Somerset House Studios

Shenece Oretha takes an experimental approach to the podcast format for Somerset House Studios’ Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy series.   The multidisciplinary artist choreographs a DJ lecture mix that explores the theme of the body, using sonic forms that range from instruments and speech, to musicians, conductors, and listeners.  Oretha journeys through improvisational musical practices, audience culture, Black literature and emotional responses, layering music, speech and sound.  Listen as Oretha composes this sonic terrain, and bear witness to sound’s ability to move us emotionally, physically and socially, connecting us even when we are apart.   ABOUT THE ARTIST Shenece Oretha is a London based artist who interrogates the emotional, physical and relational sonic material of Blackness. In sharp contrast to the stark technological hardware often present in her installations, her work builds on the mobilising effects of Black oral traditions, celebrating the exchange and participation of intimate action, testimonials and emotional responses to generate expressions of collective imagination.   She has exhibited and performed her work both nationally and internationally. Recently her work ‘ Called to Respond’ was shown at Cell project space in 2020. Her first solo exhibition, TESTING GROUNDS, curated by Taylor Le Melle, was presented with Not/Nowhere at Cafe Oto, London (2019). Group exhibitions include 'Cinders, Sinuous and Supple', curated by Deborah Joyce Holman, Lausanne Les Urbaines, Switzerland (2019); 'PRAISE N PAY IT/ PULL UP, COME INTO THE RISE', South London Gallery, London; and 'BBZBLKBK: Alternative Grad Show', Copeland (both 2018). Presentations of performance work include 'Towards a black testimony', Stroom Den Haag curated by Languid Hands (2019); Wysing Polyphonic Festival, Wysing Art Centre, Cambridge (2018);'Congregation', ICA, London, (2017). 

A new artist-led podcast from Timur Si-Qin exploring how our health is intimately tied to the health of the natural world, as part of Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy. Drawing from religious history, contrasting western and Indigenous cultural relationships with nature, and the desired shift towards a spirituality of symbiosis, artist Timur Si-Qin unpacks the ideas at the centre of his upcoming essay Heaven Is Sick as well as New Peace - Si-Qin’s artwork, brand and ‘protocol’ developed in the wake of climate change. Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy is a dynamic programme of new commissions, films, workshops, and conversations considering both our individual health and collective wellbeing by exploring societal and ecological issues that affect both people and planet.    About the artist  Artist Timur Si-Qin’s interests in contemporary philosophy, the evolution of culture, and the dynamics of cognition take form in branded ecosystems and installations of 3D printed sculptures, light-boxes, and VR.    Si-Qin’s works seek to think beyond the anthropocentric dualisms at the centre of western consciousness. Si-Qin’s long term project is the proposal of a new secular faith in the face of climate change called New Peace. Drawing from disparate disciplines like the Anthropology of Religion, Marketing Psychology, and Object Oriented Ontology, Si-Qin understands spiritualities as cultural softwares capable of deep behavioral and political intervention. New Peace is thus a new protocol for the necessary renegotiation of our conceptual and spiritual relationship with the non-human. New Peace is an artwork, a brand, a sect, and self propagating memetic machine.  Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy is kindly supported by the Adonyeva Foundation. Music featured: Oliver Barrett - Solo Cello (Live at Cafe OTO)  Anthony Pateras & Vilerio Tricoli - Solo (Revox) A Paranoid Android - Walking Blind in New York Mystified - Mystic Steam KM Krebs - Etorpasle Eli Keszler - Solo - Live at Cafe OTO (Sat 25 May 2013)

Defrag was a series of talks curated by Jake Charles Rees for Somerset House Studios between 2017-2019, exploring how technology is changing the world we live in, including the way we produce and consume art and culture. This podcast revisits the live recordings in the form of an audio montage, meshing together a range of fragmented thoughts from guest speakers. It delves into the practices of the people using and critiquing some of the latest technologies and how these shape and augment our realities. Contributors Silkie Carlo, Big Brother Watch  Anne Duffau Bill Posters Libby Heaney  Shannen SP Kode9 Keiken  Elliot Burns, Offsite Project Raffaella Moreira, Multimedia Anthropology Lab Sophie Dyer of Airwars Hanna Rullman of Airwars Milena Marin, Amnesty International  Gabriela Ivens of WITNESS  Adbulwahab Tahhan James Stringer, Werkflow  The White Pube Charlotte Webb, Feminist Internet  Travis Alabanza  Seyi Akiwowo  Helen Brewer, Feminist Internet Clara Finnigan, Feminist Internet Caroline Sinders Rhiannon Williams, Feminist Internet Natalie Khan Commissioned and produced by Somerset House Studios Curated by Jake Charles Rees Podcast produced by Huw Thomas Sound design by Harry Murdoch and Huw Thomas

