I'm an award-winning composer, engineer and historian of technology. I present talks, make radio shows and perform live with Spacedog - my band of humans, theremins and uncanny robots.
Spacedog will be performing a couple of numbers at the latest School for Gifted Children – comedian Robin Ince‘s spectacular, celebrating all things scientific.
At the Komedia, Brighton, Thursday 29 October 2009
8:30pm (doors open 7pm)
Info and tickets
To tie in with the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, comedian and writer Robin will introduce a selection of guests including science writers Simon Singh and Richard Wiseman, comedian Josie Long, folk musician Gavin Osborn and Spacedog (please be aware that guests are subject to change).
It should be a fascinating evening – hope to see some of you there!
Rubberworld: research and copywriting on the history of rubber for the Eden Project, 2000.
I’ve been quite the hermit recently as I’ve been locked away in the archives, wading through old lab books, government documents and other curiosities. This is for a book I’m hoping to publish in 2010.
Spacedog will be performing our latest set at Goldsmiths Great Hall, 16 October 2009. We’ll be performing torch songs, death ballads and eerie English folk songs on a host of instruments, including theremin, laptops, vocals and home-spun musical robots.
We’ll be joining Leafcutter John, the Finn Peters Quartet and Slub for this evening of beautiful musical experiments, featuring humans and computers.
Some footage of Stonehenge, recorded on a handheld DVCam during a short, unscheduled trip, June 2005.
People travel great distances for a close-up experience with Stonehenge. But when they reach these ancient stones, an audio tour, delivered on a handheld plastic stick, competes for their attention.
Audio guides are becoming an increasingly common site in museums, galleries and ancient monuments. They enable you to give facts and figures to visitors speaking many different languages. But I have my reservations about them. In particular, I’m concerned about the way they grab attention, diverting visitors from their immediate surroundings.
Here, for example, you can see many people looking away from the stones -- and from each other -- so they can concentrate on their audio tour. At the end if the video, you can see a clip of someone who is so involved in the tour and the business of pressing buttons, he hasn’t looked at the stones at all. If you look carefully, you can also see him at the beginning of my circuit around the stones.
These are my personal opinions of audio tours -- I’d be interested to hear yours so do comment below. I’m particularly interested in ways to impart facts and figures, without putting people in such a ‘cognitive bubble’. I wouldn’t want to clutter the site with labels. Would a multilingual preshow work better? How about using human tour guides?
Update 11 October: My appearance has been postponed by the venue due to problems with space – I hope to see you there at a later date!
I’ll be bringing Spin Recovery, a small, experimental installation, involving robotic bells, cameras and video projections, to Brighton’s first SoundCurious event. At the Coachwerks, Brighton, 11 October 2009. POSTPONED.
SoundCurious is an ongoing series of curated performances, workshops, lectures and demonstrations examining all aspects of sound and vibration. It’s curated by Alice Eldridge.
My piece appears on the Sunday evening but SoundCurious runs all weekend. Day tickets are available, as well as tickets for the whole weekend. Further details and booking information here.
News: January 2012
Juice for the Baby, Spacedog's debut album, is here! I'm ducking out of the Kinetica Art Faire this year but am huddled indoors, writing, sleuthing (investigating a recording in the archives) and devising a new biologically-inspired musical instrument - all will be revealed soon.
News: December 2011
Juice for the Baby, Spacedog's debut album, launches in mid-December. Join us for the launch gigs at the Marlborough, Brighton, on 9 December and the Horse Hospital, London, on 14 December.
News: November 2011
A busy month writing and editing the forthcoming Spacedog album - stay tuned for news.
News: October 2011
I'm focusing on my writing this month (so am quite the hermit) but I'm squeezing in the occasional live performance here and there.
I'm looking forward to working with Helen Keen in her Spacetacular on 20th. I'm writing a code-based work for the new label Chordpunch and some owlish music for that fine wordsmith Professor Elemental.
Spacedog are booked into the studio at the end of the month to complete work on our album.
News: September 2011
A busy month writing, preparing a get-together of maker musicians for the Brighton Maker Faire After-show party. I've also been electrifying a teapot for the Chi-Tek - an exhibition by MzTek of female tech artists at the V&A. And with my fellow Spacedog Stephen Hisock, I made an appearance on the 10th Anniversary edition of BBC Click.
News: August 2011
The Spacedog song For Laika is now available on iTunes (and the album is on its way). Meanwhile, we've been busy preparing our set for Green Man, including the first outing of our torch song for Tommy Cooper.
I'm procrastinating over a teapot which I'm going to electrify for a MzTek event at the Victoria and Albert Museum in September.
I took a short trip to a very rainy Edinburgh Fringe where I played at an event for Edinburgh Skeptics in the Royal Observatory and made some plans for a Spacedog show next summer.
Apart from that, I've been busy writing. More news on that shortly, I hope...
News: July 2011
I'm interviewed by Leila Johnston in this month's Wired UK magazine and will be appearing with my fellow Spacedogs at a Wired: The Future of Music on 20 July.
I've rounded up a bumper crop of links and soundclips for my BBC Radio 4 doc The Bird Fancyer's Delight, which is broadcast on 5 and 9 July and is also available on Listen Again. Thanks for all your cheery emails about the doc, to ProjectMoonbase for mentioning it in their podcast PMB038 and for the many national papers who gave the documentary such lovely reviews - I'm glad people enjoyed it! On Sunday 10 July, the doc was featured on Graham Seed's Pick of the Week (Radio 4). A good week!
My latest collaboration with Richard Wiseman is a free and fun magic trick for your iPhone. It's called Paranormality and it's been put together for the launch of his book by the same name in the US. Thanks to Phillis on Derrren Brown's blog for giving the app a mention - thousands of people have now downloaded it and are busy bamboozling their friends.
News: June 2011
Playing theremin for Louise Colborne's homage to Loie Fuller (pioneering cybernetic dancer c1900) and composing sounds for Sonus, an homage to the analogue age with Spacedog, ArtHertz, Rushes Soho Shorts Festival and Ridley Scott Associates. Discovering how easy (or difficult) it is to publicise events in 2011 without Twitter - will report back!
Getting ready for BEAM - a brand new festival of electronics and music at Brunel University (24-26 June). I'll be speaking, running a workshop on optical flow and performing live with my fellow Spacedogs. I'll also be playing a short theremin set at the Speaky Spokey, a new arts salon in Brighton (Wed 22 June).
Putting the finishing touches to a sonic-themed BBC Radio 4 documentary, with producer Neil McCarthy, due for transmission on 5 July 2011.
Presenting a workshop for Hack Circus at Interesting, in the Conway Hall, London, 18 June, and performing theremin at a family day at the Science Museum, 19 June.
Spacedog will be performing a couple of numbers at the latest School for Gifted Children – comedian Robin Ince‘s spectacular, celebrating all things scientific.
Spacedog will be performing our latest set at Goldsmiths Great Hall, 16 October 2009. We’ll be performing torch songs, death ballads and eerie English folk songs on a host of instruments, including theremin, laptops, vocals and home-spun musical robots.
