Anechoic chamber at the Post Office Research Station, Martlesham Heath – POTJ, 29, 2, 1977
Social history of technology podcasters Carl Attrill and Leila Johnston in conversation with Joe Banks, producer of the art and music project Disinformation… discussing the Radio 4 “Today” programme, Hari Kunzru on Sky TV, “National Grid” (electromagnetic sound artwork), Very Low Frequency (VLF) radio art, Channel Four “Electric Skies”, Shortwave Magazine, Mike Harding and Ash International, Disobey (club night), the Royal College of Art, Lewisham Arthouse, David Land Arts Centre, the prehistory of “National Grid” (circa 1982), London Underground, “Sense Data & Perception” CD, The Wire (magazine), Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), the “Rorschach Audio” research project, sine-wave speech, alleged “Satanic” back-masking, perceptual hypotheses, sub-bass, acid house, dub reggae, “Foetal and infant hypnagogic sense memories…”, Fabrica Gallery, The Foundry (art space), anechoic chambers, Pawel Jastreboff, the Post Office (British Telecom) Research Station (Martlesham Heath), “System X” (sound artwork, Nov 2017), the Post Office Tower (aka Telecom Tower, aka BT Tower), Post Office Telecommunications, GCHQ, Berlin Wall, “Spycatcher”, Alan Turing, Pilot ACE, “Language [as] Meta-Technology” (sound artwork), “The ultimate form of communications technology…”, Electro War, BBC Daventry, Mark Pilkington, analogue TV, Barry Hale, Sound Mirrors (aka the “Blackout” video artwork), “The Noise” (sound installation), “A Dictionary of the Underworld”, Outernet Arts, and… Ferris Bueller”s Day Off.
Interview date 12 Sept 2023 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QLYFKMJU9o
Special Notes…
12:02 – “Ferocious energy” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO_AP2LlN6E
43:00 – Disinformation “System X” – Domo Baal Gallery, London, 4 Nov 2017
47:54 – Operation Gold – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gold
49:00 – Pilot ACE – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_ACE
1:14:18 – “Noise – nitroglycerin or dynamite, in reference to safe-blowing” – sound installation at The Foundry, Hoxton (March 2000) – quoting “A Dictionary of the Underworld – British & American, Being the Vocabularies of Crooks, Criminals, Racketeers, Beggars and Tramps, Convicts, the Commercial Underworld, the Drug Traffic, the White Slave Traffic, Spivs” by Eric Partridge, RKP 1949
Errata: 22:50 – Bernie Krause (not Charlie Krause, sorry); 1:08:38 – Halcyon Electronics was in Wimbledon (not Sutton)
“The television screen is the retina of the mind’s eye… the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain…” – David Cronenberg, Videodrome, 1983
This article was originally published in the (Moving Image Artists) MIA Journal, issue 2, in April 2020, and has now been re-published by Clot Magazine, in substantially up-dated form, to take in significant new material.
This article [see link] copyright © Joe Banks – September 2019 + June 2023
Feature in Clot Magazine – https://tinyurl.com/y2t8czmk
“Ammonite” by Disinformation has been exhibited at Pop 2, Outernet Arts (London) May to July 2023, Light Sensitive Material [conference] (London) November 2019, White Box Gallery (London) July 2019, Passengers Offsite (Sluice HQ, London) November 2018, the Dronica Festival (London) April 2018, Blinc Digital Festival (Conwy) October 2012, and at Viktor Wynd Fine Art (London) January 2010.
Thanks to Domo Baal, Nicolò Becciu, Lula Criado, Andrew Curtis, Karl England, Daniel Fawcett, David Gates, Kevin Gauld, Barry Hale, Michelle Henning, Graham High, Julie Hill, Junko Theresa Mikuriya, Clara Pais, Chris Patten, Mark Pilkington, Frances Prokofiev, Meritxell Rosell, Nicola Serra, Tony Tremlett and Ruth Waters.
Thanks also to Eye Magazine for recommending the exhibit at Outernet Arts.
“Fossils fascinate me – they’re like time capsules; if only one could unwind this spiral it would probably play back to us a picture of all the landscapes it’s ever seen” –
J.G. Ballard, Prisoner of the Coral Deep, 1964
This Sunday, 21 May 2023, the split-screen version of the Disinformation “Ammonite” video installation opens at the Outernet Arts exhibition space, opposite (the) Centre Point (building) and Tottenham Court Road underground – London WC2H 8LH. “Ammonite” is exhibited on the smallest of the Outernet video walls, but is still massive, the sound system is excellent, and the image quality is amazing.
