View allAll Photos Tagged HitoSteyerl
Skulptur Projekte Münster
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWw7CPczmU0
("HellYeahWeFuckDie" are the `frequent "Big Five" among Poprocklyrics)
“Pulsing sub-bass audio suggests associations with the most primal anthropomorphic element in music - the rhythms of the human heart, with foetal and infant hypnagogic sense memories, with seismic activity, the rumble of thunder (Jimi Hendrix claimed that his earliest childhood memory was of a thunderstorm) and even with war. Disinformation's National Grid is a sub-bass installation sourced either from the ambient VLF field radiated by electricity pylons and mains circuits, or directly from the output cables of mains transformers. National Grid offers live physical evidence of environmental electromagnetic pollution, a demonstration of the intrinsic musical properties of alternating current, beat-frequency effects, the architectural acoustics of its own exhibition space, a formula for the realisation and suppression of Futurist sound art, a cathartic response to the pressures of urban life, a monolithic soundtrack for the genius of electrification and for the bitter conflicts between government and organised labour for control over the nation's electrical infrastructure.” - Disinformation “Stargate” + “National Grid” LP - Ash International, Ash 3.2, copyright © 1996
“London was the capital of the electricity of the mind” - Geoffrey Grigson © 1957
Disobey, Holloway, London, 10 Oct 1996
Royal College of Art, Kensington, 5 Dec 1996
Museum of Installation, Deptford, July 1997
South London Gallery, Camberwell, 15 Aug 1998
Nuclear Warfare Command Centre, Anstruther, 25 Sept 1998
Lux Cinema, Hoxton, 9 Dec 1998
Volksbühne, Berlin, 27 June 1999
ZKM, Karlsruhe, 16 July 1999
Arctic Corsair, Hull, Oct 1999
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, Jan to March 2000
Sonic Boom, Hayward Gallery, 2 June 2000
The Dom, Moscow, 26 Sept 2000
Fabrica, Brighton, Nov to Dec 2001
The Royal Institution, Mayfair, 22 May 2004
Corsica Studios, Elephant & Castle, 19 Nov 2004 *
The Guardian Science Writers Xmas Party, 13 Dec 2004 *
Hull Art Lab (Humber Street, Kingston-upon-Hull) 4 Feb 2005 *
Cargo Nightclub, Hoxton, 17 Feb 2005 *
The Foundry, Hoxton, Oct 2005
Westbourne Studios, Notting Hill, 18 Sept 2006 *
The Junction, Cambridge, 27 April 2007 *
Centre for Life, Newcastle, 5 March 2008 *
Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, NZ, Aug 2009
When the Dust Settles, Dalston Bunker, Oct 2010
Living Rooms, Auckland, NZ, April 2011
Frequency Festival, Lincoln, Oct 2011
Usurp Gallery, Harrow, 8 Nov 2011
GV Art, Marylebone, Nov to Dec 2013
Inspace, Edinburgh, 29 Nov 2013
Le Bon Accueil, Rennes, Oct to Nov 2014
The Auricle, Christchurch, NZ, Feb 2015
The Morgue, Chelsea College of Arts, 16 March 2017
Assembly of Disturbance, Shoreditch, 7 Oct 2017
Gallery 46, Whitechapel, 15 Feb 2018
Kino Siska, Ljubljana, 21 March 2018
CMK, Koper, 22 March 2018
Caponier Tunnel, Newhaven Fort, 22 Sept 2018
Listening Arts Channel (on-line) 19 March 2021
Antithesis, Schemata Art, Elephant & Castle, March 2022
Ealing Extranormal Volume 22, 16 Dec 2023
Farsight Collective, St. Giles, 11 + 12 Oct 2024
LungA Skólinn, Seyðisfjörður, 23-25 May 2025
LCB Depot, Leicester, Sept 2025
Wave Farm (WGXC 90.7FM, Acra, NY) 10 Oct 2025
* Disinformation + Strange Attractor
soundcloud.com/erratum_musical/disinformation-national-gr... -
[listen with headphones or good quality hi-fi loudspeakers]
Electromagnetic Sound Art - “National Grid” by Disinformation
Commissioned and exhibited by Fabrica Gallery, Nov 2001
Raw video by Barry Hale - video processing by Joe Banks
“National Grid” audio by Joe Banks - first published 1996
NB: poor audio compression
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_AP2LlN6E
“Pulsing sub-bass audio suggests associations with the most primal anthropomorphic element in music -- the rhythms of the human heart, with foetal and infant hypnagogic sense memories, with seismic activity, the rumble of thunder (Jimi Hendrix claimed that his earliest childhood memory was of a thunderstorm) and even with war. Disinformation's National Grid is a sub-bass installation sourced either from the ambient VLF field radiated by electricity pylons and mains circuits, or directly from the output cables of mains transformers. National Grid offers live physical evidence of environmental electromagnetic pollution, a demonstration of the intrinsic musical properties of alternating current, beat-frequency effects, the architectural acoustics of its own exhibition space, a formula for the realisation and suppression of Futurist sound art, a cathartic response to the pressures of urban life, a monolithic soundtrack for the genius of electrification and for the bitter conflicts between government and organised labour for control over the nation's electrical infrastructure.” - Disinformation “Stargate” + “National Grid” LP - Ash International, Ash 3.2, copyright © 1996
