Monthly archives: March 2010
This week, I went to the Science Museum stores which are brimming with musical treasures.
I had a close look at some of the early synths, samplers and other delights that are safely under lock and key, including three Mellotrons, a Fairlight CMI, Wurlitzer Sideman and Arp 2500 modular synth. I’m writing a short piece, exploring how these machines changed the way we perform, produce and listen to music. For now though, here are some technical notes and snaps, taken rather hastily during my visit. I’ve also plundered YouTube for examples of these machines in action.
Sadly, I wasn’t able to plug any of these monsters in. While the rest of us musicians are busy playing – and thus destroying! – our vintage instruments, the Science Museum instruments are conserved in a dormant state. You can think of these as reference instruments – they’ll give musicians of the future a chance to see an Arp, Mellotron, Fairlight or Sideman in all its original glory*.
Tech notes and pictures
Arp 2500 Modular Synth
4-octave carillon
Fairlight CMI
Mellotron
Pyrophone
Wurlitzer Sideman
*Sadly, life isn’t that simple. If you switch off an electrical machine for too many years, it might never work again. Capacitors decay; tapes turn to dust. Arguably, there’s little point in preserving a ‘dead’ musical instrument if you care about the way it sounds, how it was played and how it influenced music culture. So the question of whether to switch on or not has yet to be settled by historians and curators. I suppose it’s important that some instruments are conserved and only switched on very occasionally, while others are being worn out by the musicians who love them.
Hugo the singing vent doll with the Professor
Tickets are now on sale for our new show at the Brighton Festival Fringe.
Update (14 March 2010): Read a preview of the show from FringeGuru.
Read the press release.
Spacedog are teaming up with Professor Elemental to bring you a delightfully unsettling evening, probing our very human fears of the almost human, from zombies to ventriloquists’ dummies. Accompanied by Sarah’s unusual musical robots, we’ll be singing songs of love, death and the uncanny as we explore the darkest reaches of your mind. With theremins, taxidermy and strange automata.
Click on the thumbnails on this page to see high-res images. High-res publicity shots of Hugo with the Professor here.
- Wolfgang -- Spacedog’s robot drummer
Venue
8:00pm and 9:40pm (show lasts 75 minutes)
5 May 2010
Marlborough Theatre
Brighton
Tickets (£8/£7 -- on sale now from the Brighton Festival Fringe box office)
Professor Elemental
Sarah Angliss (Spacedog) on theremin
Spacedog with Clara 2.0 (photo Melita Dennet)
The badgermingo - the result of one of Prof. Elemental's taxidermy experiments
Clara 2.0 the theremin-playing robot doll
Clara 2.0 will be playing theremin in the show -- see an early video of Clara 2.0 in action.
An early test with Hugo -- the 1930s singing vent doll.
Professor Elemental singing Cup of Brown Joy
The Angliss sisters in their 2009 Fringe Show Electroplasm
Press
Read the press release.
Click on the thumbnails on this page to see high-res images.
For more information about this Brighton Fringe show, please contact Sarah Angliss (Spacedog): sarah [dot] spacedog [at] gmail [dot] com. Read more about Spacedog shows, robots and reviews on this website. Hear more of Elemental’s work on his MySpace site.
News of an extra date at the Brighton Festival Fringe:
Spacedog are teaming up with Jane Bom-Bane, maestro with mechanical hats, and multi-instrumentalist Nick Pynn for a very unusual music night at Bom-Bane’s, Brighton, 13 May 2010.
Expect plenty of delightful, musical surprises from your hosts Jane and Nick.
We’ll be adding some musical highlights from our new show uncanny valley - songs that probe our very human fears of the almost human, from zombies to ventriloquists’ dummies. There will be musical robots, moving hats and songs of love, death and the uncanny as we explore the darkest reaches of your mind. Compered by Hugo, the disembodied ventriloquist’s doll.
Venue
8:00pm
Thursday 13 May 2010
Bom-Bane’s
Brighton
Tickets (£7.50(£6) – on sale from the venue or the Brighton Festival Fringe box office)
SORRY – THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO ILLNESS
It’s National Science and Engineering Week and Spacedog are celebrating by playing music inspired by the space race. Enjoy the eerie sounds of theremin, vocals, robotic bells and Sputnik beeps as we bring you extraterrestrial music and fascinating tales about Earth’s place in the universe.
We’ll be playing a one-hour set for families in Hastings Museum at 2pm (admission free), followed by a longer, evening set for adults at the F-ish Gallery, Hastings, 8pm (admission £5 in advance, £7 on the door). The evening event will be compered by space expert Colin Uttley. Hope to see you there!
Full event details – including venue address:
Hastings Museum and Art Gallery (2:00pm – for all ages)
F-ish Gallery (8:3opm – for adults only)
I’m about to run a couple of online surveys and experiments and would like to include the results in some papers I’m submitting to a peer-reviewed journal. Trouble is, I’m not hooked up to a university and don’t wish to be for this work. So I’m wondering how I deal with the ethics of my study.
I know how to write an ethics statement – so I’m not looking for advice on what to put in it. Rather, I’m seeking advice on dealing with the ethics approval process, outside an academic institution.
I need to do the following:
1) Make sure I’m treating my participants fairly.
2) Make sure my strategy passes muster with the journal reviewers.
I was rather hoping I can assess ethics independently, just as I assess risk – in other words, write my own ethics statement and strive to go through all the necessary steps to ensure my participants are treated fairly. In this statement, I can write down my thought processes, just as I would in a formal ‘method statement’ for, say, the installation of a new exhibit.
Will that suffice? Of course, I’d also like to show my ethics statement to a fellow experimenter whose opinion I trust. In other words, use them as my sounding board, just as a prospective university researcher might use their university ethics committee. But I have a feeling most associates working in academia would be loathe to give an opinion I can reference, without going through the proper channels.
Am I completely stymied here, or is there a simple solution? Is there an ethics board for independent researchers? If so, who runs it?
If you have any advice on this, I’d be really grateful to hear from you, either in the comments below or email:
hello [at] sarahangliss [dot] com
* Feral researcher: A lovely term I picked up from Dougald Hine, School of Everything, to describe people like me who are interested in academic enquiry but don’t really fit in academia.
