Tag Archives: Helen White

If Wet #7 – documentation

If Wet #7 saw the wonderful Ian Rawes of London Sound Survey and designer Helen White present, along with a presentation by us (MortonUnderwood) about our Sound Trolley.

If Wet #7 is our last fully documented event of the year, as for our fundraiser we decided to enjoy ourselves in celebration of our first season. Here is the full audio recording, in two parts: Part1 / Part2

Here’s an overview of what went on, so you can access topics of interest:

Welcome

If Wet 7 - October - 01

Photo: Pete Ashton

MortonUnderwood present…

[1:30 – 22:05 | Part 1]

“The main reason that it’s in a trolley is that if you move this trolley around, as you move over differently reflective areas it changes pitch.”

“Getting the backing off the tape proved to be the most challenging thing because Sam has got no fingernails and I’ve got bad eyesight.”

“What we have done is take the optical reader for the synth and put it under the trolley, and then any design on the floor sequences the sound as you move it across it.”

If Wet 7 - October - 03

Photo: Pete Ashton

“David insisted on this humiliation for me on a regular basis.”
[Sam talking about completing a touch circuit using Sam’s head – pictured above]

“The reaction from the public was ‘this is really fascinating’. […] Now I wouldn’t have expected that reaction but it was a solid repeated reaction. They don’t know what contact mics sound like.”
[David talking about the addition of a contact mic to the underside of the trolley top]

Ian Rawes

[20:05 – 1:03:00 | Part 1]
First we welcomed Ian Rawes of the British Library Sound Archive and London Sound Survey to present a series of fascinating archival recordings.

If Wet 7 - October - 05

Photo: Pete Ashton

“They are called transcriptions discs. They are old 78 RPM discs and they’ve got programmes and out-takes, and some things which were never broadcast at all. […] The BBC don’t actually know about a lot of these things, or they’ve forgotten about them. When I first came across them I was very excited because you hear another world of sound.”

“I am interested in the sounds of everyday life, not really the great and the good being interviewed, which is what the vast majority of the old recordings are.”

“The earliest microphones or recording equipment was very insensitive to sound. […] They are always shouting; you get the impression people were very angry or very emphatic.”

If Wet 7 - October - 08

Photo: Pete Ashton

“The very oldest, surviving public recording in Britain […] is from Crystal Palace in 1888. […] Handel’s Messiah performed by a 4000-strong choir. […] It has a certain quality as you will hear.”
[Ian describing the remarkable recording which begins at 01:00:30]

Helen White

[00:10 – 30:05 | Part 2]
Our final presentation of 2013, was by Helen White who brought along her wonderful solar-wind chime to show us.

If Wet 7 - October - 09

Photo: Pete Ashton

“It’s a solar-wind chime that gathers data from the sun. It’s not everyday that you look at data from satellites and turn it into magnetic resonance, so I will try to explain how we got there.”

“The sun is ninety-three million miles away and it’s spewing charred particles at us all the time. […] These particles have different effects depending on all sorts of properties in them.”

“The three characters of the solar wind are: its speed, its density and the magnetic direction that the particles are facing. […] That’s what this piece of work focusses on; it reads the speed of the wind and interprets it through a series of sounds.”

“The data comes from a satellite called ACE.”

If Wet 7 - October - 13

Photo: Pete Ashton

“I love the idea that it can be so gentle and subtle. In fact, I had this on my desk, it was playing and I switched off from it. It was kind of like that ticking clock, it just disappears.”

Run What Ya Brung

We run a regular feature at If Wet in which members of the audience are invited to bring along and demonstrate instruments, sound objects and sonic oddities. For the first time nobody presented anything in this section, in part due to our regular contributors being away. A shame but this did result in is another first; we finished on time!

________________________________________

The full set of Pete’s photographs of If Wet are available here.
 

A huge thank you to:
Everyone who presented! Everyone who engaged and provided feedback. Everyone who came. Kavita for cooking, running the bar and tidying up. Petefor taking photographs.

 

If Wet #8 Season Finale and fundraiser – Preview

Our final If Wet of the season is fast approaching; SATURDAY 30th November, 5.30pm – 11pm. Note: slight delay in starting due to a bouncy castle.

For our final event we have a much extended offering, on a Saturday, so people can join us in celebrating our first season. By coming to this special fundraising event you will be helping to make our second season happen.

There will be presentations and discussion, much like a normal If Wet, but this event will feature musical performances more centrally.