Disobey, Holloway, London, 10 Oct 1996
Royal College of Art, Kensington, 5 Dec 1996
Museum of Installation, Deptford, July 1997
South London Gallery, Camberwell, 15 Aug 1998
Nuclear Warfare Command Centre, Anstruther, 25 Sept 1998
Lux Cinema, Hoxton, 9 Dec 1998
Volksbühne, Berlin, 27 June 1999
ZKM, Karlsruhe, 16 July 1999
Arctic Corsair, Hull, Oct 1999
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, Jan to March 2000
Sonic Boom, Hayward Gallery, 2 June 2000
The Dom, Moscow, 26 Sept 2000
Fabrica, Brighton, Nov to Dec 2001
The Royal Institution, Mayfair, 22 May 2004
Corsica Studios, Elephant & Castle, 19 Nov 2004 *
The Guardian Science Writers Xmas Party, 13 Dec 2004 *
Hull Art Lab (Humber Street, Kingston-upon-Hull) 4 Feb 2005 *
Cargo Nightclub, Hoxton, 17 Feb 2005 *
The Foundry, Hoxton, Oct 2005
Westbourne Studios, Notting Hill, 18 Sept 2006 *
The Junction, Cambridge, 27 April 2007 *
Centre for Life, Newcastle, 5 March 2008 *
Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, NZ, Aug 2009
When the Dust Settles, Dalston Bunker, Oct 2010
Living Rooms, Auckland, NZ, April 2011
Frequency Festival, Lincoln, Oct 2011
Usurp Gallery, Harrow, 8 Nov 2011
GV Art, Marylebone, Nov to Dec 2013
Inspace, Edinburgh, 29 Nov 2013
Le Bon Accueil, Rennes, Oct to Nov 2014
The Auricle, Christchurch, NZ, Feb 2015
The Morgue, Chelsea College of Arts, 16 March 2017
Assembly of Disturbance, Shoreditch, 7 Oct 2017
Gallery 46, Whitechapel, 15 Feb 2018
Kino Siska, Ljubljana, 21 March 2018
CMK, Koper, 22 March 2018
Caponier Tunnel, Newhaven Fort, 22 Sept 2018
Listening Arts Channel (on-line) 19 March 2021
Antithesis, Schemata Art, Elephant & Castle, March 2022
Ealing Extranormal Volume 22, 16 Dec 2023
Farsight Collective, St. Giles, 11 + 12 Oct 2024
LungA Skólinn, Seyðisfjörður, 23-25 May 2025
LCB Depot, Leicester, Sept 2025
Wave Farm (WGXC 90.7FM, Acra, NY) 10 Oct 2025
* Disinformation + Strange Attractor
“Fossils fascinate me – they’re like time capsules; if only one could unwind this spiral it would probably play back to us a picture of all the landscapes it’s ever seen” – J.G. Ballard, Prisoner of the Coral Deep, 1964
“Ammonite” video artwork by Disinformation
21 May to 16 July 2023
Outernet Arts, Now Building
Tottenham Court Road
London WC2H 8LH
Feature in Clot Magazine – tinyurl.com/y2t8czmk
NB: short extract, silent, MP4 H.264 (heavily compressed video) - original artworks copyright © 2009
Disinformation – “The Rapture” - live video + sound installation
Exhibition dates - 7 June to 31 July 2022
NB: visits by appointment only
Contact - info@cable-depot.com
Cable Depot
Off Warspite Road
Woolwich
London SE18 5NX
“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is as strong as death, and jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which burn with a vehement flame” – “The Song of Solomon” – chapter 8, verse 6
Full text - cable-depot.com/disinformation
“The Rapture montage conjures imagery of the flaming aura that resembles portrayals of the Buddhist deity Batō Kannon - a (male) manifestation of (or attendant to) the (female) “goddess of mercy and compassion” Kannon, aka Guanyin - the Taoist deity Mǎ Wáng, the Buddhist deity Acala, the Vedic fire god Agni... The Rapture also resembles the Prophet and angels, depicted with burning halos, in the epic Mirâj Namêh (the Night Journey) of the Persian poet Mir Haydar, illustrated by Mâlik Bakshî.”
“Drawing attention to the near homonym by which fire (Nār) and light (Nur) “are audio-visually very similar”, the Iranian art historians Somayeh Ramezanmahi and Hasan Bolkhari Ghehi state in their discourse on 'The Manifestation of Fire and Light in the Icons of Mir-Heidar’s Miraj Nameh'”:
“Fire and heat remind always of immortal memories saved in human being’s mind, they have become to a brilliant phenomenon for the exploitation of many ideas, feelings, and thoughts of human. Fire has not only a personal, individual, and internal aspect, but also agential, comprehensive, and general characteristics. It exists in human’s heart, and heaven, blazes from inside, manifested in form of love, and burns inside human… Among all phenomena, fire is indeed the only one that is involved to this extent in the life, thoughts, believes, vision, and feelings of people”.