An hour long segment of reflections and music from Beatrice Dillon alongside the artists she invited to contribute to AGM – DeForrest Brown, Jr., Rian Treanor and Sarra Wild. Somerset House Studios celebrated four years of its dynamic resident artist community with the first online edition of its annual building takeover series AGM. Featuring performances broadcast live from Somerset House, as well as from across the UK and beyond, AGM 2020 premiered five new commissions from a specially curated line-up of artists and writers, including Aida Amoako, DeForrest Brown, Jr., Josiane M.H Pozi, Rian Treanor, Tyreis Holder, plus a performance from Sarra Wild; a line-up selected by a panel of existing and alumni resident artists: Beatrice Dillon, Jesse Darling, Klein and Larry Achiampong.  

Revisit Open Your Palm, Feel The Dust Settling There, an audio work by artist and Savage Messiah author Laura Grace Ford, generated by psychogeographic walks – drifts – through the Latimer Road, Hammersmith and White City areas of West London. Originally comprised of three parts, the work is now available as a feature length podcast. Comprised of a conflation of spoken text and sound collage, Open Your Palm is an audio work responding to the psychic and emotional contours of the city,  Made from field recordings and fragments of found music, the spectral sectors of the city permeate across the work. The channelling of voices based on real encounters allows for an intersubjective relationship with the terrain, an approach to sound and text as a form of psychic ventriloquy. 00.00 Episode 1 14.28 Episode 2 27.41 Episode 3

The word ‘climatotherapy’ refers to a type of physical and mental treatment which utilizes the influence of climate on the human body, exemplified by treatments in the Dead Sea or at hot springs. Climatotherapy was an installation presented by Nozomu Matsumoto & Nile Koetting at ASSEMBLY in 2018, comprised of sound, light, smell, ikebana and virtual assistant Alexa is a key component, repurposed to generate live and enunciate various suggestions and tips throughout, what we should do, how we should live.   With these elements in dialogue, the installation became its own microclimate. Populated by household audio technologies, corporate messages weave through musical reproductions to create an ever-changing soundtrack for our relationship with ever-changing technologies. As our preference settings hack, repurpose and adapt our technological world into new causes, these devices become an aesthetic, a physical manifestation of the dialogue between mass industry and human environment. Climatotherapy questions how the human body is conditioned by its environment in the time and space of cloudified body, mind, and information. Part of the Deep Listen, a new series for Somerset House Studios in which we share  long-form audio content, new or archive, featuring interviews, discussions and creative responses to ideas of connection and commonality.  - Nozomu Matsumoto is a Tokyo-based artist and composer. His sound design work includes Nile Koetting’s “Sustainable Hours” at Maison Hermés, Tokyo 2016, and “FUKAMI, une plongée dans l’esthétique japonaise” at Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris, 2018. Nozomu released his remarkable first vinyl “Climatotherapy” and début for UK based label The Death of Rave, 2018.   Nile Koetting is an artist working across installation, performance, scenography, sound and composition. His work and projects have been presented at Moscow Biennale 2017, ZKM Karlsruhe, Hebbel Am Ufer Theater, Western Front, Mori Art Museum, Maison Hermès Tokyo Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.   Together, Nozomu and Nile are founders of online sound curatorial platform EBM(T), collaborating and presenting works by various artists such as Shana Moulton  Lars Holdhus, aka TCF, Sam Kidel and Robin Mackay. EBM(T) curated a part from the show in “Tokyo Art Meeting VI TOKYO: Sensing the Cultural Magma of the Metropolis” at The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2015, also in 2017 EBM(T) co-curated a music and art festival “INFRA インフラ”  presenting artist’s work in a museum, gallery and clubs in Tokyo. This episode reflects upon a performance installation presented at ASSEMBLY 2018, developed from a release by Nozomu on The Death of Rave. Co-produced with Music Hackspace.

