Addicted to Static (& Other Experiments in Sound)

Well, ‘addicted’ is a bit extreme, but I have certainly fallen into a firm habit of listening to 10 minutes of static on my iPod before sleep every night.

Having always had an extremely keen interest in avant garde electronic music / aural experiments / sonic terrorism / brainwave annihilation or whatever pretentious term you want to use, I recently came across news about the i-Doser program.

Basically, the i-Doser (largely unheard-of in this country) is a brainwave synchroniser that runs from your computer which, on the click of a mouse, ‘injects’ a dose of sound patterns (of various simulated experiences) into your brain via your headphones. These 10-30 minute sound patterns can nurse your brain into thinking your body is undergoing a wealth of chemical experiences from the safety of your own office chair.

What’s your fancy?You can get sound files that mimic a massive variety of potentially euphoric experiences; LSD, Ecstacy, Lucid Dreaming, Absinthe, Uppers, Downers, ‘First Love’, Astral Projection, etc.

But what really interests me are the sound files called ‘Hand of God’, ‘Gates of Hades’, and ‘White Crosses’; according to the accompanying notes, these are extremely experimental hallucinatory brainwave synchronisers that can lead to the listener having dark or sinister experiences. Top stuff.

But I am currently constantly listening to the ‘Lucid Dreaming’ bout of static sounds before bed, and my dream structures have become much more fragmented and self-conscious as a result. Very interesting – you constantly feel like a completely different human being in your dreamscapes. I can’t wait to incorporate ‘Gates of Hades’ into my dream cycles.

When I first downloaded the music files, I have to say I was less sceptical than most – I didn’t once think that this was an inept Magic Eye fad for the noughties. I was more open-minded because I know I am very susceptible to binaural brainwave stimulation.

In the early 1990’s I purchased a tape of ‘Loveless’ by sonic pioneers My Bloody Valentine. Even after an initial listen I became quite nauseous – but not in the way anyone would feel after listening to a Simply Red album, for instance. No, the effect the music had on me was actual physical nausea mixed with nervous energy. I thought it was just something I ate, but the effect continued every time I played this classic album. I didn’t think too much more about it, until I read on the net many years later that other people have experienced disorientation and sickness when listening to the album. It was all down to ‘binaural patterns’, apparently.

I thought it was astounding that, even though all sounds audible to humans have an effect on the listener, the effect that MBV had on me with the ‘Loveless’ album was pretty unambiguously mind-blowing.

So, then in my mid-teens, I ventured further into the music of experimental pioneers such as Hafler Trio, Autechre, Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, and the more extremely layered output from Aphex Twin. I even dabbled with EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon – the recording of voices of unknown origin, or ‘communication with the dead’) in an attempt to gain new sonic/brain experiences. I often coupled these intense listening sessions with long bouts of curtains-closed solitude, sleep deprivation, and Golden Dawn-era magickal instruction. It would be fair to say that I was pretty much addicted to strange new conscious and subconscious experiences back then – I probably still am. I couldn’t tell you exactly why. Maybe I was just another bored teenager in a rural setting who had no access to hard drugs. I dunno.

I soon wanted to create my own surreal soundscapes and, by the close of the millennium, I had recorded a bunch of cut/paste demos that were directly influenced by EVP and Hafler Trio. In other words, an industrial landscape that had strange speeches and unidentifiable sounds drifting in and out of a static foreground.

I recorded these demos under the guise of The ICB Project, the demos grouped under an EP called ‘Tear’*. The CD was of a limited edition of 1 (with free floppy disk of extras). In other words, no-one beside myself ever listened to them. Until recently.

[2000 artwork for the originally planned ICB Project album]

I unearthed these tracks from my archive, dusted them down, re-edited some of them and saved another demo from extinction, and they happened to be perfectly suited to being the soundtrack for my 2008 conceptual art project Cracktown v1.0.

It took nearly a decade, but the demos are now available for all to listen – if you have nothing else better to do. Admittedly, they are a bit chaotic (thus perfect for Cracktown), but there are some interesting peppercorns to be picked from the manure of these tracks – like the use of a Vicks Medicated Cough Drops advert from the 1950’s mixed with the sound of a woman screaming herself hoarse as she’s being violently attacked. Of dubious taste, perhaps, but effective I think. And that appears on the Cracktown ‘An Ending’ viral clip, found here.

