Justin Wiggan presents
DEADSONG TWO
The clocks have changed, it’s getting colder, and our final event of Series 2015 is rapidly approaching. Join us at VIVID Projects on Saturday 28 November for SONICpicnic, a late afternoon and evening of live electronic music and food. Tickets are £7 (£5 for students) and are on sale here. For now, let’s take a closer look at Justin Wiggan, who will close the evening with the second instalment of his DEADSONGS project.
The Performance…
DEADSONGS is Justin’s latest body of research work, manifested as a series of collaborative events to be undertaken between October 2015 and May 2016. These collaborations are based around the sonic investigation of a collection of 12 inch records which have been buried outside for one year, and will explore death as a starting point for creativity, the effects of the natural world on sound, and the resulting emotional responses. The records have some areas untouched by decay and others obliterated by it, and consequently present the performers with the challenge of not knowing the content of the discs before they begin.
Justin will be joined for the performance by sound artist Annie Mahtani and bass player/improviser Chris Mapp. Together they will use various techniques to explore the content of the records, including playing them in the traditional way, and will be accompanied by a visual projection of the surfaces of the records as they are played. Afterwards, the records used for the performance will be vacuum sealed, becoming silent visual artefacts.
DEADSONG TWO comes at the end of This Mortal Coil, VIVID’s November exhibition and events season exploring the surprising and dark side of art and the body.
The Artists…
Justin Wiggan is a sound artist and educator whose work uses phonics, text, film, object changing and drawing to make interface solutions to creative and site/circumstance-specific problems, and looks to redevelop the sense of hearing as a learning tool and an awareness machine. His work has been shown both nationally and internationally, and he was awarded the Arts Council England International Artists Scheme Funding for his new piece The Doberman Variations, which is now an interactive book and the world’s largest download code. Additionally, he worked with Ikon Gallery and John Taylor Hospice (where he is artist in residence) to found Life Echo, a research project dedicated to transforming the memories of people nearing the ends of their lives into sound.
http://www.justinwiggan.co.uk/
Annie Mahtani is a Birmingham based composer and sound artist. Her music is created from realworld sounds which are then transformed, manipulated and restructured, exploring the juxtaposition of real, abstract and surreal sound worlds. Annie studied composition at the University of Birmingham completing a PhD with Jonty Harrison in 2008 and was a visiting lecturer in composition there for a number of years. Annie’s work has been performed extensively in concerts and festivals in the UK, Canada, USA and across Europe. Her work Past Links received an honorable mention at the 35th International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art, Bourges 2008.
http://www.anniemahtani.co.uk/
Chris Mapp is a bass player, composer and improviser based in Birmingham (UK) whose work includes solo bass improvisations and the SOUNDkitchen commissioned Gonimoblast. During the academic year 2014/15 Chris has been Musician In Residence at the University Of Worcester, where he performed, programmed concerts and wrote new music.