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Later That Night At The Drive-In, 2010
Daniel Lanois - Los Angeles, USA / Toronto, Canada
Multimedia Installation
Nathan Phillips Square is transformed into an oasis of sound and vision. Daniel Lanois prepares, produces and performs the soundtrack to a multi-channel, multi-screen media experience, nestled comfortably into the centre of the night. Working with a field of sound-projectors, original scored videowork by contributing artists including Jennifer West and Nicholas Provost, and performances by special guest artists including Trixie Whitley (Black Dub) and Carolina Cerisola (salsa dancer), the space is designed to expand collective experience, opening up multiple perceptions and realities. Introducing diverse elements in sound, music, light, film and video, the atmosphere is guided from a central studio location, a hub of creation that reflects into a sea of possibilities.
Musician, artist, innovator, and award-winning producer Daniel Lanois’s eclectic artistic background includes working with some of the world’s most renowned musicians, including U2, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, The Killers’ Brandon Flowers and Neil Young. Through his own five albums, as well as with new band Black Dub, Lanois balances technical prowess with simple beauty, technical wizardry and emotional honesty, while creating a rich experience full of personal expression.
blackdub.net/
This image was captured during my Palm Beach Photographic Workshops India workshop. with a Nikon D-200 camera modified for infrared. Enhanced color conversion done by LifePixel with a 28-300 mm VR II I lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS5 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals.
© Vincent Versace 2010
The camera conversion was done by lifepixel. Enhanced Color Filter Their URL is www.lifepixel.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=158
#Nikon Ambassador #Westcott #D200 #lexar #kelbyone #photography #lifepixel #tumbhi .com #tumbhi #onOne@NikonUSA#NikonNoFilter #niksoftware #nikonUSA #Epson #wacom #xrite #onone #India #vincentversace #india #fineartphotography
Image: "My Real Baby" video still
Single-channel video on 19" CRT monitor (color, sound)
2001
Link to video:
www.rachelrampleman.com/artwork-/dolls/my-real-baby
CINCINNATI, OH—from Friday, April 19 until Sunday, June 16, the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts premiered "Oh! You Pretty Things", celebrating almost twenty years of the incomparable documentary and experimental video work by Cincinnati native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. "Oh! You Pretty Things" featured a kaleidoscopic array of many of the artist’s single- and multi-channel video installations from her extensive creative catalogue along with brand new works from the "Life is Drag" series out of New York City in an unforgettable immersive gallery experience.
Best known for bodies of work exploring subjects such as gender, artifice, and spectacle, Rampleman showcases exuberantly bold and irrepressible personalities who revel in challenging common clichés associated with masculinity and femininity. The exhibition stretched across both levels of the Weston starting with the creation of a high concept but low budget/DIY-inspired performance space installation in the atrium gallery including spectacular Mylar curtains to set the mood for the aestheticized performances of identity portrayed in her video sculptures and displays screened across multiple electronic platforms including CRT monitors, tablets, and flat screen TVs seen in the lower-level.
A sampling of subjects, muses, and collaborators represented in the survey included Girls Girls Girls (the world's first and only all-female Mötley Crüe tribute band), Tazzie Colomb (the world's longest competing female bodybuilder/powerlifter), and LACTIC Incorporated (an avant-garde clothing brand that takes the detritus of corporate life and reinterprets it into one-of-a-kind structural garments that challenge the polarization of gender and critique existing power structures). In addition, Rampleman premiered a new series of work, "Life is Drag", in which she documented her collaborations with the most singular and innovative emerging artists of the flourishing Brooklyn alt-drag scene.
The Weston’s street-level exhibition space featured a dazzling Mylar curtain backdrop and suspended disco ball and accent stage lighting that also served as the site for "Rebel Revel", an alt-drag-queer-burlesque-pop-punk-fashion-performance-gothic-cabaret-metal-disco-festival on Saturday, June 8. This one-night-only festival celebrated those who truly and boldly push the limits of gender expression combines drag, burlesque, avant-garde fashions, and radical makeup with subversive and often political performances. It featured a drag extravaganza including performances by ODD Presents, the new Cincinnati-based alternative drag haus committed to presenting queer-centric entertainment in all its forms; draglesque by nationally renowned and legendary local male illusionist Alexander Cameron; burlesque by Ginger Lesnapps—head mistress of the award-winning Cin City Burlesque and winner of RAW Artists Cincinnati Performing Artist of the Year; and also more burlesque by Cincinnati’s brand new Smoke & Queers—a co-ed amateur burlesque troupe that encourages all expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality; a runway show with gender bending looks from Northside's NVISION and NYC's LACTIC Incorporated; and the premiere of the latest fantastical art-couture stylings by costume and wig designer/former vaudeville and burlesque performer Stacey Vest of Sweet Hayseed.
In conjunction with "Oh! You Pretty Things", Rampleman presented a video program she curated in 2013 at The Mini Microcinema on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. entitled “Hyper-muscularity & Femininity on Film: A Screening of Media Portrayals of Women Bodybuilders from the 1980s and the 1990s aka ‘The Most Awesome Female Muscle Celebration in the World.’” This program took the latter part of its title from an event by the same name held in New York City in 1995 which showcased top-name women bodybuilders of that time displaying their physiques by doing different individually choreographed performances (as warriors, queens, pop stars) as opposed to the normal mandated posing routines they performed for professional competitions. The Mini Microcinema is located at 1329 Main Street, downtown, Cincinnati. www.mini-cinema.org.
PRESS
Art Papers:
www.artpapers.org/rachel-rampleman-oh-you-pretty-things/
AEQAI:
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
.
This image was captured with a Nikon D-3x camera with a 70-210Dseries lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. All file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Image was lit by sunlight reflecting off concrete. No reflector, defuser or Photoshop lighting effects.
Black and White conversion was Done in Photoshop CS4 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique.
© Vincent Versace 2009
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+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?
This image was captured with a Nikon D-2 camera with a 70-210mm lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar Flash media. All file was post processed using NIKON capture. Black and White conversion don in Phoroshop using the Versace Multi-channel mixer conversion technique and SilverEfex Pro software
© Vincent Versace 2008
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
This image was captured with a Nikon D-3x camera with a 70-200VR II lens with a 77mm Canon 500D close-up lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Lighting is Defused sunlight.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS4 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
© Vincent Versace 2010
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
flickr.com/groups/633424@N23/
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?
A DIY Open Baffle multi-channel DSP loudspeaker, the OB1. This speaker uses a 12" woofer 4" midrange and 1" Aluminum dome tweeter.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?
Ginger LeSnapps of Cin City Burlesque, Rebel Revel performancePhoto by Jay Bachemin
CINCINNATI, OH—REBEL REVEL came to the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the atrium of the Aronoff Center for the Arts on Saturday, June 8th, to celebrate the closing of Oh! You Pretty Things—a nearly twenty year survey exhibition of the incomparable documentary and experimental video work of Cincinnati native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. Oh! You Pretty Things was a kaleidoscopic array of many of the artist’s single- and multi-channel videos from her extensive creative catalogue, along with brand new works from the Life is Drag series out of New York City.
Oh! You Pretty Things opened at the Weston Art Gallery April 19 and continued through June 16 throughout both levels of the Weston—creating an unforgettable immersive gallery experience.
REBEL REVEL was a one-night-only festival celebrating those who truly and boldly push the limits of gender expression by combining drag, burlesque, avant-garde fashions, and radical makeup with subversive and often political performances. Inspired by Rampleman’s vivid video explorations of identity and set amongst a dazzlingly tall Mylar curtain backdrop, suspended disco ball, and accent stage lighting, the performing artists and models activated the Weston’s voluminous street-level space with their visually stunning creativity, featuring:
• A drag extravaganza including performances by ODD Presents, the new Cincinnati-based alternative drag haus committed to presenting queer-centric entertainment in all its forms;
• Draglesque by nationally renowned and legendary local male illusionist Alexander Cameron;
• Burlesque by Ginger LeSnapps, head mistress of the award-winning Cin City Burlesque and RAW Artists Cincinnati Performing Artist of the Year; plus Cincinnati’s brand new Smoke & Queers—a queer coed amateur burlesque troupe that encourages all expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality;
• Runway shows with gender-bending looks from Northside's NVISION and NYC's LACTIC Incorporated;
• The premiere of the latest fantastical art-couture stylings by costume and wig designer Stacey Vest of Sweet Hayseed’s Wearable Wonders.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?
