Zu hören am Sonntag 20. und 27. August und 3. und 10. September 2017, 14:00 - 21:00 Uhr
by Liam Slevin (IRL)
Sound Activism2017
Temporal Feed ( Audio 20:48, 2017)
Gitmo List ( Audio 5:40, 2017)
Temporal Feed
Temporal Feed is the sonic documentation of a collection of light/sound installations and prefabricated feedback systems reacting with a highly reverberative architectural space. Recorded live at The Auxiliary Project Space August 2017.
Evoking distant landscapes, Temporal Feed sees a various collection of consumer electronics become tools of sonic expression, as Slevin’s walls of feedback meet with physical space. He delves into the potentiality of each system teasing out new possibilities and examining the impact constructed spaces have on our auditory ecology.
Working with the resonance frequencies of the space, he explores ideas of systematic control and power relations through the manipulation of these sonic structures. By inputting a physical performative element or manipulation these sonic structures, Slevin poses as an antithesis of balance and harmony in an environment on the edge of discord.
Gitmo List
Gitmo List is a composition of 14 pop songs played simultaneously and processed through a feedback matrix. The songs selected form part of what is known as the Gitmo list, a collection of songs used by the American Army as methods of sound torture in previous conflicts.
Gitmo List forms part of a larger body of work Slevin has been researching with regards to the physicality of sound in relation to the history of politicised sound. Formed largely from his research into the case of Ireland Vs England 1978 that was brought before the European Court of Human Rights.The case was won by England and resulted in the act of exposing others to sound against their will, not being classified as a method of torture. But rather as inhumane, and this case is now often used to justify the use of sound as a tool for torture.
With each track played simultaneously through the feedback matrix, it is in fact acting as an echo chamber. The information is immediately distorted and all traits of western pop culture become dissolved in a wall of feedback, exposing the listener to a displaced sonic experience.
Liam Slevin
B 1984, Cork, Ireland
Slevin is an artist and cultural producer from Cork, Ireland. He is the creative director of The Auxiliary Project Space is a co-founder and director of the Middlesbrough Art Weekender. As a multi-disciplinary artist working predominately in sound, his works can be experienced as architectural interventions, sound sculpture, audiovisual installations, performances and recorded sound-works.
Over the last 10 years Slevin has founded and directed a number of artist-led initiative in Ireland, Germany and England. In 2008 he co-founded the artist collective Cork Contemporary Projects. C.C.P. theSPACE, a one year artist led project space hosting exhibitions, talks, workshops, screenings and performative events. In 2011 Slevin set up TACTIC, a new gallery and project space in Cork city. TACTIC was formed to address the lack of cultural space available for curators to develop and maintain a working practice in Cork. In 2012 he moved to Berlin, where he undertook a 10 month curatorial residency at the Waterloo Artspace. Over the 10 months he curated and facilitated over 15 experimental art events at Waterloo under the banner of Av format working with Salon Bruit, Urban Arts Berlin, The Suicide Pizza Club, PussyKrew among others.
In 2015 he was studio resident at NK Projects, Berlin's leading performance studio space for experimental music and noise. During this time there he programmed a series of experimental music events at Lauschangriff, Normal Bar and Urban Spree under the monikers of Pure, Bualadh and B.T.D.K.Y.D
In 2016 he moved to Stockton-on-Tees where he established The Auxiliary - a new project space that focuses on sound art as well as hosting an international A.i.R. program. In 2017 he also established and directed the Middlesbrough Art Weekender - a three day international arts festival.
Upcoming projects include Creative Arc - Middlesbrough, Detroit, an Arts Council of England funded project looking at creating creative links between Middlesbrough and Detroit.
He lives and works Stockton-on-Tees, England.
Website Liam Slevin