Anyway, back to i-Doser. I thoroughly recommend you give it a go and see how your brain reacts to it. The free download comes with some free ‘dose’ MP3 files for your iPod or PC music player, including ‘Marijuana’ and ‘Cocaine’, but the more experimental ones can be found for download elsewhere on the net if you don’t want to pay for them through i-Doser. Though I cannot endorse you doing so, of course.

Phil Barrington

Interesting i-Doser links;

i-Doser Site Article; “Sample
External Article; “Get Messed Up With i-Doser
i-Doser Site Article; “Explanantion
i-Doser User Film Clip

Resources;

ICB Project 2000 “interview” by Phil Barrington

*Original tracklisting of ‘The Tear EP’;

1. Titles (Opening/Closing)
2. Embryonic Hero
3. Tear (Live at the Submarine)
4a. My Week Beats Your Year
4b. Communication With Others [secret track]

5. Begin (originally unused 1999 track)

Models Needed

Would you like to get involved in an interesting and fun high-profile local art project? Would you like to be paid £8.00 per hour to stand around all day? Have an individual piece of work given to you for your portfolio? And have yourself featured in future local and national gallery exhibitions?

Welly well well, Phil Barrington is currently recruiting models for his next photographic project, and is in need of the following – do YOU fit the bill???

1 x pale-skinned, thin male in his ‘20’s.
1 x pale-skinned woman in her ‘20’s.
1 x dark-skinned exhibitionist gentleman in his 20’s/30’s.

If you are local to the King’s Lynn area and see yourself – or a friend of yours – starring in such a project, please send Mr. Barrington a couple of jpeg photos of the person in question, together with some brief details (relevant background details, previous experience, contact details, etc.).

Please send all related correspondence in an email titled ‘Model’ to Phil Barrington at cracktown08@yahoo.com by Monday September 1st 2008. He will let you know if you have been accepted shortly thereafter. No prior modelling experience is required.

He will be holding shoots in the Kings Lynn area throughout September on weekend mornings, and maybe some weekday nights, via prior arrangement. There is no guarantee about exactly how many hours he will use successful applicants for photoshoots, but Phil assures us it will be for a minimum of 3-4 hours at the very least.

If you would like to view samples of Mr. Barrington’s previous work, please click here at your leisure;

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Phil+Barrington/93365.html

/// Aayubowan ///

Cracktown Citizen 1.976

/// CREDITS ///

crack-town.blogspot.com

All portrait photography – Phil Barrington
All other images and creative blog elements – Phil Barrington
All original audio tracks and music – The ICB Project
‘Gimp01’ photoshoot camera operator – Jon Parry

Senior Scythe – D.S.
Leon ‘Evens’ Blackwell – Robin Grant
Polly Blank – J.J. Foley
Calum Sk8er – Joshua Gooderson
“Unknown Origin” – Dale Teller Wren

Cracktown Soundtrack

Harbinger Trailer: “Communication With Others” by The ICB Project
Scythe, High Anxiety in Old Lynn: “Tear” by The ICB Project
Leon, Leon’s Issues: “Embryonic Hero” by The ICB Project
Calum, Joint Responsibility: “My Week Beats Your Year” by The ICB Project
Polly, An Ending: “Opening/Closing ” by The ICB Project

The ICB Project is Phil Barrington

No maggots were harmed during this production
(and the flies were dying when I found them)

Cracktown v1.0 and all related elements Copyright © 2008 Phillip Eke. 2008 Phillip Eke.
All images and elements from and/or related to http://www.crack-town.blogspot.com/ Copyright © 2008 Phillip Eke. 2008 Phillip Eke.
All images and elements from and/or related to http://www.abandonallhopenow.blogspot.com/ Copyright © 2007 Phillip Eke. 2007 Phillip Eke.
All rights reserved.
Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of any element will constitute an infringement of copyright.

I store copies of all supporting evidence (Evolution of ideas/Development work) in the event of dispute over origin of work. No element of this project has ever been considered an ‘orphan work’.