This image was captured with a Nikon D-700 camera with a 70-300mm VR lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS5 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique.
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals. .
© Vincent Versace 2010
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
This image was captured during my Palm Beach Photographic Workshops India workshop. with a Nikon D-200 camera modified for infrared. Enhanced color conversion done by LifePixel with a 28-300 mm VR II I lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS5 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals.
© Vincent Versace 2010
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
Image: "Bodybuilder Vignettes" video still
9-channel video installation on 32" HD monitors (color, no sound)
2016
Link to video:
www.rachelrampleman.com/artwork-/bodybuilders/bodybuilder...
CINCINNATI, OH—from Friday, April 19 until Sunday, June 16, the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts premiered "Oh! You Pretty Things", celebrating almost twenty years of the incomparable documentary and experimental video work by Cincinnati native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. "Oh! You Pretty Things" featured a kaleidoscopic array of many of the artist’s single- and multi-channel video installations from her extensive creative catalogue along with brand new works from the "Life is Drag" series out of New York City in an unforgettable immersive gallery experience.
Best known for bodies of work exploring subjects such as gender, artifice, and spectacle, Rampleman showcases exuberantly bold and irrepressible personalities who revel in challenging common clichés associated with masculinity and femininity. The exhibition stretched across both levels of the Weston starting with the creation of a high concept but low budget/DIY-inspired performance space installation in the atrium gallery including spectacular Mylar curtains to set the mood for the aestheticized performances of identity portrayed in her video sculptures and displays screened across multiple electronic platforms including CRT monitors, tablets, and flat screen TVs seen in the lower-level.
A sampling of subjects, muses, and collaborators represented in the survey included Girls Girls Girls (the world's first and only all-female Mötley Crüe tribute band), Tazzie Colomb (the world's longest competing female bodybuilder/powerlifter), and LACTIC Incorporated (an avant-garde clothing brand that takes the detritus of corporate life and reinterprets it into one-of-a-kind structural garments that challenge the polarization of gender and critique existing power structures). In addition, Rampleman premiered a new series of work, "Life is Drag", in which she documented her collaborations with the most singular and innovative emerging artists of the flourishing Brooklyn alt-drag scene.
The Weston’s street-level exhibition space featured a dazzling Mylar curtain backdrop and suspended disco ball and accent stage lighting that also served as the site for "Rebel Revel", an alt-drag-queer-burlesque-pop-punk-fashion-performance-gothic-cabaret-metal-disco-festival on Saturday, June 8. This one-night-only festival celebrated those who truly and boldly push the limits of gender expression combines drag, burlesque, avant-garde fashions, and radical makeup with subversive and often political performances. It featured a drag extravaganza including performances by ODD Presents, the new Cincinnati-based alternative drag haus committed to presenting queer-centric entertainment in all its forms; draglesque by nationally renowned and legendary local male illusionist Alexander Cameron; burlesque by Ginger Lesnapps—head mistress of the award-winning Cin City Burlesque and winner of RAW Artists Cincinnati Performing Artist of the Year; and also more burlesque by Cincinnati’s brand new Smoke & Queers—a co-ed amateur burlesque troupe that encourages all expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality; a runway show with gender bending looks from Northside's NVISION and NYC's LACTIC Incorporated; and the premiere of the latest fantastical art-couture stylings by costume and wig designer/former vaudeville and burlesque performer Stacey Vest of Sweet Hayseed.
In conjunction with "Oh! You Pretty Things", Rampleman presented a video program she curated in 2013 at The Mini Microcinema on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. entitled “Hyper-muscularity & Femininity on Film: A Screening of Media Portrayals of Women Bodybuilders from the 1980s and the 1990s aka ‘The Most Awesome Female Muscle Celebration in the World.’” This program took the latter part of its title from an event by the same name held in New York City in 1995 which showcased top-name women bodybuilders of that time displaying their physiques by doing different individually choreographed performances (as warriors, queens, pop stars) as opposed to the normal mandated posing routines they performed for professional competitions. The Mini Microcinema is located at 1329 Main Street, downtown, Cincinnati. www.mini-cinema.org.
PRESS
Art Papers:
www.artpapers.org/rachel-rampleman-oh-you-pretty-things/
AEQAI:
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?
This image was captured with a Nikon D-3x camera with a 70-300mm VR lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS4 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
© Vincent Versace 2010
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
flickr.com/groups/633424@N23/
A DIY Open Baffle multi-channel DSP loudspeaker, the OB1. This speaker uses a 12" woofer 4" midrange and 1" Aluminum dome tweeter.
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Image: "Female Masking Studies" video still
9-channel video installation on 7" tablets (color, no sound)
2018
Link to videos:
www.rachelrampleman.com/artwork-/female-maskers/female-ma...
CINCINNATI, OH—from Friday, April 19 until Sunday, June 16, the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts premiered "Oh! You Pretty Things", celebrating almost twenty years of the incomparable documentary and experimental video work by Cincinnati native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. "Oh! You Pretty Things" featured a kaleidoscopic array of many of the artist’s single- and multi-channel video installations from her extensive creative catalogue along with brand new works from the "Life is Drag" series out of New York City in an unforgettable immersive gallery experience.
Best known for bodies of work exploring subjects such as gender, artifice, and spectacle, Rampleman showcases exuberantly bold and irrepressible personalities who revel in challenging common clichés associated with masculinity and femininity. The exhibition stretched across both levels of the Weston starting with the creation of a high concept but low budget/DIY-inspired performance space installation in the atrium gallery including spectacular Mylar curtains to set the mood for the aestheticized performances of identity portrayed in her video sculptures and displays screened across multiple electronic platforms including CRT monitors, tablets, and flat screen TVs seen in the lower-level.
A sampling of subjects, muses, and collaborators represented in the survey included Girls Girls Girls (the world's first and only all-female Mötley Crüe tribute band), Tazzie Colomb (the world's longest competing female bodybuilder/powerlifter), and LACTIC Incorporated (an avant-garde clothing brand that takes the detritus of corporate life and reinterprets it into one-of-a-kind structural garments that challenge the polarization of gender and critique existing power structures). In addition, Rampleman premiered a new series of work, "Life is Drag", in which she documented her collaborations with the most singular and innovative emerging artists of the flourishing Brooklyn alt-drag scene.
The Weston’s street-level exhibition space featured a dazzling Mylar curtain backdrop and suspended disco ball and accent stage lighting that also served as the site for "Rebel Revel", an alt-drag-queer-burlesque-pop-punk-fashion-performance-gothic-cabaret-metal-disco-festival on Saturday, June 8. This one-night-only festival celebrated those who truly and boldly push the limits of gender expression combines drag, burlesque, avant-garde fashions, and radical makeup with subversive and often political performances. It featured a drag extravaganza including performances by ODD Presents, the new Cincinnati-based alternative drag haus committed to presenting queer-centric entertainment in all its forms; draglesque by nationally renowned and legendary local male illusionist Alexander Cameron; burlesque by Ginger Lesnapps—head mistress of the award-winning Cin City Burlesque and winner of RAW Artists Cincinnati Performing Artist of the Year; and also more burlesque by Cincinnati’s brand new Smoke & Queers—a co-ed amateur burlesque troupe that encourages all expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality; a runway show with gender bending looks from Northside's NVISION and NYC's LACTIC Incorporated; and the premiere of the latest fantastical art-couture stylings by costume and wig designer/former vaudeville and burlesque performer Stacey Vest of Sweet Hayseed.
In conjunction with "Oh! You Pretty Things", Rampleman presented a video program she curated in 2013 at The Mini Microcinema on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. entitled “Hyper-muscularity & Femininity on Film: A Screening of Media Portrayals of Women Bodybuilders from the 1980s and the 1990s aka ‘The Most Awesome Female Muscle Celebration in the World.’” This program took the latter part of its title from an event by the same name held in New York City in 1995 which showcased top-name women bodybuilders of that time displaying their physiques by doing different individually choreographed performances (as warriors, queens, pop stars) as opposed to the normal mandated posing routines they performed for professional competitions. The Mini Microcinema is located at 1329 Main Street, downtown, Cincinnati. www.mini-cinema.org.