The first in our new Pause series, THE UN-NOW NOW is a new commission by Studios artist Vivienne Griffin. Our programme I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now takes its title from another of Vivienne’s works.    This sound work is the culmination of a group workshop hosted by the artist in January, exploring dissonance, vocal fry, polyphonic harmonies, speaking in tongues and drone. Working with The Seer on vocals, accordion and electronic noise, Anya Palamartschuk, vocals and cornet and Joshua Fay electronic samples and vocals, Vivienne brings together their contributions in post-production for this collaborative composition. The voiceover lists the 59 slogans of Lojong, a Tibetan Buddhist mind training practice from the 12th century.   The original script for the workshop was taken from Dharma Punx NYC; a secular Buddhist podcast by Josh Kordan. Lyrics from songs by Bjork and Madonna and 12 step fellowship addiction recovery acronyms. AA  ACA  CA  CLA  CMA  CoDA COSA  COSLAA DA EA  FA FA  FAA  GA  HA  MA  NA  N/A Nar-Anon NicA  OA  OLGA  PA RA  SA  SAA  SCA  SIA  SLAA  SRA  UA  WA 

A performance by Jacob Samuel and Samir Kennedy featuring a collage of interviews with Beatrice Dillon, Coby Sey, Ines Camara, Scott Pattinson, Tadej Vindis and Vanessa Omoregie (Camgirls Project). The piece looks into the existence of infinity in the present moment, the relationship of tech and the image of the body, the future of prophecies between them. Originally performed live for RADIO ASSEMBLY, part of ASSEMBLY in 2018, five days of sound and performance at Somerset House Studios. - Deep Listen is a new series for Somerset House Studios in which we share  long-form audio content, new or archive, featuring interviews, discussions and creative responses to ideas of connection and commonality. 

Are you feeling Hyper Functional? Vivienne Griffin, Florence Peake, Rowdy SS & Rebecca Bellantoni respond to the idea of wellness, described as the optimization of mental and physical wellbeing. Time and again we find we cannot measure up to impossible demands, frustrating ourselves. Those who do not or cannot conform to wellness culture risk the contempt of those on its tyrannical treadmill. Hyper Functional, Ultra Healthy took place during January and February 2020 at Somerset House Studios with a programme that asked us to reconsider well-being in new and unexpected ways, a refreshing antidote to the vast wellness industry that has fuelled societal pressures to conform, often creating an unrealistic and anxiety-inducing desire to be healthy, happy and productive. UN–NOW is a group workshop by Vivienne Griffin where voices were digitally modified in unison to explore dissonance, vocal fry, polyphonic harmonies, speaking in tongues, drone, noise and fake laughter.  Florence Peake presents CAVE. There is a tidal cave on the Jurassic coast, South West England. It is a site of retreat and refuge from the world for only 3 hours before it is again submerged by the sea. A place of dark, wet sanctuary, the cave has become Peake’s lover.  London is noisy; sirens, drilling, honking, shouting, the endless grind of traffic. The Tube. From stress, to heart disease to type 2 diabetes, research suggests noise pollution creates problems for people's health. For 10 years Rowdy SS has been recording London's damaging noise, in this new work he remixed an archive to create a soundscape for healing. Produced by Femi Oriogun-Williams for Reduced Listening. Commissioned by Somerset House Studios.

For ASSEMBLY, Karen Gwyer approached the street noises as drums. Building over the course of the performance, Karen will use and process the ambient sounds to create a multilayer, polyrhythmic piece created from the more punchy and identifiable sounds as well as distorting the general hum. The mood and intensity will shift as the performance progresses. On top of the rhythmic street sounds, layers of synths will build to create a moving yet sobering composition that draws on Karen’s own emotions around her 12 years as a Londoner, both the pain and relief of leaving, and the conflict of looking at it now from afar. Pedestrians, traffic, roadworks, protest; the corner of Somerset House where Waterloo Bridge meets Embankment is a hive of often unpredictable activity and noise. Acknowledging and working with this to define a compositional framework, Marclay invited a series of guests to collaborate in bringing the outdoors inside for an evolving series of electro-acoustic performances. Karen Gwyer was born in the southern US and raised in the north. Now based in Berlin after more than a decade in London, she shifts between pumping, thickly melodic, just left-of-techno dancefloor vibes and diversionary acidic psychedelia in her expansive, largely analogue live electronic performances. To date, she has released a handful of acclaimed recordings on Don’t Be Afraid, Nous Disques, Opal Tapes and Kaleidoscope, among others. She has produced remixes for labels such as InFiné, Software, and Public Information, and has created a number of commissioned pieces for Berlin’s Pop-Kultur festival and Open Music Archive in London. Christian Marclay’s ambitious and accomplished practice explores the juxtaposition between sound, photography, video and sculpture. His installations display provocative musical and visual landscapes and have been included in exhibitions around the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris and Kunsthaus Zurich. More recently, he exhibited The Clock at the Tate Modern (debuted at White Cube in 2010) – an artwork created from thousands of edited fragments, from a vast range of films to create a 24-hour, single-channel video. Podcast produced by Reduced Listening for Somerset House Studios. ASSEMBLY Production by Music Hackspace and sound system by Call & Response, with sound and interaction programming from Black Shuck and Preverbal Studio. Lighting design by KitMapper. ASSEMBLY is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund, The Adonyeva Foundation and the John. S Cohen Foundation.