The Outernet exhibition space (aka the Now Building) is the largest digital exhibition space in Europe, and (according to The Times newspaper) one of the most popular tourist attractions in the UK. “Ammonite” opens to the public at mid-day on Sunday, then runs every Sunday, mid-day to 6pm, for 8 weeks – 21 May to 16 July 2023.
Short video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b9xqp4Dico
More info – https://www.outernetarts.com/channel
Artwork by Joe Banks, photo [above] © Julie Hill (2018)
Disinformation “Fire in the Eye” – “Painting with Electricity” – Joe Banks © 2004
The science fiction author J.G. Ballard described the “the dark intervals between the stars” as “a continuously flickering field of light, a gigantic phosphorescent ocean, filled with the vibrating pulses of electromagnetic communication pathways”. J.G. Ballard also described how “a huge volume of radio signals reach this planet”, and how “the hope remains that… we will decode them, and find… a spontaneously generated choral music, a naive electromagnetic architecture”, revealing “the primitive syntax of a philosophical system… as reassuring as the pattern of waves on a beach”.
• Disinformation + Chris and Cosey – Stargate (remix from “Antiphony” 2xCD) 1997
• Disinformation + Mark Poysden – Breathsweep (remix from “Antiphony”) 1997
• Disinformation – Ghost Shells (VLF radio recording, LP + CD version) 1996
• Disinformation + T:un[k] Systems – Synaptic Radio (remix from “Al Jabr” CD) 1999
• Disinformation – Ghost Shells (VLF radio recording, CD version) 1998
• Disinformation + Lawrence Casserley – Pi (remix from “Al Jabr”) 1999
• Disinformation + Jim O’Rourke – Booming Bass (remix from “Al Jabr”) 1999
• Disinformation + Simon Fisher Turner – Parabolas (remix from “Al Jabr”) 1999
• Disinformation + Atom Heart – Stage #4 (remix from “Antiphony”) 1997
• Disinformation + L.O.S.D. – Untitled (remix from “Antiphony”) 1997
• Disinformation + R.L.W. – Unidentified (remix from “Antiphony”) 1997
• Disinformation + Kapotte Muziek – Untitled (remix from “Antiphony”) 1997
• Disinformation + Marc Behrens – Addition (remix from “Antiphony”) 1997
Transmission Ecologies Ep. 23 – featuring “Stargate” (shortwave radio noise from the sun) and “Ghost Shells” (plus other VLF field recordings) by Disinformation, remixed by the artists Chris and Cosey, Mark Poysden, T:un[k] Systems, Lawrence Casserley, Jim O’Rourke, Simon Fisher Turner, Atom Heart, L.O.S.D., R.L.W., Kapotte Muziek and Marc Behrens. Podcast produced for Movement Radio, Athens, hosted by Onassis Stegi. NB: some tracks run concurrently, headphones recommended.
Click here (scroll down for full description) – https://tinyurl.com/4z5hsrdr
Original broadcast 17 January 2023, special thanks to Afroditi Psarra
Quotations featured re – Disinformation events at Goldsmiths College –
https://tinyurl.com/4hm7f25y [select “2008-2009” + scroll down]
The exhibition “Antithesis” features a range of visceral and hypnotic electronic sound works by the innovative and influential audio-kinetic art project Disinformation. Musical pieces based on electrical interference produced by the National Grid, are exhibited alongside VLF band radio recordings of electromagnetic noise from the London Underground, from lightning strikes and electric storms, and EEG recordings taken directly from the mind of Disinformation producer Joe Banks. “Antithesis” also features the “National Grid” video installation, created in collaboration with film-maker Barry Hale, and experimental film works, which explore the notion of electricity as the physiological basis of human visual perception. All works created 1996 to 2022….