PRESS
Art Papers:
www.artpapers.org/rachel-rampleman-oh-you-pretty-things/
AEQAI:
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Tiger-class cruisers were the last class of all-gun cruisers completed for the British Royal Navy. They came from an order of 8 Minotaur-class cruisers in 1941-2; work on the second group of three ships was effectively suspended in mid-1944. HMS Cerberus was originally one of these conventional cruisers for the British Royal Navy. Cerberus started out as HMS Superb and was the last of the Minotaurs to be built. The ship was completed to a slightly different design to that of the previous members of the class, with a foot more beam than her immediate predecessor HMS Swiftsure.
With Superb, the first Type 275 sets, modified versions of the lock and follow radar, were introduced to also control anti-aircraft fire of the twin 4-inch mounts. Construction on Superb’s unfinished sister ships was halted after the end of the war and they were later scrapped or converted into the new Tiger-class automatic gun cruisers.
Superb herself was planned to be converted to full automatic 6-inch and 3-inch/70 gun Tiger specifications. The plans to modernize Superb at the time of the 1957 Defense Review were much more cost-constricted and would have been similar to the limited modernization of HMS Belfast, with new MRS8 multi-channel directors for four twin 4-inch and six twin proximity fused L70 Bofors and new radar, fire control, AIO and a data link to the modernized carriers Victorious and Hermes.
Superb spent some time as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer, was refitted in 1955-6 and decommissioned, 18 months later in December 1957, when the ship’s update was cancelled in April 1957. She was approved for disposal 2 years later and arrived at the Dalmuir yards of Arnott Young on 8 August 1960 to be stored, waiting to be eventually scrapped. This did not happen, though.
In parallel, the Royal Navy was undergoing severe structural changes: In 1957, the Royal Navy had 21 cruisers, 9 of them in operation, but by 1961 the cruiser fleet had declined to 9 of which 5 were in service. By that time, the revised Tiger Class had been put into service (HMS Tiger was the first converted ship), but its automated weapons turned out to be unreliable and ineffective. One reason for this was that the Tigers’ revised weapon fit was based upon immediate post war requirements, and by the late Fifties her 6 inch turrets were insufficient to guarantee surface fire and were even less effective in the AA role due to improvements in missiles and aircraft. Furthermore, the basic fit of three twin 3 inch turrets was poor for effective, reliable coverage of the fire arcs – even more so without the L60 40mm Bofors guns or twin L70 40mm Bofors guns approved in 1954/57 as essential for CIWS. But the Tigers had no lighter anti-aircraft armament, and also lacked torpedo tubes.
Furthermore, the crew lacked space and comfort, even though air conditioning was fitted throughout the ship, and a 200-line automatic telephone exchange was installed.
HMS Tiger’s first captain (Captain Washbourn) said that the ship “(…) had been designed to cope with nuclear attacks, in that she can steam for up to a fortnight through radio-active fall-out with remotely controlled boiler and engine and armament operating with re-circulating purified air below decks, and could operate as a fighting unit even if a nuclear bomb was dropped nearby." However, in real life, the Tigers were not the modern, well-armed, fast, long range cruisers, likely to be “effective ships for a long period to come, and especially is this true east of Suez, where distances are so gigantic." Despite the many deficits, HMS Tiger and its sister ships Blake and Lion were accepted by the Navy in 1959 in order to fill the gaps among operational Royal Navy ships.
The ships’ career was lackluster, and in 1966, the decision was made to convert the Tiger Class ships into "helicopter and command cruisers" from 1968-72 in HMNB Devonport. This reconstruction included a thorough reconstruction of the upper structures and of the ship’s rear section, and beyond the modernized hulls of Tiger, Lion and Blake, Superb (still moored at Dalmuir, but surprisingly well preserved) was also chosen for a thorough conversion and further modernization.
In order to accommodate a flying deck, the ships’ hull rear section was widened and the aft 6 inch and 3 inch mounts were removed. Instead, a large, even deck and a hangar underneath to store and operate four helicopters was installed, together with a lift in an armored deck hangar bay.
When these plans were announced to Parliament in March 1964, it was said that the Navy did "not expect this conversion work to be difficult or particularly expensive". The refits were planned to take 18 months and to cost £5 million each, and the Tiger class update program was executed. Despite its rather derelict condition, Superb was the first ship to be modified, in order to test the plan and to have a benchmark for the other conversions.
Superb was earmarked to be given an even more thorough change, with a lengthened hull, that not only resulted in a larger flight deck with three landing pads instead of only two on the other ships. A 66’5” plug was inserted in front of the hangar section, and the resulting gain in internal space would now allow to store six helicopters and more fuel to operate them.
Superb’s upper structure was different from the other Tiger-Class cruisers, with an additional structure between the hangar and the command section ahead. The space was direly needed for crew accommodation: With the ship's helicopter squadron added, the ship's peacetime complement increased to 985 (95 officers and 870 ratings). The original Tigers had, before their conversion, a complement of roughly 720 men, and this had already been quite cramped. The other, later Tiger ships had, after their modernization, still a crew of round 880 men.
The modified upper structure of Superb was, however, also used for more sophisticated radar systems, which would allow long-range air space observation. The original two separate funnels for the four engines were grouped into a single structure, what made room for a second antenna array mast.
The ship’s armament was modified, too. Only the automatic 6 in turret on the front deck remained as gun armament, the former 3 in station behind it was replaced with a SeaDart SAM launcher against airborne attackers at medium range and altitude. In order to protect the ship from incoming aircraft and esp. modern, low-flying missiles at closer range, a pair of 20mm Oerlikon guns were added, as well as three automated Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns, one placed on each side of the hull and the third one on top of the hangar structure.
In this new guise, the ship was re-christened Cerberus (C22), and even though she differed considerably from its shorter sister ships Tiger (C20), Lion (C34) and Blake (C99), Cerberus was still counted to the Tiger-class of cruisers. They all had, after the renovation, excellent command, control and communications facilities installed, and found use as flagships to task groups.
Despite the high costs and the extensive modernization phase, Cerberus was eventually recommissioned on 6 May 1972. The reconstruction of Superb, Blake, Lion and Tiger was examined in the third report of the Public Accounts Committee for 1972. Michael Barnes said in parliament that the refits "show too lax an attitude towards the way in which the taxpayers' money is being spent". "...”, but in the end, the Tiger-Class refit took over five years and cost over £28 million. Rear-Admiral Morgan-Giles suggested bringing the full-fledged aircraft carrier HMS Eagle back into commission instead of manning the Tiger-Class cruisers, which he said were "among the worst abortions which have ever been thrust on the Royal Navy."
The Tigers’ large crew (and esp. Cerberus with 100 men on top) made them expensive ships to operate and maintain, and the complex systems, esp. the aircraft infrastructure, raised operational costs even further. When the economic difficulties of the late seventies came around, this led to a defense manpower drawdown that resulted in manpower shortages. As consequence Cerberus was, together with the other Tiger ships, placed in reserve again in 1978. She was decommissioned on 4 May 1979 and soon put on the disposal list, but Cerberus and her sister-ships remained listed as part of the Standby Squadron, moored inactive at HMNB Chatham until further notice.
When the Falklands War broke out in early April 1982, the Tiger-Class ships were rapidly surveyed and it was determined that HMS Tiger and HMS Cerberus were still in very good material shape. Both were immediately dry-docked (Tiger in Portsmouth and Cerberus at Chatham) and recommissioning work was begun.
Whilst there was speculation that their remaining 6-inch guns would be useful for shore bombardment, the real reason for their potential deployment was the size of their flight decks (Cerberus offered the third largest in the Royal Navy at that time, after the aircraft carriers Hermes and Invincible, Tiger came in the fourth place).They offered the potential to use them as mobile forward operating and refueling bases for Task Force (Sea) Harriers, even though their benefit would be more as platforms to extend the range and endurance of the Harriers and as a refueling stop on the way back to the carriers, rather than as somewhere to operate offensive missions from.
Cerberus was intended to place two pairs of Sea Harriers as an extended-range CAP (Combat Air Patrol) ahead of the two carriers, reducing their own exposure to air strikes, but the need to take off vertically rather than the use of a ski-jump severely reduced the Harriers' endurance and weapons carrying capability. Two Sea Kings would also be carried for SAR and aerial surveillance missions, and there were plans to use the ship as launch platform for small commando troops on helicopters.
The British government had no contingency plan for an invasion of the islands, and the British task force was rapidly put together from whatever vessels were available, including HMS Cerberus. The nuclear-powered submarine Conqueror set sail from France on 4 April, whilst the two aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, in the company of escort vessels, left Portsmouth only a day later. The whole task force eventually comprised 127 ships: 43 Royal Navy vessels, 22 Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships and 62 merchant ships.