Pedestrians, traffic, roadworks, protest; the corner of Somerset House where Waterloo Bridge meets Embankment is a hive of often unpredictable activity and noise. Acknowledging and working with this to define a compositional framework, Marclay invited a series of guests to collaborate in bringing the outdoors inside for an evolving series of electro-acoustic performances. Studios resident Lawrence Lek is an artist, filmmaker and musician whose virtual worlds and animated films create alternate versions of real places. For ASSEMBLY he invited collaborators Seth Scott and Robin Simpson to present a site-specific simulation that acts as an uncanny virtual and sonic double of the performance space. Their performance, Doom, reflects the atmosphere during the Extinction Rebellion protests when Waterloo Bridge – which the Lancaster Rooms overlook – was closed to traffic and filled with warning signs of the coming apocalypse. Christian Marclay’s ambitious and accomplished practice explores the juxtaposition between sound, photography, video and sculpture. His installations display provocative musical and visual landscapes and have been included in exhibitions around the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris and Kunsthaus Zurich. More recently, he exhibited The Clock at the Tate Modern (debuted at White Cube in 2010) – an artwork created from thousands of edited fragments, from a vast range of films to create a 24-hour, single-channel video. Podcast produced by Reduced Listening for Somerset House Studios ASSEMBLY Production by Music Hackspace and sound system by Call & Response, with sound and interaction programming from Black Shuck and Preverbal Studio. Lighting design by KitMapper. ASSEMBLY is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund, The Adonyeva Foundation and the John. S Cohen Foundation.

Artist and producer Beatrice Dillon’s new piece for ASSEMBLY, infraordinary, combines installation and performance, in which specially composed sounds are triggered using the system’s Kinect camera, alongside a live controlled sound mix of the street. Inspired by writer Georges Perec’s concept of the ‘infra-ordinary’ - taking account of the micro events of the everyday - the performance attempts to examine and reframe the rhythmic patterns of the street outside. Pedestrians, traffic, roadworks, protest; the corner of Somerset House where Waterloo Bridge meets Embankment is a hive of often unpredictable activity and noise. Acknowledging and working with this to define a compositional framework, Marclay invited a series of guests to collaborate in bringing the outdoors inside for an evolving series of electro-acoustic performances.  Beatrice Dillon is an artist and music producer who has produced solo and collaborative releases across Boomkat Editions, Hessle Audio, The Trilogy Tapes, PAN, Timedance and Where To Now? Recent performances include Barbican Centre, Tokyo’s wwwX, MUTEK Montreal, Dekmantel, Documenta Athens, Cairo’s Masåfåt Festival, Norway’s Insomnia and Documenta Athens. With a background in fine art, Beatrice has produced sound and music commissions for Outlands Network, Lisson Gallery, Études Paris, AND Festival, Somerset House and has collaborated with visual artists and choreographers across ICA, TATE, Southbank Centre, York Mediale, Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva, MACVAL Paris, Nasher Center Dallas and Mona Tasmania amongst others. She was the recipient of Wysing Arts Centre’s artist residency, is a resident at Somerset House Studios and presents a show on NTS Radio. Christian Marclay’s ambitious and accomplished practice explores the juxtaposition between sound, photography, video and sculpture. His installations display provocative musical and visual landscapes and have been included in exhibitions around the world including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou Paris and Kunsthaus Zurich. More recently, he exhibited The Clock at the Tate Modern (debuted at White Cube in 2010) – an artwork created from thousands of edited fragments, from a vast range of films to create a 24-hour, single-channel video. Podcast produced by Reduced Listening for Somerset House Studios ASSEMBLY Production by Music Hackspace and sound system by Call & Response, with sound and interaction programming from Black Shuck and Preverbal Studio. Lighting design by KitMapper. ASSEMBLY is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund, The Adonyeva Foundation and the John. S Cohen Foundation.

