Singapore Face-Off

Farmer G here - sitting in Singapore - vibing up the senile man - MAAAANNN .. this week (ok make that 2 weeks) mostly finds me facilitating 10 artists in the making of new work in materials made out of all things conductive-processed-cut-pasted and spewed out of speakers monitors and other visual-audio-emitting-devices... Fun to be had - but for now slowly getting used to the time-shift (if only they damn well sorted out a time-warp-thang to stop me having to sit for 13 hours next to sullen types on crap KLM air-ways I wouild be uber-glad) ...

Anyhows - work starts next Monday - so down-time allows me to drink-beer ("oooh you are nothing but a lad . tch tch") - yep thanks mum - lay by the pool and generally do nadder...

Highlight - or perhaps maybe a low-point for the unsuspecting masses that will witness the spectacle - will be when me and Simon Poulter are permitted to play the opening gig of the newly refurbished Substation gardens - on the 10th - come along and catch the world premier of .......

'Budha Bling' (a piece for Laptop Computer, Guitar and whatever else gets thrown into the mix).

Sooo, if anyone is in Singapore during until the 12th July - and wants to share a Nasi Lemak - I know just the street stall to go - and if mum aint watching - a beer or 8 to wash it down .... we are working at Spell 7 in Little India all week - Paper-Masalas our speciality ...!

Interactive Personality Test

Going through the PVA archives in preparation for our 2 week trip to Singapore starting next Monday - we will be working with artists: Harman Bin Hussin, Lim Woan Wen, Paul Rozario, Michael Tan, Choy Ka Fai, Jason Lim, Tan Bee Thiam, Jaynthi Siva and Yeo Shi Yun on a one week program to produce new work - the results being shown at the Substation gallery from July 6th onwards.... The PVA team will include: the Farmer here, Ming Wong, Simon Poulter, Lucy Harris and Julie Penfold - local support coming from Audrey Wong, George Chua and Khairuddin Hori. A whole load of fun in the sun awaits ....

Anyway - deep in the bowls of the PVA website, I stumbled upon the following from Dane Watkins - click and suss out just who the hell you are:

South Petherton Green Fair - pictures ......

Reaction to the excellent El Dopa set last Sunday afternoon ..



OK OK - I lie - pic reminds me of those old Spiral Tribe parties .... those were the summers hey ...

For tha real (and somewhat tamer and perhaps lamer) GF pics - go ...here.

Ripster

Auction over ...

Seven hundred quid for Bolans stained pants - well fuck me !!



Guess I need to find a different way to be this towns Cosmic Dancer ..

Oh yeah - forgot to say - Farmer Glitch presents a teenage obsession with T-Rex - scap book stylee - is just about ready for blog-serialisation - lock up your daughters - shut your pets inside - things might get messy !!

Signed picture of Jesus ...

Too good an offer to miss - go bid now - or forever regret it (and whilst regretting - for sure you will all burn in hell) ..

Jesus - signed by the bic-biro o tha lord

Sounds Like Trouble.

A week of non-stop audio - leaves me somewhat frazzled ..... to recap:

Monday 13th
Watershed, Bristol - facilitated part of a one-day workshop (Up to Speed The Potential of Broadband as a New Space for Research, Development and Production) for an invited audiance consisting of various artists/technology types .... producing small-file-size audio content and mobile-phone films for use with the Visitors Studio platform - hosted by Marc and Ruth over at Furtherfield... go check it out and join the fun...

Tuesday 14th - Friday 17th
Stroud Valleys ArtSpace, Stroud - 4 day stint up in Stroud working with 4 visual artists to produce new audio work - think sounds of rioting, bats flying, sub-harmonic throbbing and vocal-screaming - add a degree of exhaustion from 160 mile round trip daily comute and you may sort of get the picture ...

Friday 17th (8.30pm till far too late ...!)
Resound - Sounds Like Trouble - techy/front-of-house audio abusive behaviour (Adrian Sherwood taught me all I know about this stuff - and my ears will never be the same again)...! This was an stonker of a gig - take 10 or so audio artists - one 30,000 pound suround sound system - seat 50 people inbetween the 10,000 Watt system and bombard them with various at times extreme variations on a theme of sound-art... Highligt by far being the a recording of the destruction of a building by Duncan Whitley - he sums up this work as follows:

"In the recordings of the demolition of Rachel and Rathbone towers in East London, 2004, all sounds within the microphone's range become indicators of acoustic space – the helicopter passing overhead, voices on the wind, the chatter of birds arcing through space. I work with diverse recording techniques to recreate acoustic space, from binaural sound (designed for playback through headphones), to multi-microphone arrangements designed to record an ‘event' from multiple perspectives."