The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult. The chances of a British counter-invasion succeeding were assessed by the US Navy, according to historian Arthur Herman, as "a military impossibility". Firstly, the British were significantly constrained by the disparity in deployable air cover. The British had 42 aircraft (28 Sea Harriers and 14 Harrier GR.3s) available for air combat operations, against approximately 122 serviceable jet fighters, of which about 50 were used as air superiority fighters and the remainder as strike aircraft, in Argentina's air forces during the war. Crucially, the British lacked airborne early warning and control (AEW) aircraft with suitable range - the Sea King AEW helicopters were only able to cover the direct vicinity of the carriers, in order to protect them from Exocet missile attacks from vessels and aircraft.
HMS Cerberus was ordered on 2 April 1982 to join the task force being assembled to retake the islands. Ammunition and supplies were taken on board. To avoid her being mistaken for Argentinean cruisers, a vertical black marking was painted on the funnel and down to the side to her waterline to aid recognition – a marking that soon disappeared after initial battle contacts, because Argentinian Skyhawk pilots used these markings as visual aims to place their bombs!
Departing for the South Atlantic HMS Cerberus reached Ascension Island on 10 April, sailing from there on 14 April accompanied by HMS Arrow, HMS Brilliant, HMS Coventry, HMS Glasgow and HMS Sheffield to be later joined by RFA Appleleaf. They joined other vessels of the Task Force 317 and commenced operations in the Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands on 1 May 1982.
It was British policy that any Royal Navy vessel that suspected it might be under missile attack would turn toward the threat, accelerate to maximum speed and fire chaff to prevent the ship being caught defenseless again. The codeword used to start this procedure was 'handbrake', which had to be broadcast once the signal of the Super E Agave radar of Super Étendard aircraft was picked up.
Cerberus was first detected by an Argentine Naval Aviation Lockheed SP-2H Neptune (2-P-112) patrol aircraft at 07:50 on 4 May 1982. The Neptune kept the British ships under surveillance, verifying their position again at 08:14 and 08:43. Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, both armed with AM39 Exocets, took off from Río Grande naval air base at 09:45. At 10:35, the Neptune climbed to 1,170 meters (3,840 ft) and detected two large and two medium-sized contacts. A few minutes later, the Neptune contacted the Super Étendards with this information. Flying at very low altitude at approximately 10:50, both Super Étendards climbed to 160 meters (520 ft) to verify these contacts but failed to locate them and returned to low altitude. 25 miles (40 km) later they climbed again and, after a few seconds of scanning, the targets appeared on their radar screens.
Both pilots loaded the coordinates into their weapons systems, returned to low level, and after last minute checks, each launched an AM39 Exocet missile at 11:04 while 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) away from their targets.
One of these Exocets struck Cerberus, even though the missile was detected and a SeaDart ASM launched on short notice to counter it - but without success. The Exocet hit and impacted on the starboard side at deck level 2, traveling through the junior ratings' scullery and breaching the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room/Forward Engine Room bulkhead 2.4 meters (7 ft 10 in) above the waterline, creating a hole in the hull roughly 1.2 by 3 meters (3.9 by 9.8 ft). Cerberus’ second line of defense, the Phalanx CIWS, though, apparently hit the missile and damaged it, because the warhead did not explode. Nevertheless, the missile’s initial impact disabled the ship's electrical distribution systems and breached the pressurized sea water fire main, severely hampering any potential firefighting response. With this severe damage, doubts about the ship's self-defense capabilities and a crew of almost 1.000 men exposed to further attacks, Cerberus was retired and sent back home. Before leaving the theatre of operation on 6 May, Cerberus’ complement of four Sea Harriers and two Sea Kings, together with their crews and maintenance personnel, was transferred to HMS Hermes.
Another ship from the same group, HMS Sheffield, was hit by the other Exocet missile and sank after fire broke out. The loss of Sheffield was a deep shock to the British public and government and justified the decision to save Cerberus and its crew from a similar fate with potentially disastrous outcome.
Back in Great Britain, Cerberus was immediately decommissioned again and tied to a mooring buoy in Portsmouth harbor. After the hostilities in the Southern Atlantic had ended, Chile showed a faint interest in acquiring the Tiger-Class ships, but this did not get past the discussion stage. Cerberus existed in a slowly deteriorating condition until mid-1986 and, following competitive tendering, she was sold for scrap to Desguaces Varela of Spain. She was towed to Spain and scrapping started in October 1986.
General characteristics:
Class and type: Tiger-class light cruiser
Displacement: 11.170 tons standard, 13.530 tons deep load
Length: 622.1 ft (189.9 m) overall
Beam: 64 ft (20 m)
Draught: 21 ft (6.4 m)
Complement: 985
Propulsion:
4× Admiralty-type three drum boilers (400 psi),
driving 4× Parsons shaft steam turbines, producing 80,000 shp
Performance:
Speed: 31.5 knots (58 km/h)
Range: 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km) at 30 knots (55.6 km/h)
4,000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at 20 knots (37.0 km/h)
6,500 nautical miles (12,038 km) at 13 knots (24.1 km/h)
Sensors and processing systems:
Types 278, 903 (x4), 965M, 992Q radars, Types 174, 176 and 185 sonars
Armament:
2× 6-inch (1 × 2)
1× Sea Dart SAM missile system (1 × 2)
2× Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
3 × Raytheon Phalanx CIWS 20 mm close-range Gatling guns
SeaGnat launchers for chaff or flare decoys
Up to six aircraft; initially only helicopters (Westland Wessex, then Sea King),
but later Hawker Sea Harrier VTOL aircraft could be operated, too
The kit and its assembly:
Well, I am treading on hazardous terrain with this one, but I like the challenge. I have built some ships in the past, including some of Matchbox’ waterline models in 1:100, but that was decades ago. But for the current “in the navy” group build I found a ship model to be a suitable submission.
I have never built Matchbox’ HMS Tiger before, though, but I found the concept of a WWII cruiser turned into a quasi-modern heli carrier so absurd that the ship lent itself as basis. My initial idea was to create a fictional Royal Navy Tiger-class ship, but with Sea Harriers on board, part of Task Force 317 that took part in the Falklands conflict. For that purpose I had already stashed away a Revell HMS Invincible, primarily for the Sea Harriers, which are not available as aftermarket sets (e .g. from Trumpeter – you only get AV-8Bs, and the difference is quite visible).
However, for a what-if model, OOB is never enough – with the Invincible kit at hand I quickly considered some transplants and detail changes, and finally I wanted to enlarge the landing deck for more traffic and operational security. This called for a hull extension, and this is where the real adventure began.
I found a straight hull section around the hangar area, and with an L-shaped cut the ship was cut in two pieces. A 3cm 1.5mm styrene plug, together with internal stiffeners, was implanted, and the landing deck replaced with a tailored piece of 0.5mm styrene sheet.
The section between the hangar and the command structure was totally changed with parts from the Invincible’s kit, including a twin funnel that replaces Tiger’s separate funnels. The masts were also modified – the rear mast come from the Tiger, but made slightly taller, while the front mast comes from Invincible, but it was shortened.
The Invincible kit was furthermore used a donor bank for the modified armament and the aircraft models (4 Sea Harriers, 2 SeaKings, (one of them an AEW.2 with a retracted radome) and a Lynx).
Painting and markings:
Since I like subtle what-if models, I stayed close to the paint scheme of the real HMS Tiger: all upper structures in a uniform light grey (I assume it is RN “Light Weatherwork Grey”, BS 381C 676? But I am absolutely NO expert when it comes to ship camouflage and the respective authentic tones!) with a black waterline, together with deck surfaces in very dark grey (black?) and sea green. I used, after an unsuccessful experiment with FS 16473 (ADC Grey, from Modelmaster), which turned out to have a weird, greenish touch, Humbrol 127 (FS 36375), Revell 9 (Anthracite) and Humbrol 88 (Royal Navy Deck Green).
Due to the small scale of the model I added only a VERY light black ink washing for more contrast between the single structures and surfaces and to point out details on the hull. The whole painting process turned out to be nightmare, because there are so many edges and small parts – I know now (again) why I am not a fan of small-scale ship models!
The quick ID marker for British aircraft was created with black decal sheet material – very simple and effective. The landing deck markings come partly from the HMS Tiger OOB sheet, but some more white stripes were added. The tactical codes on the flanks and on the landing deck were created with single letters in black and white in various sizes. While the font is not exactly RN-like (it should be more squared), it works well.