Electromagnetic Sound Art - “National Grid” by Disinformation + Strange Attractor [Joe Banks + Mark Pilkington]
Recorded live at New Corsica Studios - 19 Nov 2004
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_AP2LlN6E
“Pulsing sub-bass audio suggests associations with the most primal anthropomorphic element in music -- the rhythms of the human heart, with foetal and infant hypnagogic sense memories, with seismic activity, the rumble of thunder (Jimi Hendrix claimed that his earliest childhood memory was of a thunderstorm) and even with war. Disinformation's National Grid is a sub-bass installation sourced either from the ambient VLF field radiated by electricity pylons and mains circuits, or directly from the output cables of mains transformers. National Grid offers live physical evidence of environmental electromagnetic pollution, a demonstration of the intrinsic musical properties of alternating current, beat-frequency effects, the architectural acoustics of its own exhibition space, a formula for the realisation and suppression of Futurist sound art, a cathartic response to the pressures of urban life, a monolithic soundtrack for the genius of electrification and for the bitter conflicts between government and organised labour for control over the nation's electrical infrastructure.” - Disinformation “Stargate” + “National Grid” LP - Ash International, Ash 3.2, copyright © 1996
Disobey, Holloway, London, 10 Oct 1996
Royal College of Art, Kensington, 5 Dec 1996
Museum of Installation, Deptford, July 1997
South London Gallery, Camberwell, 15 Aug 1998
Nuclear Warfare Command Centre, Anstruther, 25 Sept 1998
Lux Cinema, Hoxton, 9 Dec 1998
Volksbühne, Berlin, 27 June 1999
ZKM, Karlsruhe, 16 July 1999
Arctic Corsair, Hull, Oct 1999
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, Jan to March 2000
Sonic Boom, Hayward Gallery, 2 June 2000
The Dom, Moscow, 26 Sept 2000
Fabrica, Brighton, Nov to Dec 2001
The Royal Institution, Mayfair, 22 May 2004
Corsica Studios, Elephant & Castle, 19 Nov 2004 *
The Guardian Science Writers Xmas Party, 13 Dec 2004 *
Hull Art Lab (Humber Street, Kingston-upon-Hull) 4 Feb 2005 *
Cargo Nightclub, Hoxton, 17 Feb 2005 *
The Foundry, Hoxton, Oct 2005
Westbourne Studios, Notting Hill, 18 Sept 2006 *
The Junction, Cambridge, 27 April 2007 *
Centre for Life, Newcastle, 5 March 2008 *
Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, NZ, Aug 2009
When the Dust Settles, Dalston Bunker, Oct 2010
Living Rooms, Auckland, NZ, April 2011
Frequency Festival, Lincoln, Oct 2011
Usurp Gallery, Harrow, 8 Nov 2011
GV Art, Marylebone, Nov to Dec 2013
Inspace, Edinburgh, 29 Nov 2013
Le Bon Accueil, Rennes, Oct to Nov 2014
The Auricle, Christchurch, NZ, Feb 2015
The Morgue, Chelsea College of Arts, 16 March 2017
Assembly of Disturbance, Shoreditch, 7 Oct 2017
Gallery 46, Whitechapel, 15 Feb 2018
Kino Siska, Ljubljana, 21 March 2018
CMK, Koper, 22 March 2018
Caponier Tunnel, Newhaven Fort, 22 Sept 2018
Listening Arts Channel (on-line) 19 March 2021
Antithesis, Schemata Art, Elephant & Castle, March 2022
Ealing Extranormal Volume 22, 16 Dec 2023
Farsight Collective, St. Giles, 11 + 12 Oct 2024
LungA Skólinn, Seyðisfjörður, 23-25 May 2025
LCB Depot, Leicester, Sept 2025
Wave Farm (WGXC 90.7FM, Acra, NY) 10 Oct 2025
* Disinformation + Strange Attractor
Electromagnetic sound art in virtual exhibition space...
Disinformation – “Antithesis”
Virtual exhibition for Schemata Art
Hosted by New Art City + Corsica Studios
March 2022 onwards (indefinite exhibition)
Full description + user guide – rorschachaudio.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/disinformation...
3D view – newart.city/show/schemata-disinformation-antithesis
Catalogue view - newart.city/catalog/schemata-disinformation-antithesis
Curated and designed by Alice Hoffmann-Fuller, the latest exhibition in Schemata, Corsica Studios’ new experimental arts platform, takes place in a 3D digital rendering of Corsica Studios, hosted by on-line gallery platform New Art City. The “Antithesis” exhibition features brand new and archival work by the highly innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation.
The Disinformation project’s exhibition for Schemata is in part inspired by the close proximity of Corsica Studios to the Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon’s iconic memorial to the electrical scientist Michael Faraday, installed, close to Corsica Studios, at the Elephant & Castle in 1961. The Disinformation sound artwork “National Grid” was first released on LP and performed live in 1996, and first exhibited as an art gallery sound installation in 1997. “National Grid” uses electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity to create a monolithic and immersive sound installation, which is conceived as a musical tribute to “the (creative) genius of electrification” [1]. The Michael Faraday memorial itself contains an electrical substation, which feeds high-voltage power to the London Underground; and it is consistent with the assertion that “art is not necessarily science, but science is always art” [2] that the original design for the Michael Faraday memorial envisaged this important work of public art as being a glass container (not, as it stands at present, a highly reflective steel box). On this basis, and in terms that are equally antithetical to the conventional wisdom of mainstream contemporary art, it can be argued that the true purpose of the architect’s original design was to enable members of the public to view what can be seen as the “real” work of art - meaning to view the electrical infrastructure.
[1] Hull Time Based Arts TOOT Festival Programme, Mute Magazine (special supplement) Oct 1999
[2] Joe Banks “The Rumble” (catalogue) Royal Society of Sculptors, March 2001
“Virtually all the physical phenomena we experience, such as light, chemical reactions, the properties of materials, and the transmission of signals along nerve fibres, are electrical in nature. In fact, the only non-electrical force we experience every day is the force of gravity.” – Harris Benson “University Physics” Wiley 1991
See also - www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/
Visual schematic for the “Soundproofs” exhibition, at the Museum of Installation (art gallery), London, July 1997. “Soundproofs” featured sonic artworks by Bruce Gilbert (from the band Wire), Joe Banks (the producer of the art project Disinformation), David Clegg and Javier Marchán, performances by Martin Creed (and his band Owada), by Bruce Gilbert, Joe Banks and Hayley Newman, and a special panel discussion chaired by Robert Worby (from BBC Radio 3) and the late artist Paul Burwell (RIP).
Report by journalist Craig McLean from the MTV music magazine “Blah Blah Blah”, about the live premiere of “National Grid” by Disinformation, at club Disobey, 10 October 1996 [1]. The first recorded version of “National Grid” was published on the Disinformation “Stargate” LP by the avant-garde record label Ash International (an imprint of Touch Records) in 1996 (see links). The first performance was programmed at the Disobey club night by Blast First - the record company responsible for publishing artists like Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr., Suicide and Panasonic, alongside audio work by the artist Jeremy Deller, etc.