Developed in residence at Somerset House Studios, visual artist Sam Williams and musician Roly Porter present Salvage Rhythms, a collaboration resulting in a performance and film drawing on systems of archaeology, mycelial networks, composting and non-human relationships to explore different possibilities of survival and connection. Sam and Roly will present a newly commissioned film Salvage Rhythms at Somerset House Studios in 2020, which collages together sound and movement from their performance of the same title at AGM, with original and found footage; animation and photography to create a dense and decaying compost of human and non-human entanglement. Salvage Rhythms features as part of I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now, the second season at Somerset House Studios' new permanent exhibition space, Gallery 31, from 23 Jan – 31 May 2020. Produced by Femi Oriogun-Williams for Reduced Listening. Commissioned by Somerset House Studios

With contributions from Annie Goh and Natalie Hyacinth (Sonic Cyberfeminisms), Emma Smith, Ziúr, Roy Claire Potter and NSDOS, we hear the artists discuss explore the idea of silence and how this can be disrupted, interjected or accepted in progressive ways, using an excerpt of Audre Lorde’s seminal text Your Silence Will Not Protect You as a jumping off point for artistic discussion. Somerset House Studios were invited to guest curate the 2019 edition of Wysing Polyphonic. Considering the legacy of Wysing Arts Centre as a place where artists meet and experiment, the programme explored connection beyond the physical: connection as a channel of communication; an incantation, returning, or heralding; the calling on an ‘other’ or unknown to understand different worlds and possibilities.  Produced by Femi Oriogun-Williams for Reduced Listening. Commissioned by Somerset House Studios

Conversations about language. Artist Nick Ryan presents an ontological adventure into voice recognition, language, semiotics, sensory experience, immersive sound and imagination. In this bumper final episode of the series, Nick Ryan continues his search into the meaning of language with Anthropologist Dr Jerome Lewis, asking why and where language began. A Reader in Social Anthropology at University College London, Jerome has 25 years of research experience working with The Bayaka hunter-gatherers in the Congo Basin researching child socialisation, play and religion; egalitarian politics and gender relations; and language, music and dance. Jerome takes Nick on Journey into the forest, tracing the origins of language, as he explains ‘radical egalitarianism’, polyphonic singing, survival from predators, ‘costly signalling’ and how to call fish with your voice underwater. With thanks to the Pitt Rivers Museum and Reel to Real project for use of the Bayaka recordings used in this episode. - The series documents and delves into the research being undertaken by Nick Ryan and his collaborators for RE:COGNITION, an interdisciplinary project exploring the connection between the sound of spoken language) and meanings manifest in the physical world as sound or concepts otherwise capable of being represented sonically. In connection to this Nick Ryan presents The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) as part of BONDS until 05 Jan 2020 at Gallery 31, Somerset House Studios’ new permanent exhibition space. The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) taps into the magic of making sense, exploring the sound of spoken language and its relationship to sensation and matter. Inviting visitors to speak a word into a microphone, the installation uses machine learning and natural language processing to automatically represent these words as sounds. Simultaneously, a visualisation displays the words and their semantic relationships to related vocabulary.  Nick Ryan is a multi-disciplinary artist and composer exploring auditory representations of information, language, physical materiality and space through the creation of sound and multi-sensory installations, bespoke instruments and generative audio experiences.  Re:cognition is commissioned by CASE Foundation and currently is in the R&D phase.  Podcast produced by Nick Ryan and Jo Barratt for Somerset House Studios.