Finally, the model received a coat with matt acrylic varnish from the rattle can, and final details were added, like the lifeboats (which received, according to real life pictures, different liveries in bright red and a dull dark blue), a crane and the aircraft – the Sea Kings and three Sea Harriers were painted in Dark Sea Grey while one Sea Harrier and the Lynx received a dark blue/white “peacetime livery”, in order to add some highlights to the flight deck.
Well, the first 1:700 ship model after years, and probably the last one for the next decades. This is not my home turf, but I am happy that I used the group build to motivate myself enough to tackle it. I am not 100% satisfied with the outcome, but that’s due to the many conversions and my lack of ship building experience. In the end, I can live with HMS Cerberus, since I was able to turn my ideas into model hardware – and overall the ship does not look bad or implausible at all?
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
This image was taken during my Palm Beach Photographic Centre's India workshop and was captured with a Nikon D-300 camera converted to shoot Infrared (enhanced color conversion. The conversion was done by lifepixel. Their URL is www.lifepixel.com/index.html) with a 70-210 DSERIES Lens at 250iso using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 8 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. All file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software. Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS4 using a combination of SilverEfexPro and the Versace multi-channel mixer technique.
The camera conversion was done by lifepixel. Enhanced Color Filter Their URL is www.lifepixel.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=158
© Vincent Versace 2008
Please join my Welcome to Oz Group on Flickr!! Just click the link below
A DIY Open Baffle multi-channel DSP loudspeaker, the OB1. This speaker uses a 12" woofer 4" midrange and 1" Aluminum dome tweeter.
This image was captured during my Palm Beach Photographic Workshops India workshop and was featured in the New York Times. It was captured with a Nikon D-200 camera modified for infrared. Enhanced color conversion done by LifePixel with a 28-300 mm VR II I lens using the Nikon electronic file format (.Nef) Shot on Lexar 16 gigabyte UDMA Flash media. file was post processed using capture NX 2.0 software.
Black and White conversion was done in Photoshop CS5 using a combination of NiK Silverefex and the Versace multi channel mixer conversion technique. .
Final file is stored and scaled using Genuine Fractals.
he camera conversion was done by lifepixel. Enhanced Color Filter Their URL is www.lifepixel.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=158
© Vincent Versace 2010
#Nikon Ambassador #Westcott #D700 #lexar #kelbyone #photography #lifepixel #tumbhi .com #tumbhi #onOne@NikonUSA#NikonNoFilter#niksoftware #nikonUSA #Epson #wacom #xrite #onone #India
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Britain identified a threat posed by the jet-powered strategic bomber and atomic weaponry and thus placed a great emphasis on developing aerial supremacy through continuing to advance its fighter technology, even following the end of conflict. Blackburn Aircraft responded to a 1947 Air Ministry requirement for a high-performance night fighter under Air Ministry specification F.44/46. The specification called for a two-seat night fighter that would intercept enemy aircraft at heights of up to at least 40,000 feet. It would also have to reach a maximum speed of no less than 525 kn at this height, be able to perform rapid ascents and attain an altitude of 45,000 feet within ten minutes of engine ignition.
Additional criteria given in the requirement included a minimum flight endurance of two hours, a takeoff distance of 1,500 yards, structural strength to support up to 4g manoeuvers at high speed and for the aircraft to incorporate airborne interception radar, multi-channel VHF radio and various navigational aids. The aircraft would also be required to be economical to produce, at a rate of ten per month for an estimated total of 150 aircraft.
Blackburn produced several design proposals in the hope of satisfying the requirement. B.47, drawn up in 1946, was essentially a two-seat Meteor with slightly swept wings. A similar design was also offered to the Royal Navy as the B.49. The later-issued B.76 and B.77 of early 1947 had adopted many of the features that would be distinctive of the later Barghest, including the large, swept wings and the engine nacelles moved to the wing roots, integrated into the fuselage. The two projects differed primarily in role: P.76 was a single-seat day fighter with a V-tail, while P.77 was a two-seat night fighter with a radar and a mid-mounted tail plane.
The RAF requirements were subject to some changes, mainly in regards to radar equipment and armaments. Blackburn also initiated some changes, as further research was conducted into the aerodynamic properties of the new swept wings and tail surfaces. For propulsion, the new Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet engine was chosen and the airframe adapted accordingly.
On 13 April 1949 the Ministry of Supply issued instructions to three aircraft manufacturers, Blackburn, Gloster and de Havilland, to each construct four airworthy prototypes of their competing designs to meet the requirement, as well as one airframe each for structural testing. These prototype aircraft were the Gloster GA.5, designed by Richard Walker, the de Havilland DH.110, which held the advantage of also being under consideration for the Royal Navy (and became the Sea Vixen), and the Blackburn B.87, which was a refined B.77 with a slimmed-down fuselage and a swept T-tail.
The development of all of these designs was considerably delayed through political cost-cutting measures, the number of prototypes being trimmed down to an unworkable level of two each before the decision was entirely reversed! The B.87 was soon christened Barghest and first prototype was structurally completed in 1951. Following a month of ground testing the first prototype conducted its first flight on 26 November 1951 and the second prototype followed in February 1952 (and was in 1953 used for aerodynamic tests that led to the improved Mk. 3, see below). The third prototype, and the first to be fitted with operational equipment including radar and weapons, first flew on 7 March 1953. The fourth airframe was passed to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) in August 1953 for trials.
The original Barghest all-weather fighter was equipped with a British AI.17 radar and powered by two Sapphire Sa.5 engines without afterburner, delivering 6,500 lbf (28.91 kN) thrust each. The aircraft did not have built-in weapons, but could carry various weapon packages in a spacious, ventral weapon bay. Options included a tray with four 30 mm ADEN cannon, three retractable pods with a total of 70 unguided Microcell 2 in (51mm) missiles, or a recoilless 4.5 in gun with 7 rounds in a drum magazine, even though this huge weapon, intended against incoming bomber formations at high altitude, never made it beyond the prototype stage and ground tests. Furthermore, four underwing hardpoints could carry drop tanks (on the inner pair of pylons only), bombs or unguided SNEB rocket pods for a total load of 4.000 lb (1.814 kg).
The official production order for the Barghest was issued in mid-1953, together with the Gloster GA.5, which became the Javelin – an unusual decision, but the need for an operational all-weather fighter was so dire that two types were procured at the same time in order to fill the defense gaps as quickly as possible and to have a fall back option at hand immediately. While some delays were incurred, the Barghest's status as a "super priority" for production helped to minimize the time involved in producing each aircraft. Production was assisted by a large order placed by the United States Air Force, purchasing aircraft for the RAF as part of the Mutual Defense Aid Program.
On 22 July 1954 the first production aircraft took flight at Leeds, and the Barghest F(AW).1 entered service with the RAF in 1956 with 46 Squadron based at RAF Odiham, England. The Barghests were immediately put to use in an intensive flying program, to rapidly familiarize crews with the type. In order to assist conversion training, twelve machines from the initial production batch were converted into dual control trainers. They lacked the radar equipment and were designated T.2.
The introduction of the Barghest allowed the RAF to expand its night-fighter activity considerably. During RAF trials, the type proved readily capable of intercepting jet bombers such as the English Electric Canberra and modern jet fighters, over a hundred miles out to sea, and the Barghest turned out to be quite an agile aircraft with good flying characteristics, despite its size. By the end of July 1959, all remaining Meteor squadrons had been converted to the Barghest and the Javelin.
After an initial production batch of 48 F(AW).1 fighters and a dozen T.2 trainers, the upgraded F(AW).3 was introduced in October 1956, which featured several changes and improvements. The biggest external change was the introduction of a modified wing with a dog tooth (tested on the 2nd prototype from 1953 onwards), which enhanced airflow and handling at high speed. Furthermore, the tailplane was modified so that either the rudders could be operated at slow speed or, alternatively, the whole stabilizer at high speed. A bulbous aerodynamic fairing on the fin’s top held the more complicated mechanism.
The Barghest F(AW).3 was furthermore equipped with a more capable AI.22 radar (actually a U.S.-made Westinghouse AN/APQ-43 radar) and it was able to carry up to four IR-guided Firestreak AAMs on pylons under the wings, what significantly improved the aircraft's interceptor capabilities. The aircraft now featured a total of six hardpoints, even though the new, outermost pylons could only carry a single Firestreak missile each. The ventral weapon bay was retained, but, typically, only the pack of four Aden cannon was carried.
