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.
An extract from Time Magazine, 8 May 1961, showing how journalists living in one superpower eyed up revellers in another, shortly after Yuri Gagarin made his triumphant return to Earth. Gagarin, the first human cosmonaut, made his historic orbital flight around the Earth in Vostok 1, 12 April 1961.
Click on any image to see a full-sized version.
This short extract is included here for non-commercial research purposes only.
For some Christmas fun, I added ten bright, white LEDs to the petticoat 0f this 1950s-style dress so I could move around parties in my own pool of light. You can see the dress in action in this video, taken in Brighton on a very snowy night in 2010. I was inspired by the electric ladies who used to perform in dresses festooned with lightbulbs, at the turn of the twentieth century.
LilyPad Arduino (wearable microprocessor)
How the dress works
The LEDs are controlled by a Lilypad Arduino which lights them up in sequence. I’ve also connected a cheap accelerometer to the Arduino (just like the one you find inside an iPhone or Nintendo wii) so the circuit can tell when I’m moving.
When I move, the LEDs light up in order so you see the light circling. If I’m static, the light circles at a slower rate, then eventually falls into a random pattern (if I don’t move much for 20 seconds or so). That’s the theory -- the whole thing could do with a little fine tuning but I was keen to get it finished and wear it out. The electric dress has already survived a couple of parties and was still twinkling at the end of the evening, on its first set of three AA batteries. I’m planning to wear it at some future Spacedog gigs.
The dress is from Vivien of Holloway. The LEDs and Arduino are attached to the petticoat using fine ribbon so they can be removed for washing.
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.
I’m currently migrating content from my old wwww.spacedog.biz site to this new location. Apologies for any errant files, visual oddities or other disruptions while the transfer takes place.
I’ll be playing again at the Marlborough Theatre, Brighton, at their next Steampunk event on 21 February 2009. Details to be confirmed – but I expect to be appearing with the robotic bells, theremin, saw and Good Companion – a rigged Imperial Typewriter. I may also bring along Uncanny Valerie – the ‘all-knowing’ robotic dolly oracle.
This is the second ever Marlborough Steampunk event – I also played there and briefly demonstrated the Edison Phonograph at their inaugural event last December. This event was curated by Tarik Elmoutawakil who went to enormous trouble to make the room look spectacular.
I was really taken by the crowd’s passion for ingenious mechanical devices and for curious electrostatic machines. It made me feel very at home. I’m new to the whole Steampunk milarky but was pleased to discover my robotic inventions fit into the Steampunk ethos very well. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of my wardrobe. At the last gig, Mike Blow and I hot footed it from a Spacedog rehearsal to get to the event. Mike was there in his jeans and green trainers and I was dressed like an old hausfrau, in an ‘ergonomic’ saw-player’s sack. Any advice on how to overcome the wardrobe crisis looming in February would be much appreciated.
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.
This is the second ever Marlborough Steampunk event – I also played there and briefly demonstrated the Edison Phonograph at their inaugural event last December. This event was curated by Tarik Elmoutawakil who went to enormous trouble to make the room look spectacular.