“Blah Blah Blah” was produced for MTV by Ray Gun Publishing, boasting a circulation of 120,000 copies [2] and featuring (in the case of this issue) interviews with Noel Gallagher, Robert Carlyle, Kate Winslett, Snoop Dogg and Steve Buscemi etc - giving some indication of the role that Disinformation played in influencing sonic arts practice, and in promoting what were at that time still highly controversial ideas, to audiences outside the (very small) world of the underground noise music micro-culture.
“National Grid” was also described in a full page feature covering the Disobey event, which was printed in London’s Evening Standard newspaper, with a readership of over 800,000 people. In terms of public access to information about relatively obscure technical concepts (eg - about VLF radio) and cultural trends, it’s also worth pointing out that these events took place in the earliest days of the internet - the domain name for Google wasn’t even registered until Sept 1997 - with the effect that many of the informative resources we now take for granted did at that time simply not exist.
“National Grid” was originally performed and recorded using the Upper and Lower Side-Band filter on a VLF converted shortwave radio, to musically tune interference from live mains electricity. Later versions use electric guitar pedals to tune direct-line outputs from mains electrical transformers… “Heavy Metal for the 23rd century”!
Disinformation founder Joe Banks met Craig McLean at the Disobey performance, with the photographer John Horsley visiting Joe in Tooting some time later, photographing different equipment - the photo features the Low Frequency Engineering L500 VLF receiver used to record the Disinformation track “Ghost Shells”, plus in fact the National Grid PLC team rugby shirt (donated by Tony Charles) which originally inspired the title “National Grid”.
The “small club” referred to in the article was the (moderately large) upstairs space at The Garage (music venue) at London’s Highbury Corner. Far from being a properly underground event, Blast First engaged a professional PR company to (successfully) promote Disobey to the media as an amazing “in crowd” night, attended by celebrities such as Jarvis Cocker. The event sold-out, queues formed in the street outside, and celebrity photographers from Esquire magazine and Harper's Bazaar etc were surprised to have their expectations confounded by performances from Disinformation and DJ Beekeeper (Bruce Gilbert from the band Wire).
For a full list of “National Grid” performances and gallery sound installations to date please follow this link -
www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/
[1] “Blah Blah Blah” issue 11, Feb 1997, page 4
[2] “Billboard”, 24 Feb 1996, page 94
www.discogs.com/Disinformation-Stargate/release/66465
A scan of the Disobey + DJ Beekeeper beermat can be found here -
weedsuptomeknees.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/disobey-beer...
A4 information sheet for the “Soundproofs” exhibition, at London’s Museum of Installation (gallery) in July 1997. “Soundproofs” featured audio installations by Bruce Gilbert (from the band Wire), Joe Banks (Disinformation), David Clegg and Javier Marchán, performances by Martin Creed and Keiko Owada, Bruce Gilbert, Joe Banks, and Hayley Newman, plus a panel discussion chaired by Robert Worby (from BBC Radio 3) and the late Paul Burwell.
The information sheet refers to installation art as “being delineated as a broad discursive field” which is “often presented with an almost exclusive reliance on the visual”. So, in this exhibition the Museum of Installation presented “a series of empty rooms in which there is nothing to see beyond the architectural fabric”. The “Soundproofs” exhibition featured “National Grid” - the electrical sound installation created by Joe Banks for the project Disinformation, and, although the sound from this installation was heard (and felt) as vibrations rising up through the floor into an empty gallery, in fact the set-up in the basement was quite photogenic (see links below).
The info sheet acknowledges “Soundproofs” as a “collaboration with David Clegg of Workfortheeyetodo”, describing how as the gallery’s “exterior skin is being refurbished” the artists were “producing a score for the architectural container”, and then describing how “by moving through the building the listener then recreates and modifies the works, fusing mnemonic triggers and fragments into a cohesive form”. “Soundproofs” took place at the same time that the Workfortheeyetodo space was exhibiting works by John Cage, Paul Burwell and Stephen Cripps.
“National Grid” was first published on LP in 1996 and first exhibited at the MOI in 1997, pre-dating works such as “Domestic Grid Flux” by CM von Hausswolff (Modern Art Oxford, 2000) and “Electrical Walks” by Christina Kubisch (Klangraum Raumklang, Köln, 2004) by 4 and 8 years respectively (and, rather strangely, Christina Kubisch often describes herself as belonging to the [quote] “first generation of sound artists”, despite her first work being published 65 years after Luigi Russolo’s famous Intonarumori, and decades after pioneering works by John Cage, Pierre Schaeffer, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis, Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire, etc).
Disinformation – “Antithesis”
Virtual exhibition for Schemata Art
Hosted by New Art City + Corsica Studios
March 2022 onwards (indefinite exhibition)
Full description + user guide – rorschachaudio.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/disinformation...
3D view – newart.city/show/schemata-disinformation-antithesis
Catalogue view - newart.city/catalog/schemata-disinformation-antithesis
Curated and designed by Alice Hoffmann-Fuller, the latest exhibition in Schemata, Corsica Studios’ new experimental arts platform, takes place in a 3D digital rendering of Corsica Studios, hosted by on-line gallery platform New Art City. The “Antithesis” exhibition features brand new and archival work by the highly innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation.
