone: From Static to Mobile Interfaces.

· Silence Radio publish Disembodied Art’s Clay Cameras composition on their web site, in November 2005. This piece was inspired by the discovery of many stems of old clay tobacco pipes found discarded on the riverbed of the Thames. These old discarded pipes were used as one sound source in this composition.

2004

· Long night of radio art – An internet/radio broadcast on September 3^rd 2004 from Austria as part of the 2004 Ars Electronica electronics arts festival. This radio programme celebrated 25 years of Ars Electronica, and 80 years of radio in Austria. Disembodied Arts contributed two pieces:

1. an interview with Jem Finer who created the1000 year duration music piece called Longplayer.

2. a composition - constructed out of electromagnetic field recordings from shops, surveillance devices, ticket barriers, stations and trains in central London.

· Soundscape FM – a collaborative sound work which takes place during the Garage Festival in Stralsund, Germany from 23 July to 14 August. It takes the form of an FM radio broadcast, combined with a user-uploadable database filled with field recordings taken from all over the world. Extracts from SoundscapeFM can currently be heard at 06.00 GMT every day on Resonance FM.

Underkurrent – July 16^th 2004. A cruise down the Thames from the Embankment to Trinity Buoy Wharf on the M.V. Viscount. The theme of the evening was electricity and water. I contributed a number of electromagnetic recordings made in the London Underground, and also hydrophone recordings from the river Thames – which were played on a sound system on the boat during the journey.

· LWSP – a bi-weekly live show broadcasting on Resonance 104.4FM on Sunday afternoons. The London Wireless Soundscape Project (LWSP) utilises WiFi technology to stream live ambient noises from the streets of London into the studio, where they are mixed together and then broadcast back over London on 104.4MHz. An Interview with Tom Wallace, the organiser of the LWSP.

2003

Radio Kinesonus - an Internet radio station in Tokyo, Japan, broadcasts a contribution from the Disembodied Art Gallery most months. The contents vary from live broadcasts from art festivals, selections of new music from different artists, and new soundworks from Disembodied Arts.
Recent broadcasts have included:

a live report from Sonar 2003 for Radio Kinesonus (Tokyo) and JuniRadio (Berlin),
a “Near Silence” edition,
a survey of turntablism,
A live recording of Tristram Cary speaking about his life, and a performance of his piece for synthesizer and turntables: “Trios”

Radio Cycle – several soundworks were created and were broadcast from radio transmitters mounted on bicycles - as part of the Interference festival in the East End of London, June-July 2003. One piece, called “Bow Bells”, was made entirely from a single 3 second bicycle bell sample. The version mentioned in the September 2003 edition of the Wire magazine can be heard here; a more contemplative variant, also created from the same single sample file can be heard on the Radio Kinesonus web site as part of the August broadcast.
Information Arts – The past activities of the Disembodied Arts Gallery are published as (a very small) part of Stephen Wilson’s book.

Selected work from the distant past (1992-2000):

CybaKulcha - 7th November 1997. A one-night-stand of cyber culture at the Cyberia Internet cafe, London. A low-key Disembodied installation was presented in the cafe, employing a hidden radio transmitter and especially modified telephone handsets. In the same evening, I/O/D unveiled their Web Stalker software, and Francesca da Rimini took guests on a guided tour of her web site.
Deconstructing Duchamp - Spring 1997. Marcel Duchamp's artwork called "The Large Glass" was the subject of an Internet collaborative art project. The organiser of the project, Dew Harrison (based at the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts, Wales), has invited 25 participants around the world to each create a web site representing one component of the artwork. The Disembodied Art Gallery's contribution to the web project is The region of the picture of cast shadows. Unfortunately, over time, the home page and many of the other contributions have been removed from the web.
Net Art - a one-day conference took place in London on 29th January 1997. The Disembodied Art Gallery gave a short talk about its current activities at this congress - which was attended by over 20 people from places as far afield as Russia, Hungary and Slovenia. The event took place at Backspace, and was organised by Heath Bunting as part of his ANTI WITH E lecture series.
The Answering Machine Solution C.D. - December 1996. In December, The Disembodied Art Gallery contributed one track and the cover artwork to a CD published by StaalPlaat in Amsterdam. The CD is entitled "The Answering Machine Solution" (STCD 100) and it contains a large collection of 30 second tracks which may be used as answering machine messages. Tracks were collected from over 60 artists worldwide to create this CD document.
Abacus - at the ICA; May-August 1996. The Disembodied Art Gallery collaborated in a series of four club nights at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. The club took place monthly; on each night, guest musicians were invited to play live and interact with pre-recorded tapes. To complement the musical input, the Disembodied Art Gallery created and disseminated a new limited edition series of multiples on each night to the audience. The artwork was distributed free. Pieces included a "Tarantinees" film script-generating game, a cut-up Beat writer's kit, Andy Warhol fame pills and a computer hardware virus CD ROM. The Abacus club night was voted "the club of the week" by the London Evening Standard in September '96.
Temporary Line (December 1993-October 1994) - an audio-reactive telephone sculpture. This piece (displayed in the photo above) was activated whenever a member of the public walked close to the sculpture. When activated, the sound of whispering voices would dart around the sculpture, from telephone handset to telephone handset, at random around the feet of the visitor.
Babble (August 1993) - a telematic art installation which received over 70 voice contributions from the USA, Australia, Japan, and Europe. Callers telephoned a UK number and recorded their poetry, their stories and their thoughts on an answer-machine tape. These messages were collected, collaged, and then replayed automatically to visitors of a Brighton gallery whenever a member of the public entered the installation room.
Telæsthesia (May 1993) - a FAX art show which attracted 100 faxworks from 12 different countries. Contributors sent wallpaper designs by FAX to a Brighton gallery. The designs were then photocopied a number of times and made into strips. These strips of wallpaper were hung on the walls of the gallery, thereby literally changing the interior of the gallery on a daily basis as new patterns arrived.
1992 Disembodied Art Gallery Exhibition (May,June 1992)
a mail art show which attracted artwork from over 300 mail artists in 17 countries. All of the artwork received for this show was hung by ribbons from trees, lamp posts, traffic lights etc around the town centre and along the beaches of an English coastal town called Brighton. The show took place during the International Brighton Arts Festival (England's largest arts festival) throughout May, 1992. Networker congress statements appeared in this pamphlet at the same time as the exhibition.