In order to cope with a higher all-up weight and improve overall performance, the F(AW).3 was powered by Sapphire Sa.6 engines, which delivered 23% more thrust and were recognizable by enlarged air intakes of oval shape instead of the original, circular orifices. Stronger engines with afterburners could not be mounted, though – their addition would have required a severe structural change to the aircraft’s rear fuselage, and this lack of development potential eventually favored the Barghest’s rival, the Gloster Javelin.
Beyond newly produced F(AW).3 airframes, most F(AW).1s were eventually upgraded to this standard, and a further twelve F(AW).1s were modified into trainers. All T.2 aircraft received the wing and tail upgrade, but retained the weaker Sapphire Sa.5s, and their designation was eventually changed into T.4.
Due to its higher development potential, the Gloster Javelin overshadowed the Barghest during its relatively short career. The last Barghest fighter was already withdrawn from service in 1966, with a total of 125 airframes having been produced, while the Javelin, produced in more than 420 units, kept on serving until 1968. Both types were replaced by the Mach 2-capable BAC Lightning interceptor.
However, the experience gathered from the Barghest's early development was successfully used by Blackburn during the Buccaneer development process for the Royal Navy in the mid-Fifties.
General characteristics:
Crew: two
Length: 54 ft in (16,49 m)
Wingspan: 40 ft 7 in (12.38 m)
Wing area: 514.7 ft² (47.82 m²)
Height: 14 ft 9 in (4,50 m)
Empty weight: 19,295 lb (8,760 kg)
Gross weight: 29,017 lb (13,174 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 34,257 lb (15,553 kg)
Powerplant:
2× Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire Sa.6 engines with 8,000 lbf (35.6 kN) thrust each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 606 kn (697 mph; 1,122 km/h) at sea level
Range: 954 mi (1,530 km)
Service ceiling: 52,800 ft (15,865 m)
Rate of climb: 7,000 ft/min (35.6 m/s)
Wing loading: 66 lb/ft² (325 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.56
Armament:
Ventral weapon bay, typically carrying 4× 30 mm (0.79 in) ADEN revolver cannon with 180 RPG;
alternatively, three retractable packs with a total of 70 unguided Microcell 2 in (51mm) missiles
could be carried;
Six underwing hardpoints (The outer pair of pylons could only carry Firestreak AAMs) for a total
ordnance of 4.000 lb (1.814 kg), including up to 4× Firestreak IR-guided AAMs, drop tanks on the
inner pair of pylons, or unguided bombs and SNEB missile pods.
The kit and its assembly:
This kitbash model originally started as an early Fifties all-weather fighter for the Royal Navy, and the idea was a Gloster Meteor night fighter fuselage mated with the engines and swept wings from a Blackburn Buccaneer. However, things change and evolve as ideas turn into hardware (for another submission to the 2018 “RAF Centenary” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com), and so this project gradually transformed into an all-weather fighter for the Royal Air Force, as a rival to the Gloster Javelin, and some other fundamental changes to the original plan as things evolved on the work bench.
Work started with a Matchbox Gloster Meteor, from which the fuselage (incl. the NF.14 cockpit with its bubble canopy) and tail cone (w/o fin, though) were taken OOB. Then a Matchbox Buccaneer donated its nose cone and the engine pods, together with the inner wing sections. An initial attempt to use the Buccaneer’s fin and stabilizer was made, but it did not work at all (looked horrible and totally unbalanced!). Instead, I used a leftover fin from a Revell 1:200 Concorde because of its retro shape and depth, and waited for the stabilizers until the wings were mounted, so that size, position and proportions would become clearer.
The nose cone had to be squashed, because its OOB oval diameter would not go onto the circular Meteor front end without problems and major PSR. With some force from a vice and internal stabilization through 2C putty the shape could be successfully modified, though, and blended into the fuselage contours. Looks pretty good and fast!
Once the engine nacelles were in place, I initially tried the Buccaneer’s OOB outer wings, but I was not really happy with the look. Their shape did not look “right”, they were a bit too large and just very Buccaneer-esque. After a donor bank safari I found a leftover sprue with wings and stabilizers from a Matchbox Hawker Hunter, and after some measurements and trials I found that they could be quite easily adapted to the Buccaneer’s inner wing stubs, even though this called for more serious surgery and PSR work. The latter was also necessary in order to blend the engine nacelles into the slender Meteor fuselage – messy, but feasible.
Alas, one challenge leads to the next one: Once in place, the massive engines created a ventral gap, due to the Meteor’s slender tail section. This was eventually filled with the Matchbox Buccaneer’s extra fuel bomb bay door, simply cut away from the kit, trimmed down and transplanted between the engine nacelles. As a side benefit, its bulged shape would now simulate a fairing for a ventral gun pack, somewhat similar to the CF-100’s arrangement. More PSR ensued, though, and between and around the jet exhausts the fuselage had to be fully re-sculpted.
The stabilizers also caused some headaches. With the new Hunter swept wings tips, I also needed new, matching stabilizers. I eventually used the Hunter stabilizers from the surplus Matchbox kit sprue. At first I tried to mate them with a shortened central fairing from the Buccaneer, but this did work even less than the whole Bucc tail, and so I scratched a more slender central fairing for the T-tail on top of the Concorde fin from a piece of sprue. Even though the Hunter stabilizers turned out to look a bit diminutive, I stuck with them since they complement the wing shape so well.
The benefit of the Buccaneer engine nacelles is that they come with proper landing gear wells, so that only the landing gear had to be improvises and adapted to the new aircraft and its proportions. I wanted to use the Meteor landing gear, but this turned out to be much too short! So I replaced the front wheel with a respective part from a Matchbox Buccaneer. The main wheels from the Meteor kit were retained, but they had to be extended - with a 5mm styrene tube “plug”, which is, thankfully, well hidden behind the covers.
Others small changes/additions are ejection seats in the cockpit instead of the Meteor bucket seats, the jet exhausts were drilled open and an interior was added, and some antennae were placed on the aircraft’s hull.
The ordnance was to reflect a typical late Fifties RAF fighter, and so the Barghest received a pair of drop tanks (from a Heller SEPECAT Jaguar, with simplified fins) and a pair of Firestreak AAMs (from a Matchbox BAC Lightning) on a pair of launch rails from an Academy MiG-23.
Colors and markings:
As per usual, I rather keep complicated whiffs visually simple, so I used the standard RAF scheme of Dark Green/Dark Sea Grey/Light Aircraft Grey on the Barghest, with the Buccaneer’s typical pattern as benchmark. Humbrol enamels (163, 164 and 166) were used for basic painting.
The cockpit interior became Tar Black (Revell 06), while the landing gear and its respective wells were painted in Aluminum (Humbrol 56). The kit received a light black ink washing and mild post-shading – more for a dramatic than a weathering effect, since RAF machines in the Fifties looked very tidy and clean.
The drop tanks received camouflage and the Firestreaks became white, while their clear seeker cones were painted with a mix of silver and translucent blue. The IR sensors were created with thin decal stripes.
The decals come primarily from an Xtradecal BAC Lightning sheet (roundels and 19 Sq. markings – the squadron badges are unfortunately quite large, since they belong to a NMF aircraft), most stencils and the tactical code come from an Airfix Venom trainer and an Italeri Tornado.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a matt acrylic varnish, a mix of matt and little semi-gloss Italeri varnish, for a sheen finish.
A true kitbashing, made from many well-known RAF ingredients and a disturbing look between odd and familiar! A Buccaneer? No, it’s too scrawny. A Javelin? No, it does not have delta wings, and it’s got a tail sting. A de-navalized Sea Vixen? Well, no twin tail, and anything else does not match either... Despite the puzzling details (or because of them?), the Barghest looks disturbingly British and Fifties, as if it had been created from a profound RAF DNA pool – and it actually is! And with lots of putty. ;-)
2007年
マルチチャンネル・オーディオ、マルチチャンネル・ビデオ・インスタレーション
サイズ可変
Courtesy: Sprüth Magers; Thomas Erben Gallery; Lévy Gorvy
作曲：Butch Morris
共同制作：ファブリック・ワークショップ・アンド・ミュージアム（フィラデルフィア）
展示風景：「アナザーエナジー展：挑戦しつづける力―世界の女性アーティスト16人」森美術館（東京）2021年
撮影：古川裕也
Senga Nengudi
Warp Trance
2007
Multi-channel audio and video installation
Dimensions variable
Courtesy: Sprüth Magers; Thomas Erben Gallery; Lévy Gorvy
Sound composition: Butch Morris
In collaboration with: The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia
Installation view: Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging - 16 Women Artists from around the World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2021
Photo: Furukawa Yuya
Image: "Female Masking Studies" video still
9-channel video installation on 7" tablets (color, no sound)
2018
Link to videos:
www.rachelrampleman.com/artwork-/female-maskers/female-ma...