The Disinformation project’s exhibition for Schemata is in part inspired by the close proximity of Corsica Studios to the Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon’s iconic memorial to the electrical scientist Michael Faraday, installed, close to Corsica Studios, at the Elephant & Castle in 1961. The Disinformation sound artwork “National Grid” was first released on LP and performed live in 1996, and first exhibited as an art gallery sound installation in 1997. “National Grid” uses electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity to create a monolithic and immersive sound installation, which is conceived as a musical tribute to “the (creative) genius of electrification” [1]. The Michael Faraday memorial itself contains an electrical substation, which feeds high-voltage power to the London Underground; and it is consistent with the assertion that “art is not necessarily science, but science is always art” [2] that the original design for the Michael Faraday memorial envisaged this important work of public art as being a glass container (not, as it stands at present, a highly reflective steel box). On this basis, and in terms that are equally antithetical to the conventional wisdom of mainstream contemporary art, it can be argued that the true purpose of the architect’s original design was to enable members of the public to view what can be seen as the “real” work of art - meaning to view the electrical infrastructure.
[1] Hull Time Based Arts TOOT Festival Programme, Mute Magazine (special supplement) Oct 1999
[2] Joe Banks “The Rumble” (catalogue) Royal Society of Sculptors, March 2001
“Virtually all the physical phenomena we experience, such as light, chemical reactions, the properties of materials, and the transmission of signals along nerve fibres, are electrical in nature. In fact, the only non-electrical force we experience every day is the force of gravity.” – Harris Benson “University Physics” Wiley 1991
See also - www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/
Whitney visitors transfixed by Hito Steyerl's #FactoryoftheSun, the immersive video installation making its New York debut at @WhitneyMuseum's #Dreamlands exhibition. Berlin-based Steyerl blends dystopian video game worlds with Youtube clips and news reel footage in a style that is as nightmarish as it unmistakably German. 👾 I loved it. 💀 | #hitosteyerl #whitneymuseum #videoart #installationview #nycart #instamuseum #artwatchers #newyork #contemporaryart
Electromagnetic sound art in virtual exhibition space...
Disinformation – “Antithesis”
Virtual exhibition for Schemata Art
Hosted by New Art City + Corsica Studios
March 2022 onwards (indefinite exhibition)
Full description + user guide – rorschachaudio.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/disinformation...
3D view – newart.city/show/schemata-disinformation-antithesis
Catalogue view - newart.city/catalog/schemata-disinformation-antithesis
Curated and designed by Alice Hoffmann-Fuller, the latest exhibition in Schemata, Corsica Studios’ new experimental arts platform, takes place in a 3D digital rendering of Corsica Studios, hosted by on-line gallery platform New Art City. The “Antithesis” exhibition features brand new and archival work by the highly innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation.
The Disinformation project’s exhibition for Schemata is in part inspired by the close proximity of Corsica Studios to the Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon’s iconic memorial to the electrical scientist Michael Faraday, installed, close to Corsica Studios, at the Elephant & Castle in 1961. The Disinformation sound artwork “National Grid” was first released on LP and performed live in 1996, and first exhibited as an art gallery sound installation in 1997. “National Grid” uses electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity to create a monolithic and immersive sound installation, which is conceived as a musical tribute to “the (creative) genius of electrification” [1]. The Michael Faraday memorial itself contains an electrical substation, which feeds high-voltage power to the London Underground; and it is consistent with the assertion that “art is not necessarily science, but science is always art” [2] that the original design for the Michael Faraday memorial envisaged this important work of public art as being a glass container (not, as it stands at present, a highly reflective steel box). On this basis, and in terms that are equally antithetical to the conventional wisdom of mainstream contemporary art, it can be argued that the true purpose of the architect’s original design was to enable members of the public to view what can be seen as the “real” work of art - meaning to view the electrical infrastructure.
[1] Hull Time Based Arts TOOT Festival Programme, Mute Magazine (special supplement) Oct 1999
[2] Joe Banks “The Rumble” (catalogue) Royal Society of Sculptors, March 2001
“Virtually all the physical phenomena we experience, such as light, chemical reactions, the properties of materials, and the transmission of signals along nerve fibres, are electrical in nature. In fact, the only non-electrical force we experience every day is the force of gravity.” – Harris Benson “University Physics” Wiley 1991
See also - www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/
Disinformation – “Antithesis”
Virtual exhibition for Schemata Art
Hosted by New Art City + Corsica Studios
March 2022 onwards (indefinite exhibition)
Full description + user guide - rorschachaudio.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/disinformation...
3D view – newart.city/show/schemata-disinformation-antithesis
Catalogue view - newart.city/catalog/schemata-disinformation-antithesis
Curated and designed by Alice Hoffmann-Fuller, the latest exhibition in Schemata, Corsica Studios’ new experimental arts platform, takes place in a 3D digital rendering of Corsica Studios, hosted by on-line gallery platform New Art City. The “Antithesis” exhibition features brand new and archival work by the highly innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation.
The Disinformation project’s exhibition for Schemata is in part inspired by the close proximity of Corsica Studios to the Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon’s iconic memorial to the electrical scientist Michael Faraday, installed, close to Corsica Studios, at the Elephant & Castle in 1961. The Disinformation sound artwork “National Grid” was first released on LP and performed live in 1996, and first exhibited as an art gallery sound installation in 1997. “National Grid” uses electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity to create a monolithic and immersive sound installation, which is conceived as a musical tribute to “the (creative) genius of electrification” [1]. The Michael Faraday memorial itself contains an electrical substation, which feeds high-voltage power to the London Underground; and it is consistent with the assertion that “art is not necessarily science, but science is always art” [2] that the original design for the Michael Faraday memorial envisaged this important work of public art as being a glass container (not, as it stands at present, a highly reflective steel box). On this basis, and in terms that are equally antithetical to the conventional wisdom of mainstream contemporary art, it can be argued that the true purpose of the architect’s original design was to enable members of the public to view what can be seen as the “real” work of art - meaning to view the electrical infrastructure.
