Archives for category: sound art

Rule Driven Exhibition at Platform Arts, Belfast

22/04/2021 //
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I am currently exhibiting a mix of new and remixed/re-activated old work in a solo exhibition in Platform Arts’ new home in Connswater Shopping Centre, Belfast. The exhibition had been postponed several times due to Platform losing their old space and successive lockdowns during the pandemic. Under current restrictions, we cannot welcome people in to the gallery but shoppers are very welcome to observe through the windows. This is the press release:

Rule Driven

Platform Arts presents Rule Driven by John Macormac. The exhibition is the latest manifestation of an ongoing exploration of sonic and visual pattern, informed by mathematics, geometry and the natural world. Each component enacts a set of carefully formulated, self-determined rules, influenced greatly by instructions for works written by Sol LeWitt.

Densely worked drawings of repeated forms echo those present in nature gathering inspiration from wide ranging sources, from the hexagonal structures of beehives to the lattice formations of atoms in crystals. In providing Instructions for drawing for the audience to take and make themselves, the heroic artist myth is interrupted and the artist/audience hierarchy is challenged.  Visual rhythm is augmented and amplified by layers of percussive sounds and field recordings that have been digitally processed. The imposing sculpture takes influence from science fiction, particularly the mysterious monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is a three dimensional distillation of a sustained period engaging with geometric forms. 

The show will feature a specially composed collaborative performance with Doctor Robin Price that includes a drum kit prepared with contact microphones triggering synthesised sounds and images that are manipulated in real time.

John Macormac is a recipient of a Support for the Individual Artist Programme award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

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Categories Art, belfast, drawing, experimental, geometric, mark making, sculpture, sonic art, sound art

Drones, Loops and Rhythms: A Collaborative Performance Series

03/06/2019 //
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Ben Behzadafshar and I recently collaborated on a series of performative works for the Vault Artist Studios Fringe Festival.

This is the trailer we used to publicise the event:

 

We wrote a statement that was placed prominently in the room to prepare audience members for what they would see and hear:

“This is not a conventional set of songs, it is a sonic expedition to the unknown.  

Performances will consist of structured, improvisational recorded and played sounds created and manipulated by Ben Behzadafshar and John Macormac. These follow a pre-determined ‘recipe score’ that sets out parameters for what is played. This score is sufficiently loose that it may be interpreted in innumerable ways. 

Behzadafshar will generate a wide variety of sounds using an array of effects pedals and an amplifier, alongside a guitar, a metal shelf and a wooden top desk. The guitar is prepared by tying it with cloth, it will act as a sound source, interrupting the instrument’s conventional role as a melodic device.  

Macormac will create and record live sounds made from nails and a metal saucepan lid, hand percussion and an acoustic drum kit struck with sticks and beaters. These sounds will be layered and repeated using a loop station. The recorded layers will be played and manipulated through an amplifier and responded to with the drum kit. 

Throughout each performance, John and Ben will intuitively react to what each other are playing, drawing upon their long creative relationship as members of experimental jazz punk party band Blue Whale.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories Art, belfast, Blue Whale Band, experimental, experimental music, Irish Art, loop station, performance, sonic art, sound art, Vault Artist Studios

The shape of art to come

21/02/2016 //
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shapeofarttocome

Double E sculpture with analogue metronome

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Categories anglular, Art, geometric, installation, sculpture, sound art

Intermission at Catalyst: Wall piece and drum performance

16/01/2016 //
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Interlock1

I painted this wall piece for our second year MFA interim group show in Catalyst Arts gallery last week. The exhibition ran from the evening of Thursday the seventh of January to Saturday the ninth. The wall was repainted white on Sunday. The piece is composed of the ‘double E’ shape I have been using recently repeated in an interlocking pattern. One side is the colour inversion of the other side.

I performed a sonic art piece on the night, where I played live drums along to pre-recorded simple drum patterns. These had been recorded with a metronome and increased in speed by ten beats per minute with each pattern. Each of the nine sections was exactly one minute long.

I limited drums used in both recording and performance to bass drum, hi-hat and snare drum. This minimal approach was in keeping with the minimal palette used on the wall. I wrote a set of rules that loosely governed what I would play for each section:

1, 80BPM Bass drum/stick clicks

2, 90 BPM Bass drum/snare rims

3, 100 BPM Bass drum/hi-hats

4, 110BPM Bass drum/snare (snare off)/hi-hat accents

5, 120BPM Bass drum/snare (snare on)/ hi-hat 16th notes

6, 130 BPM Bass drum/snare/hi-hat/snare rims

7, 140BPM Bass drum/snare (ghost notes)/hi-hat

8,150 BPM Bass drum/snare (note every whole beat)/hi-hat

9, 160 BPM Bass drum/snare/hi hat.

Here is a video clip of the last 3 sections of the performance. It goes out of time with what is played through the amp towards the end. I like the intense, polyrhythmic feel this creates.

The bass drum in front of the work: I tried documenting the piece in various configurations.

intermission 2

The piece with bass drum and amplifier.

intermission3

Categories abstract, Art, belfast, experimental, geometric, MFA, mixed media, painting, performance, rules, sonic art, sound art, wall piece

An arrangement of lines, accompanied with sound

01/12/2015 //
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shape.jpg

I presented this painted black gloss shape on black matte wall at a recent studio critique. It was accompanied by this sound piece, played through a powerful stereo:

It was sufficiently loud that it caused objects within the room to vibrate.

The group discussion read the combination of sound and visuals as being oppressive and ominous, combining to create an atmosphere suggestive of religious cult rituals or sinister political gatherings.

It was felt that the work presented in this crit represents a departure from previous work. The black gloss symbol has nothing of the organic, gentle feel of the pencil drawings. It is extremely assertive and dogmatic; very oppositional and uncompromising in every way, to the point of feeling threatening. It suggests none of the time based creative process of the pencil drawing.

I am gradually assessing where I go from here. The shape is just an arrangement of painted lines, although I can understand why it was interpreted in these ways. I do feel that playing with sound and visuals with a certain charge and potency has potential, though I want to find ways to puncture the pomposity these signifiers carry, to promote recognition of their ultimate absurdity.

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Categories abstract, anglular, Art, atmospheric, belfast, black, darkness, experimental, geometric, occult, painting, sonic art, sound art, symbols, wall piece

Wall drawing using overhead projector: 6-17 February 2015

23/02/2015 //
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finished

1stblob

I cut out the traced blob indentation shape that keeps recurring in this work and projected it using this antiquated overhead projector; the reliable, clunky type I remember from school.

5blob

I moved the projector across the floor. The shadow shape was repeated at intervals across the wall five times.

layer blob

The projector was moved progressively closer to the wall, and the resultant shadows drawn around. This made these concentric blob shapes.

bloblayered

I continued to work using this process at at intervals until the day of our group critique, the predetermined finish point.

blobangle

The piece was accompanied by a fifty second tape recording I made by digitally slowing a ten second recording of me playing bass drum and hi-hat down. I shifted the pitch down and added a series of effects using a program called Wavepad sound editor. I chose analogue audio tape because of its warm hiss, it’s imperfection. The piece was interpreted as the sound of marching boots, or of an industrial process involving heavy machinery.

Fellow students and teaching staff thought that the sound and the drawing seemed to coalesce to a greater extent than before.

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Categories Art, art college, atmospheric, belfast, black, chalk, concentric, darkness, digital art, digital work, drawing, experimental, geometric, Irish Art, mark making, mixed media, sonic art, sound art, wall piece