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.
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.
Over the last few months, I’ve been collaborating with Punchdrunk, the marvellous encounter theatre company, to make a very unusual multimodal effect – one that mixes emerging ideas in perception with a one-on-one theatrical encounter.
I’ll be revealing more about the nature of this effect in a few months, when some formal studies are complete. However, I can reveal we’ve piloted the effect – and have had some encouraging feedback – and have already used it (tentatively) in the recent Punchdrunk show: It Felt Like a Kiss. This documentary, the form of a promenade piece, was devised by Punchdrunk in collaboration with documentary maker Adam Curtis (featuring music from Damon Albarn). It Felt Like A Kiss was created in summer 2009 for the Manchester International Festival.
It’s an awkward position to be in: you need the sound of vomit but don’t have any of it handy. This is the problem I was facing in 2003, when I created a small exhibit for the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester.
It all started when I was approached by acoustician Trevor Cox to make an exhibit about unpleasant sounds: fingers down the blackboard, babies crying, ringtones, the sound of someone slurping their dinner and other ghastly delights. I persuaded Trevor to turn the exhibit some kind of test – a booth where visitors could test their endurance of the ‘worst sounds in the world’. A simple idea – but one that hit the buffers when I started hunting around for library sound effects – the kind you can buy in packs of 200 on CD. I don’t know who library tracks are made for but I have to say they don’t cut the mustard if you’re looking for something that genuinely puts your teeth on edge. So I decided to spend a couple of days, in the company of some actors, making my own recordings. Here are the details for making one of those sounds – simulated vomit (please don’t venture any further if it’s teatime):
The sound of vomit – here’s one I prepared earlier
How to fake the sound of vomiting
You will need
1 tin of baked beans (any make will do)
1/2 litre of tepid water
A plastic bucket
A mug
An actor with a sterling constitution
A sound recording and editing system with reverb
Instructions
1) Pour the beans into the bowl and mix in the water to make a sloppy broth.
2) Scoop out a mug full of the broth.
3) Holding your mic just inside the bowl, empty your mug into the bowl, while you record the sound. Make sure you record every part of the action – including the moment when the mixture first hits the bowl.
4) Repeat step 3 several times. Experiment with different amounts of broth. Also experiment with slow and fast emptying of the mug. Try and get some recordings where the broth hits the bare plastic of the bowl, others where it hits the broth that’s already in there. This extra effort will pay dividends later.
5) Ask your actor to make some retching sounds, as though he is about to be sick. If you are working with a method actor, you may find it helpful to let him smell or touch the broth at this juncture. Record the sounds he makes. It’s especially good if he can imitate the sound of a small piece of onion being stuck in the throat.
6) Now you have your raw materials, it’s time to edit them together to make a convincing vomiting sound. Listen to the recordings you have made and cut and paste the best takes to make a sequence of alternating retches and broth falls. You may like to start with some more delicate sounds that build towards a climax. Make sure you leave a hiatus between each retch and broth fall. And remember, you’re simulating a natural function here so don’t bee too metronomic about the placing of the sounds (unless you’re trying to beat match this to some music). Vary the pattern as much as you like – be creative!
The reverb plugin in Logic
7) Your sound effect is almost complete but a little reverberation will help to stitch the two elements of your sound together, convincing the listener that the two are taking place in the same space. A reverb of around 3.5 seconds should be ample for a domestic toilet but feel free to experiment here. The larger your imaginary room is and the more tiled its surfaces are, the longer the reverb will be. Most reverbs have a knob that lets you adjust the amount of ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ sound. Here, ‘wet’ sound is the sound that has been given the reverb treatment, ‘dry’ sound is your original sound. Start with a wet-to-dry ratio of around 30% but increase this if you want to give the impression your actor is further away. You may find you can increase the perception of distance by cutting the high frequencies a little.
Some related sites
Bad Vibes project website (sponsored at the EPSRC)
This photographic gem is straight from the archives of Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. I understand it’s a pressure chamber, designed to take the strain off Winston Churchill when he was jet setting around the world. I think it dates from the mid-1940s. The aeroplane he travelled in didn’t have a pressure cabin – but lying in this chamber, Churchill could breathe a steady supply of air (and maybe smoke a cigar or two).
