“Electric Spirits: Sonic Shadows” - “Antithesis” exhibition by art project Disinformation

“Electric Spirits: Sonic Shadows” is an online feature by the writer Farhad Mirza, composed in response to the “Antithesis” exhibition by the artist project Disinformation...

Read the article here - newart.city/blog/electric-spirits

“Antithesis” is a permanent virtual exhibition of electromagnetic sound and (related) video artworks, commissioned by Schemata Arts, and hosted on-line by the virtual art platform New Art City. The feature is based on extensive interviews with Schemata Arts curator Alice Hoffmann-Fuller and Disinformation producer Joe Banks, and discusses “Antithesis” in relation to (the Japanologist) Lafcadio Hearn, (the writers) Junichiro Tanizaki and Ivan Chtcheglov, (the scientist) Michael Faraday, (the architect) Rodney Gordon, (the architectural theorist) Or Ettlinger, and (the anti-superstition campaigner) Narendra Dabholkar. The article posits the sound zones within “Antithesis” as a user-operated “spatial remix engine”.

From the “Antithesis” press release - rorschachaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/disinformat...

Curated and designed by Alice Hoffmann-Fuller, the latest exhibition in Schemata, Corsica Studios’ new experimental arts platform, takes place in a 3D digital rendering of Corsica Studios, hosted by on-line gallery platform New Art City. The “Antithesis” exhibition features brand new and archival work by the innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation.

The Disinformation project’s exhibition for Schemata is in part inspired by the close proximity of Corsica Studios to the Brutalist architect Rodney Gordon’s iconic memorial to the electrical scientist Michael Faraday, installed, close to Corsica Studios, at the Elephant & Castle in 1961. The Disinformation sound artwork “National Grid” was first released on LP and performed live in 1996, and first exhibited as an art gallery sound installation in 1997. “National Grid” uses electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity to create a monolithic and immersive sound installation, which is conceived as a musical tribute to “the (creative) genius of electrification”. The Michael Faraday memorial itself contains an electrical substation, which feeds high-voltage power to the London Underground; and it is consistent with the assertion that “art is not necessarily science, but science is always art” that the original design for the Michael Faraday memorial envisaged this important work of public art as being a glass container (not, as it stands at present, a highly reflective steel box). On this basis, and in terms that are equally antithetical to the conventional wisdom of mainstream contemporary art, it can be argued that the true purpose of the architect’s original design was to enable members of the public to view what can be seen as the “real” work of art - meaning (of course) to view the electrical infrastructure.

Exhibition portal – newart.city/show/schemata-disinformation-antithesis

Images: [top left] “Antithesis” Instagram graphic, image from the “National Grid” video + sound artwork by Disinformation (1996-2001); [top right] Michael Faraday Memorial, Rodney Gordon (1961) [London SE1 6SB] [51°29'42"N 0°6'2"W]; [bottom left] “Antithesis” sound spheres, programmed by Alice Hoffman-Fuller (2022); [bottom right] virtual 3D model of the Michael Faraday Memorial, programmed by Alice Hoffman-Fuller (2022).

Taken on: July 16, 2024

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Electric Spirits: Sonic Shadows

Electromagnetic Sound Art

Infrastructure Artworks

Disinformation

Antithesis

Schemata Arts

New Art City

Corsica Studios

Alice Hoffmann-Fuller

Farhad Mirza

Joe Banks

Lafcadio Hearn

Kwaidan

Kokoro

Junichiro Tanizaki

In Praise of Shadows

Ivan Chtcheglov

Gilles Ivain

Formulary for a New Urbanism

Michael Faraday Memorial

Michael Faraday

Elephant & Castle

Rodney Gordon

Brutalist Architecture

Or Ettlinger

Narendra Dabholkar

National Grid

Rorschach Audio

Ghost Shells

Electromagnetic Noise

Live Mains Electricity

Electrical Substation

London Underground

Art on the Underground

Joe Namy

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Shortwave Collective

VLF Radio

Doppelgänger Variations

Savion Glover

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Circuit Blasting

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Panasonic

Mika Vainio

CM von Hausswolff

Kiasma Helsinki

Carsten Nicolai

Raster Not on

Christina Kubisch

Electrical Walks

Cavendish Arts Science

Lindsay Sears

Matt's Gallery

National Grid Music

Mike Fell

Ruth Garde

Haroon Mirza

HRM 199

Somerset House Studios

The Wire magazine

Café Oto

Sound Image Research Group - University of Greenwich

Goldsmiths CCA

180 The Strand

Fact Magazine

Serpentine Gallery

Outernet Arts

Arebyte Gallery

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Forma Arts & Media

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