[1] Hull Time Based Arts TOOT Festival Programme, Mute Magazine (special supplement) Oct 1999
[2] Joe Banks “The Rumble” (catalogue) Royal Society of Sculptors, March 2001
“Virtually all the physical phenomena we experience, such as light, chemical reactions, the properties of materials, and the transmission of signals along nerve fibres, are electrical in nature. In fact, the only non-electrical force we experience every day is the force of gravity.” – Harris Benson “University Physics” Wiley 1991
See also - www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/
Duty free art / art dédouané
Installation d'Hito Steyerl (1966, Allemagne)
2015
Vidéo HD 3 canaux, couleur, son
38 min 21 s
Courtesy de l'artiste et de la galerie Andrew Kreps, New York
Hito Steyerl est une artiste allemande très engagée, elle est auteure, cinéaste, enseignante et étudie la circulation globale des images et les méthodes de narration documentaire. Très reconnue sur le plan international, une de ses vidéos a notamment été montrée à la Biennale de Venise en 2013 dans l'Arsenal.
Son travail est au coeur même des problématiques abordées dans l'exposition "le supermarché des images". Elle y présente dans un espace spécifique une installation où elle fait une conférence vidéo illustrée, de près de 40 minutes, sur la spéculation internationale des oeuvres d'art et le rôle joué par certains ports francs ultrasécurisés (Singapour, Genêve, Luxembourg...) pour échapper aux taxations, stocker et vendre des oeuvres en toute discrétion. Ce réseau mondial de ports francs dédiés à l'art peut être qualifié "de musée secret planétaire" que très peu de gens connaissent.
Cette longue présentation, inattendue dans une exposition où on ne reste que peu de temps devant chaque oeuvre, est particulièrement intéressante et incite à lire l'ouvrage qu'elle a publié en anglais sur ce sujet, une traduction en français est en cours.
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Nous habitons un monde de plus en plus saturé d’images. Leur nombre connaît une croissance tellement exponentielle – aujourd’hui plus de trois milliards d’images partagées chaque jour sur les réseaux sociaux – que l’espace de la visibilité semble être littéralement submergé. Comme s’il ne pouvait plus contenir les images qui le constituent. Comme s’il n’y avait plus de place, plus d’interstices entre elles. On s’approcherait ainsi de la limite que Walter Benjamin, il y a un siècle déjà, imaginait sous la forme d’« un espace à cent pour cent tenu par l’image ».....
Extrait du site de l'exposition "Le supermarché des images"
Jeu de Paume, Paris
The artist project Disinformation exhibits a substantial repertoire of artworks, which reflect long-standing involvement with experimental and expanded photography. These artworks represent a creative philosophy which conceives photography, not just as a representational art-form, but also as a form of kinetic art. Disinformation is also known for exhibiting electromagnetic sound art, for exhibiting works which exploit phenomena from those portions of the electromagnetic spectrum perceived through the medium of RADIO; and those works make ideal accompaniments for other artworks which exploit phenomena from those portions of the electromagnetic spectrum which are normally perceived through the faculty of SIGHT.
“The Origin of Painting” (for instance) is a highly dynamic and interactive optokinetic sound and light artwork, which enables exhibition visitors to photograph their own life-size shadows, to a soundtrack of live (and surprisingly musical) electromagnetic noise. “The Origin of Painting” was first exhibited under the title “Artificial Lightning”, in the “Sonic Boom” exhibition at London’s Hayward Gallery, April to June 2000 (alongside artworks by Brian Eno, Christian Marclay, Ryoji Ikeda, Christina Kubisch and Mika Vainio etc); after which (using the new title) “The Origin of Painting” has since been exhibited more than 30 times.
“Fire in the Eye” (see photo above) is a series of electro-kinetic photograms, first created in 2004, using high-voltage electro-medical equipment to discharge 30,000 volt shocks through Fujichrome ISO400 35mm daylight film. “Fire in the Eye” light boxes were first exhibited at Canolfan Gelf Wrecsam (Wrexham Arts Centre), Oct 2006, and the Saltburn Gallery, Jan 2007; while a 35mm CINEMA version of “Fire in the Eye” was realised in 2007, created by discharging 30,000 volt shocks through the famous Kodak 5294 film stock used by Ridley Scott for the film “Aliens”.
The “Fire in the Eye” photograph shown above also appears on the front cover of the film magazine “Vertigo” (vol. 4, no. 3, summer 2009) and has been used to illustrate Disinformation exhibits at, amongst others, Iniva (London) May 2009, and Palais de Tokyo (Paris) 2009 to 2011. This photograph also appears in the book “2009 A-Z, Palais de Tokyo - Du Yodel à la Physique Quantique” published in 2009.
“Spellbound” (“An Allegorical Portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer”) is a photomontage (created by Disinformation producer Joe Banks) of historic images by US Army photographers J.J. Mike Michnovicz and Bernard Waldman. “Spellbound” was first exhibited as a framed artwork at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) Nov 2000, and the Royal Society of Sculptors (London) March 2001. “Spellbound” has since been exhibited as a video installation - at Fabrica Gallery (Brighton) Nov 2001, the Huddersfield Art Gallery, Jan 2003, Quay Arts (Newport, Isle of Wight) Feb 2004, South Hill Park (Bracknell) April 2004, Derby Quad, June 2004, Goldsmiths College (London) Dec 2008 and Sluice HQ (London) Nov 2018.
Other photographic artworks exhibited by Disinformation include “An Allegorical Portrait of Roger Bacon” photomontage (1997), the “Blackout” [Sound Mirrors] video (1997), the “National Grid” [video installation version] (2001), and “Anti-Matter” (2002), “Ammonite” (2009) and “The Rapture” (2021) video artworks. The “Language [as] Meta-Technology” artwork (2nd version, 2022) is particularly notable, in that, rather than being a photographic image, it requires the artwork’s viewers themselves to actively PHOTOGRAPH a visual image, using a mobile Smartphone, in order to activate the audio element of the “Language [as] Meta-Technology” artwork.
