My radio-based installation Hive had its second outing at the Latitude festival in July. 
50 or more radios, each tuned to a different station and left to run simultaneously in an enclosed dome. All possible radio sources broadcasting simultaneously in one location. 

We are inundated with information all the time. This installation examines how one filters this information.


15,000 people visited the installation at Latitude. It was very interesting to watch how they interacted with it.
There was quite a bit of media interest, including BBC Click and ITN News, and Max Reinhardt from BBC Radio 3's excellent Late Junction show. Here's his Latitude write-up.
The BBC also interviewed me for the Today Programme on Radio 4. I'd never heard the Today Programme before; I'm not known as an early riser.
I was asked to install Hive by Dr Marius Kwint in association with the Wellcome Trust.

The installation connects very closely with the work scientists are carrying out at the cutting edge of auditory research, investigating the ways that we interpret and filter multiple auditory signals: The cocktail party effect and other processes relating to the acoustics of three dimensional spaces, pattern recognition, and familiarity through repetition and cultural experiences.

Marius chaired a talk with me and music psychologist Dr Vicky Williamson to discuss the science behind Hive's immersive acoustic. Vicky gave her insight into the current thinking: We now know that information doesn't simply flow as one-way traffic from the ears to the brain to be processed; as much information passes in the opposite direction, with the brain actively instructing the ears what to listen out for.

Interestingly, closing your eyes while listening doesn't simply enhance listening by denying visual stimuli, it is now understood that the act of doing this physiologically changes the way the brain and ears function, and alters the listening experience at a fundamental level.
The film at the top of this blog is made from stills taken inside the dome at Latitude, manipulated by film-maker and animator Amy Engels. 
Thanks are due to Marius Kwint, Vicky Williamson, Richard Wingate, Tania Harrison from Latitude, Amy Sanders from the Wellcome Trust and Andy James. And especially to Richard and all at Ruark for the kind loan of your great radios. 

And I would like to thank the Guardians of the Portal of Noise - Toni, Ed, Amy and Alex, who babysat the dome for hours at a stretch.

​It sounds like chaos at first, but it's calming once you're used to it. I slept in there one night.
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I forgot to link to this interview that i-D Online did with me, a few days before my London Bridge thereminathon.  You can read the article on the i-D link above, or watch just the interview here:
 
Adrian Larkin from the brilliant 6 Music was the only journalist who came while we were rigging the equipment for London Bridge.   and stayed an admirably long time into the wee hours, especially when you listen to what sounds I was making during the setup.  "This is not usual music."  Adrian, I salute you!  

Earlier today he sent me a copy of his report.  I love the pedestrian he found - "Have I done anything wrong or anything?"  
 
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Armed only with a theremin, Nick Franglen is hymning London's commuters, and they'll be helping - whether they know it or not.

Next Thursday, I am going to be playing a theremin under London Bridge for 24 hours. I will be starting and ending at midnight, in a slowly developing collaboration with the thousands of pedestrians who cross the bridge. I'll be situated on the walkway beneath the arches, feeding the output of the theremin into a series of loop and effect pedals to create continuous, complex washes of sound that will be audible on the walkway around me. Pedestrians crossing the bridge above will unwittingly affect this output: as they pass by, they will cut a hidden beam on the bridge that will momentarily mute the music I'm making, a little blip of silence imprinted by each passing pedestrian throughout the 24 hours.

 
Not many people have seen Rockfeedback's film of the Blacksand performance at Pyestock, so I thought I'd post it here.  Pyestock is an enormous place, a largely closed industrial testing facility.  We played in Cell 4, where they tested Concorde's engines in the 60's - running them at full power inside the building.  You can only imagine the noise.

They're very good people, Rockfeedback, up for it.  It was destined for Channel 4, but once the C4 lawyers saw it they pulled the plug on the broadcast.  Disappointing - it's not like we were advocating violence against minors. MTV2 did run it though, good on 'em.  

The words "at 12 minutes it was too long to put on Youtube" seem so limp, but I know if it had been a couple of minutes shorter we'd have sorted spreading this film around much earlier. 


franglen.net