Conversations about language. Artist Nick Ryan presents an ontological adventure into voice recognition, language, semiotics, sensory experience, immersive sound and imagination.  The series documents and delves into the research being undertaken by Nick Ryan and his collaborators for RE:COGNITION, an interdisciplinary project exploring the connection between the sound of spoken language) and meanings manifest in the physical world as sound or concepts otherwise capable of being represented sonically. Neil Bennun is a BAFTA winning author, actor and experimental theatre maker who has written extensively for video games and interactive and digital narrative projects. In his book, “The Broken String: The Last Words of an Extinct People” (published by Penguin in 2005) Neil uncovered the stories of the first people of South Africa from the brink of extinction - a world of sorcerers, hunters and artists with vivid stories to tell. Nick and Neil discuss evolution, the origins of language and symbol, hacking and why Homer referred to the Sea as ‘wine-dark’, as Nick delves deeper in his mission to build a machine in which a human communication can be translated into a universal representation in non-verbal sound. - In connection to this Nick Ryan presents The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) as part of BONDS until 05 Jan 2020 at Gallery 31, Somerset House Studios’ new permanent exhibition space. The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) taps into the magic of making sense, exploring the sound of spoken language and its relationship to sensation and matter. Inviting visitors to speak a word into a microphone, the installation uses machine learning and natural language processing to automatically represent these words as sounds. Simultaneously, a visualisation displays the words and their semantic relationships to related vocabulary.  Nick Ryan is a multi-disciplinary artist and composer exploring auditory representations of information, language, physical materiality and space through the creation of sound and multi-sensory installations, bespoke instruments and generative audio experiences.  Re:cognition is commissioned by CASE Foundation and currently is in the R&D phase.  Podcast produced by Nick Ryan and Jo Barratt for Somerset House Studios.

Conversations about language. Artist Nick Ryan presents an ontological adventure into voice recognition, language, semiotics, sensory experience, immersive sound and imagination.  The series documents and delves into the research being undertaken by Nick Ryan and his collaborators for RE:COGNITION, an interdisciplinary project exploring the connection between the sound of spoken language) and meanings manifest in the physical world as sound or concepts otherwise capable of being represented sonically. Angela Terrill is a Linguist and is known for her comprehensive study of Lavukaleve, a Papuan Language spoken on the Russell Islands in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands. Lavukaleve is described as an ‘isolate’ language, bearing little relation even to other languages in the Solomon Islands, despite having existed for many thousands of years. Through her knowledge of studying this unique language, Angela is able to share much about how a spoken language is formed, used and develops over time. The conversation has interesting implications for Nick in the creation of his Machine as Angela shares fascinating examples of both the cultural specificities of Lavukaleve and some qualities and functions of language that may be universal. _ In connection to this Nick Ryan presents The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) as part of BONDS until 05 Jan 2020 at Gallery 31, Somerset House Studios’ new permanent exhibition space. The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) taps into the magic of making sense, exploring the sound of spoken language and its relationship to sensation and matter. Inviting visitors to speak a word into a microphone, the installation uses machine learning and natural language processing to automatically represent these words as sounds. Simultaneously, a visualisation displays the words and their semantic relationships to related vocabulary.  Nick Ryan is a multi-disciplinary artist and composer exploring auditory representations of information, language, physical materiality and space through the creation of sound and multi-sensory installations, bespoke instruments and generative audio experiences.  Re:cognition is commissioned by CASE Foundation and currently is in the R&D phase.  Podcast produced by Nick Ryan and Jo Barratt for Somerset House Studios.

Conversations about language. Artist Nick Ryan presents an ontological adventure into voice recognition, language, semiotics, sensory experience, immersive sound and imagination.  The series documents and delves into the research being undertaken by Nick Ryan and his collaborators for RE:COGNITION, an interdisciplinary project exploring the connection between the sound of spoken language) and meanings manifest in the physical world as sound or concepts otherwise capable of being represented sonically. In this episode Donald Hoffman, Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, puts forward the radical proposal that everything we perceive as reality, in fact bears little relation to the ‘real’ world in which we live. His work is based on evolution and rigorous modelling, and reflects on Nick’s mission to build a machine that translates spoken language into the audible sensation of its meaning. Don is an author of over 100 scientific papers and three books, including Visual Intelligence, and his new book, The Case Against Reality.  _ In connection to this Nick Ryan presents The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) as part of BONDS until 05 Jan 2020 at Gallery 31, Somerset House Studios’ new permanent exhibition space. The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) taps into the magic of making sense, exploring the sound of spoken language and its relationship to sensation and matter. Inviting visitors to speak a word into a microphone, the installation uses machine learning and natural language processing to automatically represent these words as sounds. Simultaneously, a visualisation displays the words and their semantic relationships to related vocabulary.  Nick Ryan is a multi-disciplinary artist and composer exploring auditory representations of information, language, physical materiality and space through the creation of sound and multi-sensory installations, bespoke instruments and generative audio experiences.  Re:cognition is commissioned by CASE Foundation and currently is in the R&D phase.  Podcast produced by Nick Ryan and Jo Barratt for Somerset House Studios.