National Grid - exhibition signage for audio installation
See also - www.flickr.com/disinfo/31910925141/
Electromagnetic Sound Art - “National Grid” by Disinformation
Commissioned and exhibited by Fabrica Gallery, Nov 2001
“National Grid” audio by Joe Banks - first published 1996
Original video footage by Barry Hale, processed by Joe Banks
NB: poor audio compression
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_AP2LlN6E
“Pulsing sub-bass audio suggests associations with the most primal anthropomorphic element in music -- the rhythms of the human heart, with foetal and infant hypnagogic sense memories, with seismic activity, the rumble of thunder (Jimi Hendrix claimed that his earliest childhood memory was of a thunderstorm) and even with war. Disinformation's National Grid is a sub-bass installation sourced either from the ambient VLF field radiated by electricity pylons and mains circuits, or directly from the output cables of mains transformers. National Grid offers live physical evidence of environmental electromagnetic pollution, a demonstration of the intrinsic musical properties of alternating current, beat-frequency effects, the architectural acoustics of its own exhibition space, a formula for the realisation and suppression of Futurist sound art, a cathartic response to the pressures of urban life, a monolithic soundtrack for the genius of electrification and for the bitter conflicts between government and organised labour for control over the nation's electrical infrastructure.” - Disinformation “Stargate” + “National Grid” LP - Ash International, Ash 3.2, copyright © 1996
Disobey, Holloway, London, 10 Oct 1996
Royal College of Art, Kensington, 5 Dec 1996
Museum of Installation, Deptford, July 1997
South London Gallery, Camberwell, 15 Aug 1998
Nuclear Warfare Command Centre, Anstruther, 25 Sept 1998
Lux Cinema, Hoxton, 9 Dec 1998
Volksbühne, Berlin, 27 June 1999
ZKM, Karlsruhe, 16 July 1999
Arctic Corsair, Hull, Oct 1999
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, Jan to March 2000
Sonic Boom, Hayward Gallery, 2 June 2000
The Dom, Moscow, 26 Sept 2000
Fabrica, Brighton, Nov to Dec 2001
The Royal Institution, Mayfair, 22 May 2004
Corsica Studios, Elephant & Castle, 19 Nov 2004 *
The Guardian Science Writers Xmas Party, 13 Dec 2004 *
Hull Art Lab (Humber Street, Kingston-upon-Hull) 4 Feb 2005 *
Cargo Nightclub, Hoxton, 17 Feb 2005 *
The Foundry, Hoxton, Oct 2005
Westbourne Studios, Notting Hill, 18 Sept 2006 *
The Junction, Cambridge, 27 April 2007 *
Centre for Life, Newcastle, 5 March 2008 *
Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, NZ, Aug 2009
When the Dust Settles, Dalston Bunker, Oct 2010
Living Rooms, Auckland, NZ, April 2011
Frequency Festival, Lincoln, Oct 2011
Usurp Gallery, Harrow, 8 Nov 2011
GV Art, Marylebone, Nov to Dec 2013
Inspace, Edinburgh, 29 Nov 2013
Le Bon Accueil, Rennes, Oct to Nov 2014
The Auricle, Christchurch, NZ, Feb 2015
The Morgue, Chelsea College of Arts, 16 March 2017
Assembly of Disturbance, Shoreditch, 7 Oct 2017
Gallery 46, Whitechapel, 15 Feb 2018
Kino Siska, Ljubljana, 21 March 2018
CMK, Koper, 22 March 2018
Caponier Tunnel, Newhaven Fort, 22 Sept 2018
Listening Arts Channel (on-line) 19 March 2021
Antithesis, Schemata Art, Elephant & Castle, March 2022
Ealing Extranormal Volume 22, 16 Dec 2023
Farsight Collective, St. Giles, 11 + 12 Oct 2024
LungA Skólinn, Seyðisfjörður, 23-25 May 2025
LCB Depot, Leicester, Sept 2025
Wave Farm (WGXC 90.7FM, Acra, NY) 10 Oct 2025
* Disinformation + Strange Attractor
The artist project Disinformation exhibits a substantial repertoire of artworks, which reflect long-standing involvement with experimental and expanded photography. These artworks represent a creative philosophy which conceives photography, not just as a representational art-form, but also as a form of kinetic art. Disinformation is also known for exhibiting electromagnetic sound art, for exhibiting works which exploit phenomena from those portions of the electromagnetic spectrum perceived through the medium of RADIO; and those works make ideal accompaniments for other artworks which exploit phenomena from those portions of the electromagnetic spectrum which are normally perceived through the faculty of SIGHT.
“The Origin of Painting” (for instance) is a highly dynamic and interactive optokinetic sound and light artwork, which enables exhibition visitors to photograph their own life-size shadows, to a soundtrack of live (and surprisingly musical) electromagnetic noise. “The Origin of Painting” was first exhibited under the title “Artificial Lightning”, in the “Sonic Boom” exhibition at London’s Hayward Gallery, April to June 2000 (alongside artworks by Brian Eno, Christian Marclay, Ryoji Ikeda, Christina Kubisch and Mika Vainio etc); after which (using the new title) “The Origin of Painting” has since been exhibited more than 30 times.
“Fire in the Eye” (see photo above) is a series of electro-kinetic photograms, first created in 2004, using high-voltage electro-medical equipment to discharge 30,000 volt shocks through Fujichrome ISO400 35mm daylight film. “Fire in the Eye” light boxes were first exhibited at Canolfan Gelf Wrecsam (Wrexham Arts Centre), Oct 2006, and the Saltburn Gallery, Jan 2007; while a 35mm CINEMA version of “Fire in the Eye” was realised in 2007, created by discharging 30,000 volt shocks through the famous Kodak 5294 film stock used by Ridley Scott for the film “Aliens”.