Picture me and Duncan - some 20 foot above the heads of the audiance below - me on live-mix and Duncan firing off sound clips into the system via a laptop PC - Duncan gives some sign language requesting we should crank the volume up somewhat - now the afore-mentioned surround-rig has only 2 controls - volume-up and volume-down - so I press the up button - to what can only be guessed at will be an ok level (there being no level indicators on the supa-hi-fi box of tricks) - there is the sound of flying helicopters - the one-minute warning flare is fired - screaming alerts echo - and then the loudest explosion I have actualy ever witnessed is thrown from the monstoruous speakers onto the unsuspecting audiance - it was so loud we are still discussing wether we actually saw or imagined a flash of light in the almost pitch-black room - both me and Duncan look at each other mouths open in amazment at what occured - below - a stunned and visably shocked audiance slowly regain some control - and applaud - trust me - when you have had the chance of performing audio on a system like that - there aint no turning back.... bloody fantastic !!

Sunday 19th (all day long)
South Somerset Green Fair - for the second year I ran the music tent (Ok last year we did not actuall use a tent but a village hall - ok not really a hall more a converted church, but I am sure ya get the picture -yep, nope , what the heck) - yesterday was a blistering 30 degrees if not more all day long - out in the sun for over 12 hours - downing cider, toking on weed and having a grand old time as it goes - Kid Shirt, his good lady, Kid Kid Shirt and indeed Kid Kid Kid Shirt all came forthe fun - music highligts being the excellent El Dopa the Ska Punk joys offered by Dyslecsick - but outstanding festival award - and thrill to boys and girls alike must go to the 9 gals - who for 10 minutes performed a routine of belly dancing that will be remebered and indeed played over in the minds of all that saw for many years to come - nice one girls !!

This week I am on holiday - no-one is allowed to play anything remotly loud, musical,non-musical or indeed speak to me - as I am looking for some PEACE AND QUIET --- Thank you ....

Hysteria ...

Man - still recovering from last Friday and the sonic-warfare assault waged upon us by the Mafia .... for those of you not lucky (or indeed now Deaf) enough to have witnessed this once in a decade (count it) event - then are you not the lucky ones .... seems the whole concert will be broadcast on Resonance FM in London in its entirety next monday 13th between 8:30pm and 10pm you can listen to it live on the web- it will also be repeated at 8am on the friday -

get a stream from
www.resonancefm.com

and a rare Mark Stewart remix from a Japan only release back in 2000 on Toys Factory ...

Silent Poets - Prisons (Mark Stewart remix) ..... lovely stuff - no less !!

PAIN STATION..

No - this is not the review of last Friday - when me and Kid Shirt endured an evening of the best death-metal-funk-n-grind - dished out by Mark Stewart and the Mafia - mixed past pain-thresholds by none other than Adrian Sherwood - ears ripped and torn to shreds - - an evening of extreme excellence... tha Kid reviews the events better than I can recall - too much Red Stripe and skunk me thinks (or not) - so go read tha kid

meanwhile - back to the post - from the newly setup Database of Virtual Art

A whole new twist to an old classic game ....

PAIN STATION



PainStation comprises a box structure housing a horizontal screen over which the two players face each other. The software is based on Pong, an early computer game. Players use their right hands to control a bat on screen, and must keep their left hand on the console's "pain execution unit". Removing your hand means breaking the circuit - game over. During play, if your screen bat misses a ball, your left hand suffers the consequences through the application of heat, electric shocks or a quick whipping on the back of your hand. "It's amazing how players get engrossed in the game to avoid being hurt", says Reiff, "and how audiences behave. The combination of the PainStation's sound effects, the behaviour of the players and onlookers makes the game an experience for the audience as much as the players." Many players have ended up with red, bruised hands - although not for long.

JVS - Man - Bass - in the place !!