Disinformation "Stargate"

Disinformation "Stargate" - recording of "Type 2" solar noise storm (released as the title track to the Disinformation "Stargate" LP published by Ash International in 1996) which recently featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Broadcasting House" (original duration 20 minutes, headphones recommended). The audible phenomenon is produced by Coronal Mass Ejections - plasma bursts on the surface of the sun, associated with sunpots and solar flares, which excite radio-emissions that manifest on terrestrial shortwave radio. Because of its obvious similarity to the sound of rolling surf, this phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the "seashore effect". Sci-fi author JG Ballard wrote (in the commentary to "The Atrocity Exhibition" published in 1990) that "a huge volume of radio signals reach this planet from space... the hope remains that one day we will decode them, and find... a spontaneously generated choral music, a naive electromagnetic architecture, the primitive syntax of a philosophical system... as reassuring as the pattern of waves on a beach". "Stargate" was exhibited at The Foundry in London (Oct-Nov 2006) and as a massive 3-dimensional sound installation at Kiasma, Helsinki (Feb-March 2001), alongside work by John Wynne, Jem Finer (of The Pogues), Patrick Kosk, Mikko Masaalo, Oivind Weingaarde and David Cunningham (of The Flying Lizards) - having a significant influence on Jem's later work (Jem and his collaborator Ansuman Biswas first met Disinformation and heard Disinformation VLF and radioastronomy exhibits at Hull Time Based Arts in 1999). "Stargate" was also exhibited at Event gallery, London in March 2006, and recently presented at the Open Ear event at Canterbury Christ Church University, and at Another Roadside Attraction, Goldsmiths College and Shunt Vaults in London. Unlike virtually all Sci-Art projects that (after this original) explored similar imagery, "Stargate" is a literally no-budget, totally DIY project - realised with miniscule resources, using entirely borrowed equipment, without any institutional support or funding, and without any help from professional scientists. This material was also reissued as a track on the "R&D2" CD released by Ash International in 1997, and remixes by Chris and Cosey, People Like Us (Vicki Bennett) and Mark Poysden appear on the "Antiphony" double CD. The most recent reissue appears as a soundtrack to the film "Brilliant Noise" by Semiconductor, released on the "Worlds in Flux" DVD by Fatcat Records in 2007 (where the original Disinformation track appears alongside work by Max Richter, The Twilight Sad, Christian Vogel, Ensemble, Robert Hampson, Iris Garrelfs, Antenna Farm, Our Brother the Native, Gaeoudjiparl and Thomas Dimuzio). The "Stargate" title is intended as a self-evident homage to the film of the same name, and to the track "A Gate Into The Stars" by Japanese composer Somei Satoh. Thanks to Knut Aufermann for help with one of the mixes, and special thanks for the Kiasma show to John Wynne, Michael Madsen and to Rita Leppiniemi. Special thanks to Mike Harding for releasing the original LP. More detail about "Stargate" can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... More info about the Kiasma show can be found at http://kopenhagen.dk/fileadmin... See also http://www.strangeattractor.co...

Channel: Science & Technology
Uploaded: December 17, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Author: JHLKJHLKHLK

Length: 00:59
Rating: 3.76
Views: 3961

Tags: Arnolfini  Art  Arts  Ascarida  BBC  Berkeley  Boemlauwebas  Brighton  Bristol  Broadcasting  Caleaflo  Catalyst  Centre  Cornonal  Culture  Dana  Disinformation  Ejection  Electromagnetic  Exhibition  Fabrica  Fatcat  Fest  Film  Films  Flare  Gerhardt  Hamilton  Helsinki  House  Jade  Jarman  Joe  Kiasma  LA  Lab  Laboratory  Magnetic  Mass  Media  Movie  NASA  Noise  Phenomena  Radio  Records  Ruth  Sciences  Semiconductor  Show  Sight  SightSonic  Solar  Sonic  Space  Stargate  UC  VLF  Watershed  York  

Video Comments