“Spellbound” (“An Allegorical Portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer”) is a photomontage (created by Disinformation producer Joe Banks) of historic images by US Army photographers J.J. Mike Michnovicz and Bernard Waldman. “Spellbound” was first exhibited as a framed artwork at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) Nov 2000, and the Royal Society of Sculptors (London) March 2001. “Spellbound” has since been exhibited as a video installation - at Fabrica Gallery (Brighton) Nov 2001, the Huddersfield Art Gallery, Jan 2003, Quay Arts (Newport, Isle of Wight) Feb 2004, South Hill Park (Bracknell) April 2004, Derby Quad, June 2004, Goldsmiths College (London) Dec 2008 and Sluice HQ (London) Nov 2018.
Other photographic artworks exhibited by Disinformation include “An Allegorical Portrait of Roger Bacon” photomontage (1997), the “Blackout” [Sound Mirrors] video (1997), the “National Grid” [video installation version] (2001), and “Anti-Matter” (2002), “Ammonite” (2009) and “The Rapture” (2021) video artworks. The “Language [as] Meta-Technology” artwork (2nd version, 2022) is particularly notable, in that, rather than being a photographic image, it requires the artwork’s viewers themselves to actively PHOTOGRAPH a visual image, using a mobile Smartphone, in order to activate the audio element of the “Language [as] Meta-Technology” artwork.
DLD Munich Conference 2018, Europe's big innovation conference, Alte Bayerische Staatsbank, Munich, January 20th - 22nd 2018, free press image © Dominik Gigler for DLD
exhibition opening, August 20, 2020
on view until October 31, 2020
Exportdrvo, Grobnička riva bb, Rijeka
Curator: Inke Arns
Artists: ➤ Aram Bartholl (DE) ➤ Ursula Biemann (CH) ➤ DISNOVATION.ORG (FR/PL) ➤ Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman (US) / Daniel Keller (DE) ➤ Steffen Köhn (DE) ➤ Lawrence Lek (GB) ➤ Rebecca Moss (GB) ➤ Jenny Odell (US) ➤ Elisa Giardina Papa (IT) ➤ Lisa Rave (DE) ➤ Marie Reinert (FR) ➤ Tabita Rezaire (GF) ➤ RYBN (FR) ➤ Sebastian Schmieg (DE) ➤ Hito Steyerl (DE)
Photo: Tanja Kanazir / Drugo more
“Who constructed the bridgehead buildings?” This question is the leitmotif of an installation in the heart of the city, in Linz’s Hauptplatz. It is echoed by questions about the engineers, the construction workers and the building materials. Who was involved? Who took the initiative? Who did the work? Was it the architects of the Nazis? Concentration camp prisoners? Forced labourers? What were conditions like for those who produced the building materials and for those who constructed the actual buildings? The installation UNTER UNS attempts to make the stones of the bridgehead buildings “talk” and wants the past to become visible. An architectural intervention and a groundfloor installation visualise the research process. Even though this installation focuses on no more than one single case it will shed light on various aspects of Nazi era everyday life, which was lived under the twin shadows of tyranny and fascist aesthetics.
Evgeny Morozov (Writer) Hito Steyerl (Artist) Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery) DLD Munich Conference 2018, Europe's big innovation conference, Alte Bayerische Staatsbank, Munich, January 20th - 22nd 2018, free press image © Dominik Gigler for DLD
Work shown by Axel Stevens
Group show “Hulstaert” - Vierkante Zaal Paul Snoekstraat 3 9100 Sint-Niklaas Belgium 22 october - 27 november 2016
“Aesthetically, one might describe this condition as opacity in broad daylight: you could see anything, but what exactly and why is quite unclear. There are a lot of brightly lit glossy surfaces, yet they don’t reveal anything but themselves as surface. Whatever there is — it’s all there to see but in the form of an incomprehensible, Kafkaesque glossiness, written in extraterrestrial code, perhaps subject to secret legislation. It certainly expresses something: a format, a protocol or executive order, but effectively obfuscates its meaning. This is a far cry from a situation in which something—an image, a person, a notion — stood in for another and presumably acted in its interest. Today it stands in, but its relation to whatever it stands in for is cryptic, shiny, unstable; the link flickers on and off. Art could relish in this shiny instability — it does already.”
Hito Steyerl - Politics of Post-Representation Dismagazine
MUNICH/GERMANY - JANUARY, 21: (l-r) Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Galleries), Hito Steyerl (Artist) and Evgeny Morozov (Writer) speak togehter in a panel discussion during the DLD18 (Digital-Life-Design) Conference at the Alte Bayerische Staatsbank on January 21th, 2018 in Munich, Germany (Photo: picture alliance / Andreas Gebert) | Verwendung weltweit
Evgeny Morozov (Writer) Hito Steyerl (Artist) Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery) DLD Munich Conference 2018, Europe's big innovation conference, Alte Bayerische Staatsbank, Munich, January 20th - 22nd 2018, free press image © Dominik Gigler for DLD
MUNICH/GERMANY - JANUARY, 21: (l-r) Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Galleries), Hito Steyerl (Artist) and Evgeny Morozov (Writer) speak togehter in a panel discussion during the DLD18 (Digital-Life-Design) Conference at the Alte Bayerische Staatsbank on January 21th, 2018 in Munich, Germany (Photo: picture alliance / Andreas Gebert) | Verwendung weltweit
Hito Steyerl (Artist) Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery) DLD Munich Conference 2018, Europe's big innovation conference, Alte Bayerische Staatsbank, Munich, January 20th - 22nd 2018, free press image © Dominik Gigler for DLD