+Electrification, 50 Hertz, 50Hz, A Machine to Listen to the Sky, Action Research, Adrian Searle, Ai Weiwei, Alexander Manotskov, Alexander Mosolov, Alexandre da Cunha, Amar Kanwar, Amber Films, Andrey Smirnov, Anjali Monteiro, Anti-Fascism, Arcadia, Art on the Underground, Artangel, Assembly of Disturbance, Atmospherics, Audio Art, Autopneumatx, AV Festival, AV Festival 2016, Back Masking, Bankside, Barack Obama, Batroun Projects, Battersea, Battersea Power, Battersea Power Station, Battle of Orgreave, BBC Radio 3, Blanck Mass, Blast First, Bright Sparks Trail, British Library, Calvert 22, Caroline Bergvall, Casco, Casino Luxembourg, Cào Nǐ Mā, CCA, CCA Goldsmiths, Censorship, Centre for Contemporary Art, Centre for Contemporary Art Goldsmiths, Changing Signals, Channel 4, Chisenhale, Chisenhale Dance Space, Chisenhale Gallery, Christina Kubisch, Claire Fontaine, Communism, Conservatism, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Control Room A, Control Room B, Craig & Bentley, Dan Perjovschi, Dan Tapper, Daniel Tapper, Dash Arts, De Player, DH Lawrence, Disinformation, Disturbance, Dneiper Hydro-Electric Power Station, Dneiprostroi, Dnieper Hydro-Electric Power Station, Drone, Dziga Vertov, Earwitness Theatre, Electric Boulevard, Electric Walk, Electric Walks, Electrical Walk, Electrical Walks, Electricity, Electricity The Spark of Life, Electrificat & Telescope, Electromagnetic Tape, Electromagnetism, EVP, Festival of Power, FON Festival, Forensic Architecture, Full of Noises, Galeria OMR, Gasworks, Gateshead, Goldsmiths CCA, Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, Goldsmiths College, Grass Mud Horse, Gregory Orr, Grid Music, GV Art, Haarlem, Haim Soko, Hannah Kemp-Welch, Haroon Mirza, Heliosphere, Helsinki, Hugo Canoilas, Ilpo Väisänen, Institute of Modern Art Brisbane, Iron Foundry, Jack Common, Jeremy Deller, Judas Priest, Julius Meytuss, K.P. Jayasankar, Kerber Verlag, Khoj, Kiasma, Kiasma Helsinki, Kohn Gallery, Konstantin Raudive, Kontinuum, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Lenin, Leonid Polovinkin, Lift 109, Lisson Gallery, Lords of Lightning, Madhusudhanan, Malcolm Poynter, Manchester, Margaret Thatcher, Maria Chehonadskih, Mark M0WGF, Meanwhile what about Socialism, Michel Faber, Mika Vainio, Mike Fell, Miners Strike, Mithu Sen, Model Court, Mute Records, Naomi Alderman, National Grid, National Grid Music, National Union of Miners, Neither Washington nor Moscow, New Delhi, Newcastle, Nikolaj Bendix, Nikolas Tesla, Noise & Whispers, Noise as New Politics, Noise Machine, Noise Music, Nonclassical, North East Film Archive, NUM, Osama bin Laden, Pallavi Paul, Pan Sonic, Panasonic, Plus Electrification, Polisonic, Polisonics, Political Effects of Listening, Politics and Sound, Politics of Listening, Politics of Sound, Polly Atkin, Power, Power Cuts, Power Station, Prolekult, Pylons, R.E.P., Radio 3, Ray Fearon. Paul Frankl, Red Gallery, Redskins, Riverside Radio, Rosie Cavaliero, Royal Academy, Science and Industry Museum, Science and Industry Museum Manchester, Sferics, Sharp Skins, Signal to Decay, Signal to Decay: Volume 1, Skyum Larsen, Socialism, Socialism plus Electrification, Some Call it Noise, Sonic Arts, Sonic Geography, Sonic Studies, Sound & Music, Sound and Politics, Sound Art, Sound in Z, Sound Minds, Sound Politics, Sound Practice, Sound Studies, Sound Theory, Sounds of the Revolution, Soviet Power, Spark, Spark of Life, Sparks, Stanley Baldwin, Station, Stephen Spender, Sunset Sunrise Sunset, Surges, Tate Modern, Test Department, Test Dept, Teylers Museum, Teylers Museum Haarlem, The Che Men, The Motherland of Electricity, The Power of Electricity, The Quietus, The Showroom, The Spark of Life, The Tube, Thomas Spence, Tim Brennan, Timothy Morton, Tory Party, Trevor Mathison, Troika, Turbine Hall, Turbine Hall A, Turbine Hall B, Very Low Frequency, Vice, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, VLF, VLF Radio, VLF Works, Voice, Volume 1, Wellcome, Wellcome Trust, Witte de With, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Word Sound Power, Words and Music, Words and Music - Electricity, Workplace Gallery, Yan Jun, Young Guns
Electricity, Power & the Politics of Listening
Without wishing to have any reader of this website jump to conclusions about this author’s ideological predispositions (or lack of them), Lenin is often quoted as having defined Communism as “Socialism plus electrification” (in fact The Guardian cites “The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations” as clarifying that Lenin stated “Communism equals Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country”). Similarly, despite being the work of Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, the Act of Parliament which inaugurated the UK’s National Grid in 1926 was described as “the most Socialist piece of legislation ever known”. So, in addition to the artist Ai Weiwei’s appropriation of the Chinese anti-government Cào Nǐ Mā mishearing (see earlier posts), and the “Rorschach Audio” project’s long-standing treatments of the politics of listening, if readers wish to relate the politics of listening to the politics of electrification (as referred to in texts accompanying Disinformation’s “National Grid” sound installations, etc), as contested in the field of sound and protest, then look no further than the spoken dialogue from soul-punk band The Redskins on the Channel 4 music TV show “The Tube” in 1984 (0:20 to 1:00 into the video).
In terms of the kinds of subject-matter discussed on this website, and in context of the pitched-battle that was (at that time) being fought between organised labour and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, for what amounted to political control of the UK’s electrical infrastructure, the dialogue wasn’t so much ambiguous, the voice was almost totally inaudible (thanks to a highly political intervention by the Channel 4 producers). “On tambourine, on additional percussion, and on strike for 35 weeks, a Durham Miner…” (the voice of miner Norman Strike, from Westoe Colliery, South Shields). The “redacted” voice was subsequently re-recorded by Norman (for a cover-version of the original Redskins track by the band The Che Men). Play the audio file…
Norman Strike, Victory to the Miners
There’s been “Six miners killed in this strike, five miners on life-support machines, three miners with fractured skulls, over 2,500 serious injuries, and more than 7,500 arrests. We’re told we’re out on a limb, we’re on our own, that no-one supports us, yet hundreds of thousands of pounds have been collected for us by ordinary working-class people. Miners’ support groups have sprung up all over the country – in towns, factories offices and colleges. They’re supporting us. You should be supporting them. Victory to the miners!”
https://rorschachaudio.com/2013/10/24/gv-art-national-grid/
Related
From → Uncategorized