‘The hairdryer is the sound of the cosmos’ and other stories.
The month in Digital Arts Programming at Southbank Centre.
TL;DR — Southbank Centre now offers an artistic digital programme for each of our festivals. Here’s some examples from October 2015.
In a previous post, I outlined a definition of digital arts programming — Digital ABC. Here’s some examples, in no particular order, of work which might be termed digital art, digital broadcast or digital community which we’re developing for Southbank Centre’s festivals.
‘The hairdryer is the sound of the cosmos.’
— Nathan Burr, artist (and hairdresser).
This October, Southbank Centre invited the Royal College of Art’s Design Interactions department to consider the relationship between design, technology and mental health. Students and alumni, will use design to explore this relationship ahead of the Altered Minds festival in Spring next year.
Former student, artist and hairdresser Nathan Burr explained how the hair salon is an environment which is both relaxing and conducive to frank conversation, particularly the calming whirr of the hairdryer.
The constant white noise of the hairdryer is created from electromagnetic signals prompted by cosmic microwave background radiation. Recently, a small study found that white noise background stimulation improves cognitive functioning among secondary students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), while decreasing performance of non-ADHD students. Other work indicates it is effective in improving the mood and performance of workers by masking background office noise.
— The Search for Mr. Matsuzaki — Nathan Burr, artist and hairdresser.
Another Design Interactions alumnus, Naama Schendar, discussed her work — Your Beautiful Self, in which she lip-syncs to anonymise first person accounts of trauma, erasing age, nationality, gender, economical background and class. Watch a short clip of Your Beautiful Self.
The current second year Design Interaction students having been working with Nathan, Naama, tutor Nina Pope, and Marcus Coates and Mark Brown, who has written on the intersection between digital tech and improved mental health. They’ve been exploring mental wellbeing, stigma and personal vulnerability through design and technology. It’s fascinating stuff.
‘I wish to change perceptions of who can and who can’t play classical music.’
— Chi-chi Nwanoku, founder Chineke! Orchestra
We were very proud to film the debut performance of Europe’s first black and minority ethnic orchestra — Chineke! Created by double bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku and conducted by Wayne Marshall, Chineke! Orchestra performed as part of our Africa Utopia festival.
Watch the entire Chineke! Orchestra performance including works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Beethoven, Brahams, and Philip Herbert’s Elegy for Stephen Lawrence. (YouTube).
Africa Utopia also saw the second edition of our Acts of Looking online project, as female image-makers explored the African diaspora. See more at http://actsoflooking.tumblr.com/
‘…then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.’
— Moby Dick, Herman Melville.
Join us on a whale hunt? This month, Southbank Centre presented a four day live reading of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville in full. This epic work was performed by writers, actors, comedians, members of the public — and Herman Melville’s great-great-great-granddaughter. We live audio-streamed the four-day event on Mixlr, and the whole 135 chapters of audio is available to listen to again online.
Moby Dick Unabridged was part of the London Literature Festival, and you can listen again to 26 talks from the London Literature Festival online.
Our spoken word talks and debates is often where the issues raised in each festival are most explicitly addressed, and audio is the most direct and uncluttered means of presenting that programme online. Because of this, we’re now looking at how to offer all of our talks and debates to listen to again online, as standard.
‘William Onyeabor is a little wary of performing live, so we took it upon ourselves to perform his music.’
— David Byrne
Over the Summer, we’ve co-produced a number films for David Byrne’s Meltdown and Carsten Höller — Decision with Canvas — the new multichannel network channel for the Arts, which is a partnership between the Arts Council and Rightster.
- Who is William Onyeabor? documentary
- David Byrne’s Meltdown — Atomic Bomb — full concert.
- Between Delight and Madness: Encounters with Carsten Höller
Like many arts organisations, we’re thinking about how we can better tailor the digital content we make to our audience’s needs — giving people things they want, on the platforms where they’re already active. We’re also interested in finding new audiences for the arts online, which is why we found working with the Canvas team interesting. Not only does it allow us to access a new talent pool of directors and filmmakers, it also introduces YouTube creators with existing audiences to the arts, as in this film of YouTube creator Tim Schieff exploring the Carsten Höller show.
There’s still a significant and detailed piece of work to be done in defining what people want from arts content online, and what formats work for cultural content on YouTube, but we’ve found the experience of working with the Canvas team a positive one.
‘Children have the right to relax and play, and to join in a wide range of cultural, artistic and other recreational activities.’
— Article 31 (Leisure, play and culture), UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This month, Southbank Centre presents What’s Happening for the Young? — a festival celebrating the rights of children and young people. We’re working with artist Artemis Papageorgiou, presenting a digital making project inspired by giving young people a voice.
Artemis Papageorgiou — Interactive Megaphone
This interactive installation is created by young people to express ideas around the right to play, as described in article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The installation is a creative collaboration between young people from across London and multimedia artist Artemis Papageorgiou, exploring making and play with innovative creative technologies. The Interactive Megaphone is a big tetrahedral structure made out of smaller tetrahedral megaphones, each made by young people participating in the festival. The megaphones use Bare Conductive paint as a sensor and basic Arduino prototyping software.