JOIN US for a night of sonic exploration and wonderment >> Tickets here

Line-up:
Sarah Angliss / Isle of Everywhere / ORE / Nimzo-Indian / Soundhog (DJ) / MortonUnderwood

MortonUnderwood

Morton

Morton

Morton

Underwood

Your every faithful hosts, MortonUnderwood will welcome you to the final If Wet of the season with a smile – all being well. The evening will start with some time for guests (new and old) to mingle and settle into the space and pace of the village hall – and explore the various goodies in the fundraising auction etc. We will then present a celebratory review of the previous events before moving on to showcase stuff that will feature in the fundraising auction. Then, the latest presentation of work by MortonUnderwood.

Nimzo-Indian

Nimzo-Indian

Nimzo-Indian

Next up there will be a presentation and live performance by Nimzo-Indian, an alter-ego of artist and technologist Fatsuma. Andy will discuss his work and present four mini guitars he has built, before going on to deliver an unpredictable performance with them.

At this point we’ll break for some refreshments. Hot food and drinks will be provided, as will cakes, snacks, wine, local ale and soft drinks.

ORE

ORE

ORE

With your belly full of grub, ease into a satiated transcendental state with a live set from drone doom tuba duo ORE. Again there will be a brief discussion about their ethos and working method ahead of the performance.

Isle of Everywhere

Isle of Everywhere

Isle of Everywhere

After ORE we are delighted to welcome back a band that were at our inaugural If Wet in April, the wonderful Isle of Everywhere (duo). They feature Stuart on tuba (if he has any puff left after playing with ORE) and Simon on santur. A rare combination; together in dub. Note: this is a duo performance without Lydia on drums.

Sarah Angliss

Sarah Angliss

Sarah Angliss

Our last live act of the evening is Sarah Angliss. Her last appearance at If Wet was a delight to behold and we are very pleased to welcome her back; only this time the emphasis will be much more on performance rather than discussion of working methods – although there will be a element of that too!

Soundhog

Soundhog

Soundhog

The rest of the evening will be spent celebrating and discussing, to a soundtrack provided by Soundhog.

We are not really sure what more we can do to entice you to our village hall; it should be a really distinctive experience. Step out of your world and into ours for a night.

We hope to see you at Callow End Village Hall on Saturday the 30th November at 5pm! Tickets on the door, £14. Or we have a few other ticket options available on-line

If Wet #7 – Preview

Not long until If Wet #7; Sunday 27th October, 2-4pm. For our penultimate event of our first season we have a double-bill made up of the fabulous Helen White and Ian Rawes. JOIN US.

Helen White

Solar-wind Chime, Helen White

Inspired by recent media attention on solar flares and their effects on both positive and predicted negative events (the northern lights / technological disruption), Helen has been exploring creative ways to respond to this natural phenomena. She will be presenting her ‘solar-wind’ chime, a slowly-evolving resonating sculpture that responds in real-time to solar wind data collected from a satellite an hour away from earth, and she’ll be talking about working with complicated scientific principles and aesthetically bereft data sources that finally led her to listen to the sun.

By day Ian Rawes works in the sound archive at the British Library. He also runs London Sound Survey, a growing collection of Creative Commons-licensed sound recordings of places, events and wildlife in the capital.

London Sound Survey

London Sound Survey, Ian Rawes

Ian will present a series of rarely-heard and never-heard archival recordings of vanished customs and daily life from London in the 1920s to the 1950s. Performing dogs, fortune tellers, Mike Stern the mayor of Petticoat Lane, lavender sellers, the singing sewer workers of the New Kent Road, Commander Daniel’s noise nuisances, Godfrey the bagpipe king and how London Zoo’s animals helped win the war.

Sound Trolley

Your hosts MortonUnderwood will be presenting the Sound Trolley they built for their recent artist residency at the Library of Birmingham.

We will also have our regular Run What Ya Brung section where anyone can do a brief, informal presentation of a sonic curiosity they might own or have built. Last month we had Richard Windley with and acoustic guitar (!) and harp combo he had made. Please JOIN US and contribute!

We will also have the usual yummy treats of home-made food, cakes and a local ale.

We hope to see you at Callow End Village Hall on Sunday the 27th October at 2pm! Tickets on the door.

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Oh and GET YOUR TICKETS NOW for our final event of our first season…a fundraiser for Season #2 no less! Or feel free to just donate to the cause. THANKS.