Catalog view – https://newart.city/catalog/schemata-disinformation-antithesis
Full description – https://tinyurl.com/379w9wfu
“Rorschach Audio” – Τζό Μπανκς – translation into Greek ****
Ποια είναι η σχέση ανάμεσα στον Leonardo Da Vinci και στον Dick Whittington, μεταξύ της Υπηρεσίας Παρακολούθησης του BBC και των Clash, ανάμεσα στην στρατιωτική κατασκοπική δράση την περίοδο του πολέμου, στα συστήματα διαχείρισης μάχης, στον Πνευματισμό και στις εγκληματικές μαρτυρίες και καταθέσεις; Τί ρόλο παίζουν o J.G. Ballard, o Osama bin Laden, o William Burroughs, o Jean Cocteau, o Jean Genet, o Adolf Hitler, o William Hogarth, o Victor Hugo, o Joe Meek, ο Πάπας Πίος ο XII, o Primo Levi, ο πρώτοσουρεαλιστής συγγραφέας Raymond Roussel, ο έφηβος εγκληματίας Derek Bentley, o Sigmund Freud, o Hermann Rorschach και ο κρυσταλλογράφος Louis Albert Necker στην ξεδιάλυνση των μυστηρίων της ανθρώπινης αντίληψης; Το Rorschach Audio είναι μία εργασία σύγχρονης πολιτισμικής λογιότητας και μία εξερεύνηση της τέχνης και της επιστήμης των ψυχοακουστικών αμφισημιών. Εν μέρει αστυνομική ιστορία, εξ ημισείας καλλιτεχνική και κοινωνική κριτική, το βιβλίο του Joe Banks αφαιρεί το πέπλο σε μία σειρά από γοητευτικά και ελάχιστα εξετασθέντα αντιληπτικά και ψυχολογικά φαινόμενα.
https://topovoros.gr/catalogue/rorschach-audio/
224 σελίδες – τιμή: 9 ευρώ / 1080 λιρέτες – Εξαρχείων
Μετάφραση: Γιώργος Καναβός
Επιμέλεια κειμένου: Άρτεμις Ξενιού
224 pages – Price: 9 EU / 1080 Lire – Exarchia
Translation by Giorgos Kanavos
Edited by Artemis Xeniou
The Topovoros imprint also features translations of works by Benjamin Bratton, Hélène Cixous, Laboria Cuboniks, Craig Dworkin, Marek Edelman, Kenneth Goldsmith, Donna Haraway, Saidiya Hartman, Guy Hocquenghem, Srećko Horvat, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Metahaven, Thierry Schaffauser, Steven Shaviro, Robert Smithson, Alan Sokal, Bruce Sterling, Hito Steyerl, Laurent de Sutter, Valentina Tanni, Tiziana Terranova, McKenzie Wark, Eyal Weizman and Joanna Zylinska. Special thanks to Ilan Manouach! … thanks also to Corinne Mynatt.
“The central nervous system is nature’s Sistine Chapel, but we have to bear in mind that the world our senses present to us – this office, my lab, our awareness of time – is a ramshackle construct which our brains have devised to let us get on with the job of maintaining ourselves and reproducing our species. What we see is a highly conventionalised picture, a simple tourist guide to a very strange city. We need to dismantle this ramshackle construct in order to grasp what’s really going on.” –
J.G. Ballard, 1992
This article was originally published by the Art X Neuroscience (AXNS) Collective in May 2016, and has now been re-published by Clot Magazine (in slightly up-dated form, with minimal additions previously featured on this website). This article summarises material featured in chapter 4 of the book “Rorschach Audio – Art & Illusion for Sound”, first published in June 2012, in an article printed on page 16 of “The Starry Rubric Set”, published by the Wysing Arts Centre in Feb 2012, and on pages 17 and 18 of Shoppinghour Magazine, issue 10, Spring 2013.
This article [see link] copyright © Joe Banks – May 2016 + Oct 2022
Feature in Clot Magazine – https://tinyurl.com/mr7vxmtk
Video on the sound installation aspect of “The Analysis of Beauty” –
https://www.flickr.com/disinfo/47923588897/
“The Analysis of Beauty” by Disinformation has been exhibited at the Freud Museum (London) June 2015, the Georgian Gallery at Talbot Rice (Edinburgh) Nov 2014, Le Bon Accueil (Rennes) Oct 2014, Saltburn Artists Projects, Jan 2007, the Wrexham Arts Centre, Oct 2006, at the Mac (Birmingham) July 2005, Orleans House Gallery (Twickenham) Nov 2004, the Quad (Derby) June 2004, South Hill Park (Bracknell) April 2004, Quay Arts (Isle of Wight) Feb 2004, the Ashcroft Arts Centre (Fareham) Sept 2003, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Jan 2003, the Royal Society of Sculptors (London) March 2001, and Kettle’s Yard gallery (Cambridge) Jan 2000. Other contributors to Clot Magazine include (the video artist and chairman of ZKM, Karlsruhe) Peter Weibel [RIP] and (the mathematician) Marcus du Sautoy.
“The Analysis of Beauty” lectures have been presented at Talbot Rice gallery and Saltburn Artists Projects (as above), and Gasworks Gallery (London) April 2005.