Artist Nick Ryan presents an ontological adventure into voice recognition, language, semiotics, sensory experience, immersive sound and imagination. RE:COGNITION is an interdisciplinary project exploring the connection between the sound of spoken language) and meanings manifest in the physical world as sound or concepts otherwise capable of being represented sonically: an ontological adventure into voice recognition, language, semiotics, sensory experience, immersive sound and imagination. The series documents and delves into the research being undertaken by Nick Ryan and his collaborators. It will guide listeners through aural exploration into AI, linguistics and semiotics.  In connection to this Nick Ryan presents The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) as part of BONDS at Gallery 31, Somerset House Studios’ permanent exhibition space which opens September 2019. The Gulf of Understanding (Re:cognition) taps into the magic of making sense, exploring the sound of spoken language and its relationship to sensation and matter. Inviting visitors to speak a word into a microphone, the installation uses machine learning and natural language processing to automatically represent these words as sounds. Simultaneously, a visualisation displays the words and their semantic relationships to related vocabulary.  Nick Ryan is a multi-disciplinary artist and composer exploring auditory representations of information, language, physical materiality and space through the creation of sound and multisensory installations, bespoke instruments and generative audio experiences.  Re:cognition is commissioned by CASE Foundation and currently is in the R&D phase.  Podcast produced by Nick Ryan and Jo Barratt for Somerset House Studios.

#5 Apparatus: Equipment, methods, original recordings since used in tracks. Ceremony at temple starting, Ubud; machine? - unknown; instrument recording in Rotterdam; playing the organ; yangqin recording; unknown machine, Arctic; Unknown; Unknown; playing the piano, London; Greek wedding, Thessaloniki; crickets at night, Canada; running water, unknown; organ; fire safety training; unknown; kemence recording; vocal recording - unknown; exhibition; violin sampling; radio set in a gallery; gallery, Tokyo; violin recorded at home, wind chimes on a mountain on Teshima Island. Drawing inspiration from a story during a journey to the abandoned Arctic settlement of Pyramiden, Ubi Sunt is the culmination of years of collected sonic moments. It was said that from this archipelago in the far north, left behind by all of its 1000 inhabitants for over a decade, ‘ghost’ radio signals had suddenly been detected. A singer whose family were from the original town had been sent an anonymous cassette tape, with recordings of them picked up from the region. Ubi Sunt is a new audio work by Flora Yin-Wong, commissioned by Somerset House Studios, composed of a tetralogy of sound pieces that abruptly jump between, cut up and stitch over six years of recordings captured in known and unknown locations - unlabelled and often lost sources. The connection between memory, emotion, and recorded moments that have accumulated on an iPhone is something that everyone could have their own version of. Hundreds of these snippets represent connections between the recall of memories, alternate worlds and spaces intangible, yet can be connected to across physical spaces. In collaboration with artist Go Watanabe, the series will be accompanied by artwork that adopts the underlying themes via the camera work of the film. The scene slowly moves horizontally from left to right, which reminds of the viewer the movement of playing cassette tapes, or driving a car through a road. Household objects are placed as if they are constructing a town. The objects were developed submerged in natural light from a window, but for this piece, the shade remains on the surfaces in a new space of absolute darkness. The remaining shadows are the metaphor of memories that carried from the past, said to emerge as ghosts. Varying from the sound of deep crunching snow in a forest in Hokkaido, Turkish EDM on the car radio, the rush of a reservoir in rural Wales, Buddhist monks chanting in Hangzhou, K-Pop in a teen clothing store in Seoul, and old vocal recordings - fragments that shift from the highly personal, nostalgic, to the extremely banal, or contrived and obnoxious are momentarily placed together. Flora Yin-Wong is a London-born, Chinese-Malaysian artist working with field recordings, dissonance, and influences from contemporary club culture.