Dedicated to J.E., J.G., and E.G. RIP. Thanks to SC for continuing support throughout all this.

To contact the artist, or otherwise subscribe to the mailing list for future news and events, please email; cracktown08@yahoo.com

/// Aayubowan ///

Phillip Barrington
Kings Lynn
Norfolk
England

©

Cracktown v1.0 and all related elements Copyright © 2008 Phillip Eke. (p) 2008 Phillip Eke.

All images and elements from and/or related to www.crack-town.blogspot.com Copyright © 2008 Phillip Eke. (p) 2008 Phillip Eke.

All images and elements from and/or related to www.abandonallhopenow.blogspot.com Copyright © 2007 Phillip Eke. (p) 2007 Phillip Eke. All rights reserved.

Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of any element will constitute an infringement of copyright. I store copies of all supporting evidence (Evolution of ideas/Development work) in the event of dispute over origin of work.

[ CRACKTOWN ]

I wasn’t going to give any kind of summary at all, but there are a couple of points I think I should mention before we begin. ‘Cracktown’, as a project, is on a basic level a weblog – set 4 years in the future in a town somewhat removed from Kings Lynn, Norfolk – this time ‘Old Lynn’ is a place full of troubled people and fearful incidents.

Four very different people emerge from this 2012 setting to post snippets about their lives on the blog (making it a ‘blog opera’ in a sense). The essence of this very adult blog is, of course, the conceptual portrait photography of these four damaged people, but there is a lot more to Cracktown than that. Video footage of the diseased town mixed in with graphical atmos work, landscape photography, assorted abstract imagery and ambient sound, enveloped in its own mythology and background detail. There are quite a lot of textual entries (it is a blog diary after all), and these pieces kind of drive what narrative there is (and there IS a narrative – of sorts – if you choose to look for one).

Fame as God / social erosion / machismo / intimidation / deprivation / industrialism / extreme violence as beautiful entertainment / environmentalism / religion collapsed and usurped

Please take a journey with me – I want to personally show you the way to Cracktown… a place where madmen go to feel sane.

http://www.crack-town.blogspot.com/

[beginning January 12th]

pb.

Q & A

Q & A


Conducted with Phil Barrington by the ‘Abused Meat Wipe’ website team. November 2007.

q) Well, first of all, please tell us a little about yourself.

a) My name is Phil Barrington, from East Anglia, England. I am a thirtysomething observer and note-taker who creates images that reflect my own world-view and feelings in a sometimes non-obvious way. I have been dabbling in ‘image creation’ or however you want to define it since I was a child. I did a lot of drawing and, as a teenager, made my own sleeves for bootleg/pirated VHS films, from images ripped out of magazines and newspapers. Mostly horror films. I then discovered the ability to create lies through camera techniques. They say that the camera never lies – I beg to differ. The digital camera is a notorious fibber.

q) How would you describe your work?

a) Ugly-Beautiful. Truthfully-Lying. Abstract-Definite. Cheeky-Serious. Sad-Humourous. Spaciously-Confined. Is that enough?

q) Did somebody encourage you to become an artist?

a) Nope. I always drew with pencils as a child. Mostly body horror kind of stuff. Then, over the years, I took odd shots of dilapidated buildings, rust, peculiarities, and general industrial environs. I then moved into model photography and semi-elaborate set-ups. I found that I was creating more and more stuff, from more and more ideas – mostly abstract ideas – and that’s where I find myself right now; about to create a whole world where all these things live and breathe. ‘Cracktown’.

A piece of juvenilia.

q) What is your favourite medium?

a) .raw image files.

q) Can you describe your process, from the seed of an idea to a complete work?

a) 1. An idea or vague notion comes to me – in waking dreams, out of the blue, or inspired by events witnessed. 2. I compose the shot in my head. 3. I never dismiss daft ideas, ludicrous concepts or seeming impossibilities out of hand. 4. I arrange the shoot – but the key thing is to accept ‘happy accidents’ or otherwise unplanned ‘things’ to influence the final shot, and that could include feedback from the models themselves. 5. I bring up the best shots on my pc and do some minor things and convert to black and white at that stage – NEVER set the camera to take B&W shots itself. Always have control as much as you can. 6. The image is finally made ‘physical‘ and further scratched or burned if it needs it.