CINCINNATI, OH—from Friday, April 19 until Sunday, June 16, the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts premiered "Oh! You Pretty Things", celebrating almost twenty years of the incomparable documentary and experimental video work by Cincinnati native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. "Oh! You Pretty Things" featured a kaleidoscopic array of many of the artist’s single- and multi-channel video installations from her extensive creative catalogue along with brand new works from the "Life is Drag" series out of New York City in an unforgettable immersive gallery experience.
Best known for bodies of work exploring subjects such as gender, artifice, and spectacle, Rampleman showcases exuberantly bold and irrepressible personalities who revel in challenging common clichés associated with masculinity and femininity. The exhibition stretched across both levels of the Weston starting with the creation of a high concept but low budget/DIY-inspired performance space installation in the atrium gallery including spectacular Mylar curtains to set the mood for the aestheticized performances of identity portrayed in her video sculptures and displays screened across multiple electronic platforms including CRT monitors, tablets, and flat screen TVs seen in the lower-level.
A sampling of subjects, muses, and collaborators represented in the survey included Girls Girls Girls (the world's first and only all-female Mötley Crüe tribute band), Tazzie Colomb (the world's longest competing female bodybuilder/powerlifter), and LACTIC Incorporated (an avant-garde clothing brand that takes the detritus of corporate life and reinterprets it into one-of-a-kind structural garments that challenge the polarization of gender and critique existing power structures). In addition, Rampleman premiered a new series of work, "Life is Drag", in which she documented her collaborations with the most singular and innovative emerging artists of the flourishing Brooklyn alt-drag scene.
The Weston’s street-level exhibition space featured a dazzling Mylar curtain backdrop and suspended disco ball and accent stage lighting that also served as the site for "Rebel Revel", an alt-drag-queer-burlesque-pop-punk-fashion-performance-gothic-cabaret-metal-disco-festival on Saturday, June 8. This one-night-only festival celebrated those who truly and boldly push the limits of gender expression combines drag, burlesque, avant-garde fashions, and radical makeup with subversive and often political performances. It featured a drag extravaganza including performances by ODD Presents, the new Cincinnati-based alternative drag haus committed to presenting queer-centric entertainment in all its forms; draglesque by nationally renowned and legendary local male illusionist Alexander Cameron; burlesque by Ginger Lesnapps—head mistress of the award-winning Cin City Burlesque and winner of RAW Artists Cincinnati Performing Artist of the Year; and also more burlesque by Cincinnati’s brand new Smoke & Queers—a co-ed amateur burlesque troupe that encourages all expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality; a runway show with gender bending looks from Northside's NVISION and NYC's LACTIC Incorporated; and the premiere of the latest fantastical art-couture stylings by costume and wig designer/former vaudeville and burlesque performer Stacey Vest of Sweet Hayseed.
In conjunction with "Oh! You Pretty Things", Rampleman presented a video program she curated in 2013 at The Mini Microcinema on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. entitled “Hyper-muscularity & Femininity on Film: A Screening of Media Portrayals of Women Bodybuilders from the 1980s and the 1990s aka ‘The Most Awesome Female Muscle Celebration in the World.’” This program took the latter part of its title from an event by the same name held in New York City in 1995 which showcased top-name women bodybuilders of that time displaying their physiques by doing different individually choreographed performances (as warriors, queens, pop stars) as opposed to the normal mandated posing routines they performed for professional competitions. The Mini Microcinema is located at 1329 Main Street, downtown, Cincinnati. www.mini-cinema.org.
PRESS
Art Papers:
www.artpapers.org/rachel-rampleman-oh-you-pretty-things/
AEQAI:
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Ruby Roulette & Clarity Amrein of Smoke & Queers, Rebel Revel duet performance
Photo by Rachel Rampleman
CINCINNATI, OH—REBEL REVEL came to the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the atrium of the Aronoff Center for the Arts on Saturday, June 8th, to celebrate the closing of Oh! You Pretty Things—a nearly twenty year survey exhibition of the incomparable documentary and experimental video work of Cincinnati native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. Oh! You Pretty Things was a kaleidoscopic array of many of the artist’s single- and multi-channel videos from her extensive creative catalogue, along with brand new works from the Life is Drag series out of New York City.
Oh! You Pretty Things opened at the Weston Art Gallery April 19 and continued through June 16 throughout both levels of the Weston—creating an unforgettable immersive gallery experience.
REBEL REVEL was a one-night-only festival celebrating those who truly and boldly push the limits of gender expression by combining drag, burlesque, avant-garde fashions, and radical makeup with subversive and often political performances. Inspired by Rampleman’s vivid video explorations of identity and set amongst a dazzlingly tall Mylar curtain backdrop, suspended disco ball, and accent stage lighting, the performing artists and models activated the Weston’s voluminous street-level space with their visually stunning creativity, featuring:
• A drag extravaganza including performances by ODD Presents, the new Cincinnati-based alternative drag haus committed to presenting queer-centric entertainment in all its forms;
• Draglesque by nationally renowned and legendary local male illusionist Alexander Cameron;
• Burlesque by Ginger LeSnapps, head mistress of the award-winning Cin City Burlesque and RAW Artists Cincinnati Performing Artist of the Year; plus Cincinnati’s brand new Smoke & Queers—a queer coed amateur burlesque troupe that encourages all expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality;
• Runway shows with gender-bending looks from Northside's NVISION and NYC's LACTIC Incorporated;
• The premiere of the latest fantastical art-couture stylings by costume and wig designer Stacey Vest of Sweet Hayseed’s Wearable Wonders.
Uses firmware-only USB interface called AVR-USB.
Circuit is essentially what's on the AVR-USB page.
Plus has ISP connector for reprogramming or using the port pins the ISP uses.
Also has a 6-pin female header, with 3 pins connected to 220Ω resistors for direct connection of an RGB LED. One pin for ground. And the other two pins are connected to the RX/TX lines so you can use the USART.
Current firmware is a multi-channel software PWM LED driver.
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
I don't have this radio in my collection; however, I do have a Riga 103 multi-band portable radio made by the same company (Riga Radio Rupnica).
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Lovebytes - Digital Spring
Live performances by Bruce Gilbert, R/S, Russell Haswell
Sound Installation by Jana Winderen
Sat 24 March 7-10.30pm
Channing Hall, 45 Surrey Street, Sheffield. S1 2LG
An evening of extreme electronic music, collaboration and improvisation curated by Sheffield artists Mark Fell and Mat Steel and featuring Bruce Gilbert, Russell Haswell, and R/S (Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler), plus access to a multichannel installation by Jana Winderen.
Jana Winderen is one of the world's foremost field recording artists. She talked about her work in the Upper Chapel at 3pm 24 March. This was a free event.
Jana Winderen is an artist, educated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London, and with a background in mathematics and chemistry from the University in Oslo. Since 1993, she has worked as an artist, curator and producer. She currently lives and works in Oslo.
Jana Winderen researches hidden depths with the latest technology. Her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. The audio topography of the oceans and the depth of ice crevasses is brought to the surface. She is concerned with finding sound from hidden sources, like blind field recording.
Artist Statement:
"I like the immateriality of a sound work, and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. Over the last seven years, I have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean in Asia, Europe and America, from glaciers in Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings or sounds that are unreachable for the human senses. I use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently also for film, radio, CD, MC and vinyl productions."
Bruce Gilbert is perhaps best known as co-founder of post-punk legends Wire. Following their end in 1980, Gilbert demonstrated a long-standing interest in electronic and experimental music that saw him form Dome (with Graham Lewis) and yielded such classic solo albums as This Way and The Shivering Man (reissued last year by Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, 25 years after their first appearance). Along with reissues and solo projects in recent years, Gilbert has been active with collaborative performances alongside Mika Vainio, and is planning further new material.
R/S is the electronic music duo of Peter Rehberg and Marcus Schmickler. In 2011 they released 'USA', the duo's second full length release on PAN, a follow-up to their 2007 'One (Snow Mud Rain)' on Erstwhile Records.
