In this performance Tim Shaw and John Bowers will collide current personal artistic interests relating to sound walking and feedback systems. The duo will perform in two separate, remote environments and stream the combined result (both audio and visual) to the Piksel venue. The work will explore the idea of extended feedback loops, combining analogue and digital methods to create time-shifting delay lines between the two performers. Network latency, cybernetic layerings, soundscape listening and feedback systems will be revealed through the duo’s local and networked actions.
Drawing on his ongoing sound walking practice Tim Shaw will take his specially made, portable system on a walk. Whilst on foot he will record the surrounding environments using a selection of DIY microphones and homemade listening devices. Ambient soundscapes, electromagnetic interferences, underwater sound worlds and hidden resonances will be revealed through a variety of field recording techniques and technologies. Tim will also wear a webcam, situating the environments and sound sources he moves through with accompanying visuals.
This stream of acoustic and video data will be broadcast to John Bowers who, from his studio, will process it through a mesh of feedback networks passing signals through physical objects, guitar effects pedals, synthesis modules, room resonances, video feedback setups, and algorithmic processes. This processing will then be channeled back to Shaw, extending the feedback architecture from studio to field, and back again.
LOOPS will create a complex topology of nested loops crossing different kinds of activities, materials, media, environments, technological forms, and geographical locations. In so doing, it abandons any attempt to create a simulation of a traditional co-present performance space. Rather, it takes the separations, technological mediations, glitches, slippages, and uncertainties that are forced upon us in the plague years as an artistic research starting point. What can emerge if we let the loops multiply?
All sound processing systems are built using the open source programming language Pure Data. All video processing will be implemented in the open source language Processing. The open source technology Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) will be used to assemble multiple sources to stream to Piksel.
In previous work Shaw and Bowers have worked with a concept or theme to guide them on walking routes. Through their collective Mythogeosonic practice the duo have presented walks which allow them to conduct site responsive activities in a variety of environments including Berlin, Bergen, Liverpool, Gateshead, New York, Sheffield and Edinburgh. For them the walk becomes a format for the collection of sound, data, imagery, text and found objects. They recently wrote ‘On Mythogeosonics’ for the Walking Bodies book collection published by Triarchy Press.
John Bowers
John Bowers (UK) is an artist-researcher with an academic background in the social and computing sciences, design, music and critical theory. As an improvising musician, he works with modular synthesizers, home-brew electronics, reconstructions of antique image and sound-making devices, self-made software, field recordings, esoteric sensor systems, and spoken text. He often combines performance with walking and the investigation of selected sites to research an imagined discipline he calls ‘mythogeosonics’. He has performed at festivals including the Venice Biennale, Experimental Intermedia New York, Transmediale/CTM Vorspiel Berlin, Piksel Bergen, Electropixel Nantes, BEAM London, Aldeburgh Festival and Spill Ipswich, and toured with the Rambert Dance Company performing David Tudor’s music to Merce Cunningham’s Rainforest. He contributed to the design of The Prayer Companion – a piece exhibited twice at the Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, and acquired for their permanent collection.
Amongst many musical collaborations, he works with Sten-Olof Hellström, Tim Shaw, Kerry Hagan, Paul Stapleton and in the noise drone band Tonesucker. He helps coordinate the label Onoma Research, works in Culture Lab Newcastle University, and is a Visiting Scholar at SARC, Queen’s University Belfast. He is a Director of Allenheads Contemporary Arts and a Trustee of Monkfish Productions.
Tim Shaw
Tim Shaw (UK) is an artist working with sound, light and communication media. Presenting work through musical performances, installations and sound walks Tim is interested in how listening environments can be constructed or explored using a diverse range of techniques and technologies. He works with field recordings, electronics, video, modular synthesis, sound objects, self-made hardware and DIY software.
Tim’s practice is concerned with the many ways people listen, specifically how listening environments can be constructed or explored using a diverse range of techniques and technologies. He has a background in recording sound and his practice is anchored in the creative use of field recordings. He is interested in appropriating communication technologies to explore how these devices change the way we experience the world.
Tim presents work in galleries, festivals, museums, through residencies and cultural events nationally and internationally. Collaboration plays a central role in his approach, he has been lucky enough to make artistic work with Chris Watson, Phill Niblock, John Bowers, John Richards (Dirty Electronics), Tetsuya Umeda, Tess Denman-Cleaver, Ryoko Akama, Jacek Smolicki and Sébastien Piquemal.
Recently his work has been presented at Novas Frequencias, Brazil (2019),
SoundArtist.ru, Moscow (2019) CAMP, France (2019), Arnolfini, Bristol (2018) Experimental Intermedia, New York (2018) Cafe OTO, London (2018), Brighton Dome (2018), New Ear Festival, New York (2018), History of Bosnia Museum, Sarajevo (2018), ARC, Switzerland (2018), bb14, Linz (2017), Stereolux, Nantes (2016), Baltic, Gateshead (2017), Touch Radio (2016) FACT Liverpool (2016), Eastern Bloc, Montreal (2016) and The Wired Lab, New South Wales, Australia (2016).
His artworks, recordings and writings have been featured in The Guardian, BBC Radio 3, Resonance FM, We Make Money Not Art, Touch Radio, The British Music Collection, Alphr, Its Nice That, SHAPE and The Space.
In 2019 Tim was selected for SHAPE (Sound and Heterogeneous Arts Platform Europe).
John and Tim’s collaborations under the banner of ‘Mythogeosonics’ are further described here: https://tim-shaw.net/mythogeosonics/