switchless - a chronology

It is hard to put a precise date on when we started the switchless project, because most of those involved had carried out similar experiments before the formation of pitchless. However the meeting of minds that happened back on a certain western beach of England in 2k1 which signalled the stabilising of the pitchless people gave many members a way to realise their ideas effectively. The inital discussions all had the theme of creating interactive spaces where we could introduce people to our ideas of how art should be created in the 21st century.

 

For someone who hasn't walked into a switchless room it is difficult to explain the sensation our so called art installations cause. Each one has been unique and so to try and sumarise the effect of our noise and light on the senses is difficult as it is open to interpretation by the user/viewer. The focus of the group is on noise, both sonic noise and also visual noise, for example as found on a badly tuned television. The underlying idea behind setting up a switchless room has been to create an altered space which by its very nature is dependent upon and influenced by its surroundings. When we install our "brand" into a location although the idea of what we want to create is clear at the outset, the presentation of switchless is influenced by the space in which it is created.

What can be explained more easily to someone who has yet to visit a switchless in progress is the element of interaction which we try to create in our spaces. Most of the technologies a switchless features are classicly defined as multimedia, under which banner we not only include light and noise but also tactile media. Rather than taking the stand-offish attitude which most so called artists thrive upon, we create extreme situations in the hope of showing people what we as technolgicly advanced humans are capable of. Although there are some who find walking into such an intense situation disorientating, each outing of the switchless team has given the spectator publik a chance to influence the mayhem. The perfect example of this was the switchboard first seen in Hackney, London during the TAA of October 2001. The room was filled with various grinding and crashing noises but the spectator had the chance to press what looked like light switches to turn off the unsettling sounds. What surprised even the switchless team was that people almost immediately wanted to bring most of these decidedly unpleasant sounds back. We can only theorise on peoples intentions, as we create the rooms for people to explore by themselves and not to be perceieved through the creators eyes. For example this switch was recently in one of our installations and for 3 days nobody could work out what it was controlling.

 

If you are interested in learning more about switchless or you think you can provide us with a space and some members of the public to interact with our technologies then please dont hesitate to get in touch. Our email contact is switchless (at) pitchless (dot) org. At equals "@" and dot equals "." to make an email address.

These pages are a rough opinion of what happened each time we fused together the motley crew to try and communicate in this slightly unorthodox manner. However remember that this is only one opinion and there are many people involved, some who may feel differently about what took place.....