Or I simply stumble upon an incident outside my control and just keep taking shots. That’s why my business card says ‘Observer and Note-taker’ under my name. That’s all I feel I actually do, most of the time. I always take a camera everywhere I go. As Warhol instructed, “Record everything.”

q) Generally speaking, where do your ideas come from?

a) Blurrrrrrrgh…..

q) How long does it take to complete a piece?

a) Setting up a shot from initial idea, to recruiting models or obtaining materials, to actually taking the blasted thing, and to complete post-production work can take as little as a couple of days or as long as it takes, weeks, months, years even. Each session is different, and you often need a bit of time to mull things over in your brain many times, from many different directions. I would say that 80% of my work is never completely finished at any one time. I always like to go back and tinker if I can, before a work is finally imprinted on canvas or sent to the photo labs – a trait which may well be my undoing. Who knows?

q) Who are your favourite artists…and who are some artists you are currently looking/listening to?

a) I am not a die-hard fan of anyone, but I really like much of the work done by Joel-Peter Witkin. I love David Lynch’s canvas art, sculptures and films. Bacon’s body of work is sublime. I also quite like Chloe Des Lysses’ black and white shots of bands and famous faces.

q) Are you represented by a gallery? Do you have any upcoming exhibits?

a) I have an online gallery/blog at http://www.abandonallhopenow.blogspot.com/ and am too busy at the moment with my forthcoming ‘Cracktown’ project to think clearly about an upcoming exhibit. We’ll see about that once Cracktown finishes in the Summer. Some other kinds of ‘showings’ are being thought about in the dark corners of my brain though.

q) Do you have any ‘studio rituals’? As in, do you listen to certain types of music while working? What helps to get you in the mood for working?

a) ‘Studio rituals’? Subdued lighting. Candles. Sometimes listen to some Aphex Twin, or otherwise experimental electronica. My undefined and somewhat vague instinct always drives me. It only becomes apparent in hindsight.

q) What is your favourite a) taste, b) sound, c) sight, d) smell, and e) tactile sensation?

A) Haribo. B) The final whistle. C) The shock of the new. D) all curries, and E) what’choo talkin’ ‘bout Willis?

q) Do you have goals that you are trying to reach as an artist, what is your ‘drive’? What would you like to accomplish in your ‘profession’?

a) My goal is always to capture perfect moments in a perfect way. Perfect to me, that is. I am not an accomplished ‘photographer’, nor ever want to be part of that SLR pomp – all those people nattering on about photographic imperfections are nothing more than Real Ale freaks who obsess too much about the technique and not enough about the object. You can use a pinhole camera to capture great beauty, in my mind, so if you bang on to me about filters, aperture settings and flash techniques, well, I would just want to leave the room frankly.


What would I like to accomplish in my ‘profession’? To always show my own particular vision of the world while maintaining my dignity – no matter what carrots are dangled in front of me. To always amuse, disturb or anger people – as long as they always ‘feel’ something.

q) When have you started using the internet and what role does this form of communication play for you, personally, for your art, and for your business?

a) I started using the net in 1998, though I wanted a modem for my Spectrum 48k back in 1987. I don’t think there was much to do on the net back then though – a ‘Horace Goes Skiing’ multiplayer deathmatch or two, maybe, but that was it.

q) What do you obsess over?

a) Most things. I have an addictive personality. When I like something I tend to almost overdose on it – I try to become it, whatever ‘it’ is – then toss away the dry tusk and move on to the next ‘it’.

q) Do you have preferred working hours? Do you pay attention to the time of the day or maybe specific lighting?

a) I work long into the night on post-shoot work usually. I try to crawl into bed before dawn though.

q) Do you do commissioned works?

a) Not really. But would consider anything within reason, as long as I can shoot in my own way and have final say on everything.

q) Any tips for emerging artists?

a) Be prepared to make mistakes. And consider using them as your finished works.

q)…Your contacts

http://www.abandonallhopenow.blogspot.com/
http://crack-town.blogspot.com/