Having discussed the concept of creating some kind of space where we could try and express our ideas we looked out for a space and others who were similarly inclined. Some old friends of ours from the London underground party scene (see www.randomartists.org for more info) had been organising a temporary art gallery space called Temporary Autonomous Art (TAA). This project, as its name suggests, allows creative people to escape the corporate sponsorship of art that Londons money driven arteeste scene traditionally dictates. They kindly invited us to use some space amongst the more usual medias (photography, film and sculpture - all of a high standard) to create a switchless space. Other groups also collaborated with randomartists to create sound and light based spaces. More info and pictures here: T.A.A.3.
The temporary nature of the site immediately gave us a lot of freedom to alter the space quite radically. Our main room was adjoined by a small toilet space which we quickly realised could be converted into a control room. Much was made of this advantage as it meant all of the technical elements of providing sounds controlled by switches could be disguised and the the "player" was left with just options of interaction, unable to analyse how it may be happening. Over 2 days of intensive work a 3 metre by 2 metre board was installed flush to the wall of the main room adjoining the control space, signal cables were passed through the walls behind the board.. 8 switches were wired in, each of which had control of a seperate sound. The speakers were installed at the bottom corners of the board which meant that to control the noise the user had to stand directly next to the sound source, the effect was to intensify the interaction. Here are some sound excerpts from the loops:
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Jad n Andy
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Jad n Andy
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Jad n Andy
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Jad n Andy
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In addition to this an oversized mains electricity box was attached to the wall first seen by someone walking past the space. Inside of this imposing box a stoboscope was installed and connected to the 2 foot power switch which had originally been used to control the main electricity source to an entire building. The effect was that when the switch was thrown as well as a noise being triggered the bottom of the scarey looking switch seemed to have sparks flying from the bottom.
The room was finished off with with some cut and paste visuals from a Japanese saftey manual which became quite hypnotic under the minimal lighting of the room. In addition to the strobe controlled by the industrial switch, an old security camera shell had a red light bulb placed inside creating an interesting comment on CCTV (some said that it looked like there was a devils eye behind the camera). The exhibition ran for three days and many people came to enjoy the free space which was considered highly successful by all those involved. Along with the success of the overall TAA we felt that we had created the first switchless in fitting with the surroundings and that people had taken notice of what we were trying to achieve.