Shown as part of Rule Driven at Platform Arts, this video piece comprises photographs of a shape as it repeats in rows, one shape at a time. The audio component comprises layered percussive sounds and field recordings that include radio static and a washing machine fed through multiple effects. As new layers are added new sounds can be heard. When the drawing reaches the fullest point the process reverses until the wall is left blank once more.
The ordered repetition makes visible the process of drawing that follows a set of pre-determined rules, a framework for operation.
John Macormac is a recipient of a Support for the Individual Artist Programme award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
Last Saturday Dr Robin Price and I performed a specially composed, structured improvisational performance as part of Rule Driven in Platform Arts in Connswater shopping centre. The drum kit was prepared with piezo microphones and augmented with a Roland SPD-SX sample pad.
As they were played, these sent signals to Robin who manipulated them using a bank of modular synthesisers, effects units and a space echo. Thousands of lines of C++ code translated signals from the drums in to lines that formed repeating triangles beamed from a heavy duty laser. These repeated regular forms echoed those present in the drawings. The triangles were also projected on to the sculpture. Midi signals from the sample pad allowed the projection to be reset.
The gallery is located in a busy shopping centre mall. Priceless reactions from passers by ranged from interest to utter bewilderment.
Robin Price is an artist-inventor, trans-disciplinary physicist, musician and cat enthusiast. He holds an MPhys in Theoretical Physics from the University of Wales, Swansea and a PhD in Composition and Creative Practice from Queen’s University, Belfast. Recent solo exhibitions include Escape Sequenceat CCA, Derry~Londonderry, Lambent Ambient, R-Space, Lisburn and Air of the Anthropocene at University of Atypical, Belfast. His work is held in the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s public collection and has been covered in Source Magazine, New Scientist and the Guardian.
“I use electronics, algorithms, code, glitches and hacked objects to push at the boundaries of what is technologically and ecologically possible, permissible and ethical. My approach is playful, experimental and publicly engaged.
My work comes from personal experience. I’m an outsider artist who trained not in art but physics and music who works primarily with new materials to try and make concentrated moments of wonder or joy an audience can carry away with them; making a memory that stands out against the background urban hellscape. This approach came out growing up around the tail end of the UK rave scene, living for the weekend and beginning my creative practice putting on visuals for local promoters. I often work with children and first became interested in the environment at a young age, this points towards the playfulness, connection with the inner child and environmental themes in my work. Theoreticians that have influenced my practice are Rachel Carson, Lev Manovich, Timothy Morton, Simon Reynolds and Lakoff and Johnson.”
John Macormac is a recipient of a Support for the Individual Artist Programme award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
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.”
This is the full performance I made on the opening night of The Melody of Dust exhibition. The performance followed a pre-determined ‘recipe’ score that provided a loose structure for what to play during each section. The score allows for improvisation within parameters, ensuring that each performance will be different.
It was kindly filmed by Colm Clarke, who curated the show with Tonya McMullan.
I recently performed at RESIST in the Menagerie in Belfast- a night that combines sonic art performances and intense, genre spanning DJ sets. I looped electronic drum and synth sounds then overlayed live acoustic drums.
This is the set-up that I used
Here’s a couple of clips of pre show loop experimentation:
John Macormac 