Hitler had something similar, apparently. Chambers like these were a must for any VIP traveller as they also offered extra security in an attack. I don’t know if there’s any evidence of Churchill using this contraption. His aircraft was once in danger but never came under serious attack.
Cold War – Hot Science
I unearthed this wonderful image when I was digging through the archives for ‘Cold War Hot Science’, an exhibition I put together with Tim Hunkin, Robert Bud and Science Museum staff, early 2001. The exhibition marked the launch of a book by the same name. Among the many other extraordinary and alarming delights in the archive was a bomb switch for the Vulcan bomber (the aircraft designed to deliver our nuclear bombs, before we had intercontinental ballistic missiles) and some old laboratory glassware, used by Porton Down scientists to cook up Britain’s stock of the deadly Marburg Virus. Marburg is a Category 4 disease – like Ebola and Lassa Fever, it’s deadly, incurable and highly contagious.
Reactor Vessel used by Porton Down scientists to cook up Marburg virus and other Category 4 diseases
Putting together the exhibition, I also remember encountering what might be the world’s most historic pieces of Sellotape. They were holding together the original ‘drop models’ (small, balsa wood aeroplanes) that were used by engineers to figure out the best design for Concorde.
Working around 1962, long before the era of Computer Aided Design (CAD), engineers dropped these models, just like paper aeroplanes, from the top of a ladder or from helicopters. They watched them gliding to the ground as they were looking for an aeroplane shape that wouldn’t roll over dangerously, as it approached the runway, despite being contoured to travel smoothly through the sound barrier. After extensive drop model tests, Farborough engineers opted to give Concorde its famous ‘ogive’ (curvy, triangular) wing shape.
When Science Museum conservators prepared these drop models for public display, they took great pains to conserve the fragile remains of Sellotape that engineers had stuck to the models, all those years ago.
We juxtaposed artefacts from the labs with press cuttings about Farnboough workers, gleaned the local papers. Somehow, these very British local newspaper cuttings made the researcher’s undercover defence work seem all the more extraordinary.
This mini, automatic puppet show was created on a shoestring for the South Bank Centre, summer 2007. The brief was to come up with something novel inside a garden shed that would celebrate the area and appeal to families. It features dancing puppets and a carillon (robotic bell player).
The puppet show, Swinging London, features London luminaries, past and present, dressed in go-go style. I wanted the puppets to look like a dance group on TV, in the early days of colour television. Reflecting the throw-away nature of celebrity culture, the faces are velcroed on so they can easily be swapped for new ones, according to public demand. Some of the faces are personal favourites (e.g. Kenneth Williams) and a few were chosen by the public (e.g. Lady Penelope and Charlie Drake). Jarvis Cocker also makes an appearance -- he was curating the Meltdown Festival that was taking place at the time.
Swinging London was one of seven sheds that made up this outdoor exhibition, curated by Clare Patey. The shed was put together over just a few weeks on a tight budget. I was grateful to Vivien Angliss, Helen Burtt, Jenny Cotterill, Amanda Hellberg, Emmet Spier and Colin Uttley for their invaluable help in getting it together. Thanks also to Paul and Rachel Attmere for dressing up like the puppets and animating the sheds throughout the opening weekend. The puppets were adapted from 1960s Pelham puppets, scooped up from eBay.
Ragged puppets
I was inspired to make Swinging London after seeing the very dilapidated 1960s puppet show playing on Teignmouth Pier, Devon. I was really struck by how mesmerising the Teignmouth puppets were -- and how convincingly they moved to the music -- even though they were doing nothing more than jiggling up and down. The puppets also had a slightly unsettling look, because of their worn-out clothes and expressionless faces -- this also appealed to me. So this dolly waggling (bad puppetry) is inspired by the 1960s end-of-the-pier classic. The video footage was taken at the end of a busy eight-week run and you can see that the strings have gone saggy and paint has rubbed off the puppets’ shoes, onto the stage, helping them to look suitably ragged.
Slide show images by Emmet Spier
Carillon
The carillon played two and a half octaves of handbells polyphonically, striking them with servo-driven, sprung beaters.