Peter Rehberg performs throughout the world, and has participated in many of the major festivals associated with electronic music, through both solo performances and duets with Stephen O'Malley (KTL) and Marcus Schmickler (R/S), as well as projects such as Fenn O'Berg and Peterlicker. In addition to his roles as mentor to many artists and label curator of Editions Mego, Rehberg has also collaborated with interdisciplinary artists such as choreographer Gisele Vienne and writer Dennis Cooper (Kindertotenlieder; I Apologize, Jerk, This Is How You Will Disappear).
Marcus Schmickler is a Cologne-based composer, musician and producer of modern classical, electronic and computer music. He is also known for his work with Pluramon. In addition, he works in various collaborative projects - most notably with synth wiz Thomas Lehn. More recently, he has developed an interest in an epistemic dialog with the sciences, resonating in sonifications of astrophysical data, and translating recent mathematical discoveries into the sonic. His music's gleaming, impenetrable surfaces, labyrinthine constructions and opacity suck up all the air in the room - as well as your headspace.
Russell Haswell has exhibited visual artwork at Sadie Coles HQ, London; TN Probe, Tokyo; Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Regional d'Art Contemporian, Bricks & Kicks Gallery, Vienna; Galerie Poo Poo, London; Museo d'Art Moderne, Paris; Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London; Kate Bernard Gallery, London; Independent Art Space, London and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
He has given solo audio presentations at major Art and Music festivals and events, in art galleries, concert halls and rock venues in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxemburg, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Including occasional live collaborations with Masami Akita, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Florian Hecker, Zbigniew Karkowski, Toshiji Mikawa [INCAPACITANTS], Peter Rehberg, Yasunao Tone, Ilpo & Mika Vanio [PAN_SONIC], WHITEHOUSE, and Hard Disc Jockey [HDJ] duos with Richard D James [Aphex Twin].
A second edition of the 8 track compact disc catalogue 'Live Salvage 1997 - 2000' (Honorable Mention, Digital Music's, Prix Ars Electronica.) has been reissued by Mego.. In 2008, a second volume, 'Second Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a double 12" vinyl set. In 2011, a third volume, 'IN IT: Immersive Live Salvage', was also released by Editions Mego as a Surround sound DVD (DTS & DOLBY 5.1) and vinyl LP (UHJ Ambisonic format) set.
Haswell released the Compact Disc 'Wild Tracks' (Editions Mego) in 2009: a collection of raw recordings, originally intended for film and other media projects. A double Compact Disc, 'VALUE + BONUS', was released by NO FUN Productions in mid 2010.
An ongoing collaboration (2003 +) with Florian Hecker working on Iannis Xenakis' graphic-input 'UPIC Music Composing System' is one project: the recorded results have been presented in the form of multi channel electroacoustic diffusion sessions, for example for the Frieze Art Fair. These events use surround sound and laser lighting to create an immersive multi-sensory environment. Mego, Warner Classical, and Warp records have released Haswell & Hecker recordings.
'satanstornade', a collaboration between Masami Akita & Russell Haswell, was published by Warp Records on compact disc and vinyl. It was awarded "Record cover of the month", Vice UK.
'MiniDisc' by Gescom, (Distinction, Digital Musics, Prix Ars Electronica.) The worlds first 'independent' label released 'MiniDisc' A collaboration between Russell Haswell, Rob Brown and Sean Booth of Autechre, has been reissued by OR on Compact Disc in 2007.
Haswell was also a curator at P.S.1/MOMA, Contemporary Art Centre, New York. Responsible for large-scale exhibition curating and hanging, as well as curating a weekly (summer months only) outdoor music event, WARM UP.
In 2005 and 2006 he curated two London based 'All Tomorrow's Parties' club events, entitled 'Easy to Swallow', intended for the broad-minded, the events showcased Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Yasunao Tone + Hecker, Mark Stewart and the Maffia, Aphex Twin, Whitehouse, Surgeon + Regis Present: British Murder Boys, Lee Dorrian (ex- Napalm Death & Cathedral), Pita, Earth, Autechre, Robert Hood (ex-Underground Resistance). Both events sold out!
In November 2009 he curated 'LISTEN' at Aldeburgh Snape Maltings Concert House with Chris Watson, Bernie Krause and Tony Myatt, presenting their works on a 360° 'high-order' ambisonic surround sound system.
Haswell recently curated part of the audio program for "The Morning Line Istanbul 2010' project, European Capital of Culture 2010. Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21), working with Artists/Composers: Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Peter Zinovieff, Jana Winderen, and Yasunao Tone. These works were presented again in Vienna, 2011.
Haswell has contributed to Frieze Magazine articles on Japanese noise, computer music software and Peter Halley.
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Image: "Sexy Baby Studies" video still
28-channel video installation on 6" tablets (color, no sound)
2018
Link to videos:
www.rachelrampleman.com/artwork-/sexy-babies
CINCINNATI, OH—from Friday, April 19 until Sunday, June 16, the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts premiered "Oh! You Pretty Things", celebrating almost twenty years of the incomparable documentary and experimental video work by Cincinnati native and Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Rachel Rampleman. "Oh! You Pretty Things" featured a kaleidoscopic array of many of the artist’s single- and multi-channel video installations from her extensive creative catalogue along with brand new works from the "Life is Drag" series out of New York City in an unforgettable immersive gallery experience.
Best known for bodies of work exploring subjects such as gender, artifice, and spectacle, Rampleman showcases exuberantly bold and irrepressible personalities who revel in challenging common clichés associated with masculinity and femininity. The exhibition stretched across both levels of the Weston starting with the creation of a high concept but low budget/DIY-inspired performance space installation in the atrium gallery including spectacular Mylar curtains to set the mood for the aestheticized performances of identity portrayed in her video sculptures and displays screened across multiple electronic platforms including CRT monitors, tablets, and flat screen TVs seen in the lower-level.
A sampling of subjects, muses, and collaborators represented in the survey included Girls Girls Girls (the world's first and only all-female Mötley Crüe tribute band), Tazzie Colomb (the world's longest competing female bodybuilder/powerlifter), and LACTIC Incorporated (an avant-garde clothing brand that takes the detritus of corporate life and reinterprets it into one-of-a-kind structural garments that challenge the polarization of gender and critique existing power structures). In addition, Rampleman premiered a new series of work, "Life is Drag", in which she documented her collaborations with the most singular and innovative emerging artists of the flourishing Brooklyn alt-drag scene.
The Weston’s street-level exhibition space featured a dazzling Mylar curtain backdrop and suspended disco ball and accent stage lighting that also served as the site for "Rebel Revel", an alt-drag-queer-burlesque-pop-punk-fashion-performance-gothic-cabaret-metal-disco-festival on Saturday, June 8. This one-night-only festival celebrated those who truly and boldly push the limits of gender expression combines drag, burlesque, avant-garde fashions, and radical makeup with subversive and often political performances. It featured a drag extravaganza including performances by ODD Presents, the new Cincinnati-based alternative drag haus committed to presenting queer-centric entertainment in all its forms; draglesque by nationally renowned and legendary local male illusionist Alexander Cameron; burlesque by Ginger Lesnapps—head mistress of the award-winning Cin City Burlesque and winner of RAW Artists Cincinnati Performing Artist of the Year; and also more burlesque by Cincinnati’s brand new Smoke & Queers—a co-ed amateur burlesque troupe that encourages all expressions of self, gender, identity, and sexuality; a runway show with gender bending looks from Northside's NVISION and NYC's LACTIC Incorporated; and the premiere of the latest fantastical art-couture stylings by costume and wig designer/former vaudeville and burlesque performer Stacey Vest of Sweet Hayseed.
In conjunction with "Oh! You Pretty Things", Rampleman presented a video program she curated in 2013 at The Mini Microcinema on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. entitled “Hyper-muscularity & Femininity on Film: A Screening of Media Portrayals of Women Bodybuilders from the 1980s and the 1990s aka ‘The Most Awesome Female Muscle Celebration in the World.’” This program took the latter part of its title from an event by the same name held in New York City in 1995 which showcased top-name women bodybuilders of that time displaying their physiques by doing different individually choreographed performances (as warriors, queens, pop stars) as opposed to the normal mandated posing routines they performed for professional competitions. The Mini Microcinema is located at 1329 Main Street, downtown, Cincinnati. www.mini-cinema.org.
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Art Papers:
www.artpapers.org/rachel-rampleman-oh-you-pretty-things/
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