This was my first attempt at building a polyphonic bell playing machine. In 2009, I attempted to build a version of the instrument that put each bell in a separate box, so the instrument could be distributed widely around a space. This Mk II carillon was given its first outing at the Sonic Arts Expo 2009. When this proved too troublesome to take out on the road, I built the Mk III, which clusters all the bells on a single metal frame. The frame , an old shop fitting, is on wheels and is compact enough to fit in the boot of a large car.
Do you sometimes feel you haven’t reached your full potential?
Are you caring and thoughtful?
Are you sometimes relaxed and confident in company – but other times shy and repressed?
We thought so!
The Booth of Truth can read your personality with uncanny accuracy.
Channelling the juju - the marvellously talented Dolly Rocket is my favourite cold reader
I decided to make the Booth of Truth in 2002 after psychologist Richard Wiseman told me about the wonderful world of Barnum Statements. A favourite among psychic claimants, horoscope writers, recruitment consultants and others who perform ‘cold readings’ on clients, Barnum Statements are phrases which seem personal but are actually true of almost anyone. For instance:
“You have a strong desire for other people to like and admire you.”
Researched in the 1940s by the psychologist Forer, the Barnum Effect was also the focus of psychologist Ciaran O’Keeffe’s doctoral thesis. When I created the exhibit in 2002, Ciaran gave me a string of very entertaining Barnum Statements. These are read out, randomly, to anyone who stood in my exhibit and puts some money in the slot. Some have come from Forer’s original literature. A few have come from people who claim to be psychic.
The statements from the psychic claimants are the most perplexing of all – but they’re also brilliant examples of the conversational fishing expeditions so beloved by cold readers. My favourite starts off sounding like a reading for amputees only but by the end of the paragraph, could apply to just about everyone (you can hear it in the excerpt at the bottom of this page).
Long in the tooth - the booth of truth
Consulting the Booth of Truth is like entering a small chapel. The interior is petite yet high baroque – complete with an elaborate, gilt mirror. I was aiming for a cross between Vincent Price’s parlour and a GPO telephone booth. On entering the booth, you kneel on a comfy stool, in front of the psychofluorescent radio mirror, put your money in the slot, place your hand on the founder’s tranquil balls, then listen carefully as a disembodied voice gives you an uncannily accurate ‘personality reading’. The reading is complete with New Age soundtrack and light display.
An example reading
This is an early example of my sound work in exhibits so the quality and choice of sounds is a little ropey. But I’ve put it here anyway, in case some of you find the content interesting.
The Booth of Truth is one of my earliest DIY exhibits, made long before I had the confidence to unleash my idiosyncratic wiring on the public. So thanks to Tim Hunkin for electrifying the moving curtains, tidying up my unruly circuitry and adding some wonderful, extra lighting effects in the mirror.
If you want to see this much loved but tatty exhibit in action, do head to Tim’s wonderful arcade The Under the Pier Show, on Southwold pier. By all accounts, the Booth of Truth is still pretty popular – in fact, I receive regular income from the psychofluorescent radio mirror. Earnings used to arrive as giant bags of 20 pence pieces. Less romantically, they now come in the form of the occasional cheque as coins are sorted and totted up by the pier owner’s counting machine.
Coming soon! Uncanny Valerie
This new robot (created in collaboration with Vivien Angliss) will also be displaying some uncanny mind-reading abilities. She’s currently under construction (Feb 2009) and is likely to be making her debut appearance at the first UK Maker Faire, Newcastle, 14-15 March 2008. Details to follow.
Jet Age to Genome was a small exhibition, celebrating British innovation from 1953-2003.
This is a holding page for the exhibition for this new website – more details to follow soon.
News: March 2012
I'm performing live at the Lovebytes Festival, Sheffield, QEDCon, Manchester, and the Catalyst Club, Brighton, and composing music for CE3K-inspired Electronic Encounters and some other forthcoming collaborations (stay tuned for news). I'm also hard at work, re-engineering some Spacedog robots, and selecting films for Rocket Lolly, Spacedog's two-hander with Project Moonbase at the Edinburgh Science Festival in April.
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.
It’s an awkward position to be in: you need the sound of vomit but don’t have any of it handy. This is the problem I was facing in 2003, when I created a small exhibit for the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester.
You will need
