2015: ProjectTHE CAST OF THE CRYSTAL SETExhibition program X Marks the Bökship / Matt's Gallery
18 June – August 2015The Cast of the Crystal Set Recordings by artists & audio publishing
The Crystal Set is an evolving structure oscillating between a sound booth for recording and a stage for live listening events. This summer it will host a series of recording sessions, workshops and broadcasts from a cast of artists & publishers including: Test Centre, Paul Buck, Marcia Farquhar, Disembodied Voice Research Group, Drawing Room Confessions, Jenny Moore, Maria Guggenbichler & Amal Alhaag, Chris Wood, Typography Summer School, Sinkhole & more.
Thursday 18 June 2015Man Made Structures and The Disembodied Voice ((Recording, 10 – 4pm))Public Talk, 6 – 8pm
The Disembodied Voice presents an evening of presentations exploring relationships between architecture and objects and the voice. The event will include works in process by members of The Disembodied Voice research group and a lecture by Michiel Huijben titled ‘Becoming a Building’, ending with an open discussion.
The Disembodied Voice is a collaborative research project which sets out to investigate the relationship between the disembodied voice and contemporary visual culture. The group includes Maia Conran, Patrick Coyle, Karen Di Franco and Kihlberg & Henry.
Michiel Huijben – Becoming a BuildingFrom the verticality of the body as resembled in Greek columns, to people eating and dating walls and other built structures, this talk will propose that buildings share more similarities with us (and vice versa) than we are usually inclined to think. Taking examples from the history of art, architecture, mythology and life in general, it will suggest a number of ways for you to become more like a building, by focusing on the relations and similarities between human bodies and the material environment, and, specifically, to buildings.Michiel Huijben is an artist, currently based in London, where he is studying the MA Architectural History, Theory and Interpretation at the Cass. Michiel is also co-founder of the blog pietmondriaan.com
Vox BoxMarcia FarquharOngoing in the Bookshop Vox Box is a Juke Box housing a growing collection of 7” vinyl records of recent audio interviews conducted by Marcia Farquhar with friends and colleagues recalling the work of 70s artists, activists and performers documented in the Acme Gallery archive or otherwise contemporaneous. Mixed up with a selection of hit songs from the same era. The Juke Box will be operational in the bookshop from mid June until August.
Marcia Farquhar has been based at Acme Studios, in the archive of the Acme Gallery, working on a 1977 jukebox of repurposed histories. She has been engaged in practices of archival research that depart from the scholarly conventions that govern the use of archives. Her creative usage has involved experiments in locating, reanimating and perhaps fabricating or fictionalising histories of performance and politics in the 1970s.
Thursday 25 June 2015HAVE A NO: Spread the Spoken WordExperimental poetry and performance evening. Live Event, 7 – 10pmHAVE A NO & spoken word club event showcasing the written and performed work of their group of artist, artisans, partisans, performers and parasites: books, beer and experimental spoken word.
Saturday 27 June 2015Dial StoriesOne day workshop and participatory performance for spatial creative writing and FM radio. 12 – 7pm
Sound artist Chris Wood is running a workshop on Saturday 27 June where you can write and record a piece of work and then have it broadcast on a short range FM transmitter placed around Mile End park and the canal. He will provide prompts for writing based on the space and history of the site, record your work in the Crystal Set studio and loop it on a transmitter. You can then use one of our FM radios to navigate the space around the gallery through your stories. We'll end the day with a collective radio performance for 10 radio receivers.
Limited to 10 participants. Free .
Tuesday 30 June 2015Paul Buck's Pressed Curtains tapesTest Centre Launch and Listening Event, 7 -9pm
On the 30th of June Test Centre will launch 'Paul Buck's Pressed Curtains Tape Project', a boxed set of 10 cassette tapes from Buck's archive, including material by Eric Mottram, Allen Fisher, Cris Cheek, Pierre Joris, Bill Griffiths, Jean-Luc Parant, Robert Kelly and Kathy Acker.In the late 1970s Buck initiated a series of cassette releases tied to his magazines 'Curtains' and 'Twisted Wrist'. Of a projected series, only a couple saw the light of day, made to order from master tapes and given handwritten labels. Beyond these 2 tapes (by Eric Mottram and, in combination, Buck and Ulli McCarthy) lay far more extensive recordings of magazine contributors, friends and correspondents.Some were recorded at Buck's home in Hebden Bridge, some were sent in correspondence, and others were recorded from public readings. A mixture of straight readings, performance pieces, or improvisations in the area of sound poetry, the archive is a unique collection which captures the experimentation and creative energies of an exciting and influential group of writers and performers.
Publisher of the Month: JulyDrawing Room ConfessionsSaturday 4 July 2015, 5 – 8pm
Drawing Room Confessions is a printed journal named after a parlour game played by Marcel Proust, the Surrealists and others. Each book from the series uses exchanges and playful games to create a unique portrait of an individual artist.
Five different sections: The Egoist, The Blind Man, Two to Tango, For the Time Being and La Madeleine, plus the occasional appereance of The Double Dealer and Ekphrasis, comprise the Rules of the Game, which are the same in each issue. What changes are the players, or interviewers, who open each round of conversation with the featured artist and who come from a wide range of fields.Drawing Room Confessions is created by Manuela Ribadeneira and Vincent Honoré with Benjamin Reichen. Design by Åbäke
During July the full set of Drawing Room Confessions will be exhibited at X Marks the Bökship accompanied by the start of a collection of visual footnotes illustrating the complex referencing and citation that appears in each edition. Giving centre stage to the marginalia, the selected footnotes chosen by the publisher and distributor are represented by objects and prints and offer an entry point into the publications, which consciously choose to exclude images, and add another layer or player to the game.
Drinks will be served from 5pm and an audio recording of the transcript between Richard Wentworth and Tom Sachs in conversation will be played at 7pm.
www.drawingroomconfessions.com
Wednesday 8 July 2015“You can't win them all, ladies and gentlemen: Quality”Jenny Moore & GuestsLive Radio Show, 7.30pm
You can’t win them all, ladies and gentlemen is a live radio show produced by Jenny Moore and a growing cast of contributors. With the episodes Happiness, Expectations, and Misunderstandings under our belt – the fourth episode will be made using Quality as our query.
For the Quality show, the recently-assembled You can’t win them all house band – “House Music” - will enter The Crystal Set to write and record an album in three days, performing it live on the fourth day in front of a live studio audience. Formed through interpretation, improvisation, desire and pressure, this experiment will finish off the first season of You can’t win them all ladies and gentlemen; it is a peak, a track, a jingle, a trip.
Good hard quality exists when demands and expectations are met on a concrete, technical level.Good soft quality exists when demands and expectations are met on a human/emotional level.Get rid of this one-man-band. Get a synthesizer and make a band with people. Make songs and play them out.
“House Music” is Jenny Moore, James Ferris, Holly Pester, Simon Clark, and Steven Ounanian. House Music will be recording from 5 - 7 July, and will do something in public at 7:30pm on the 8th July. All welcome.
*Disclaimer: this press release may not accurately represent the outcome of this event. While we aim for quality, we cannot guarantee that expectations will be met or that we have not already misunderstood each other, however we do hope that you will leave happy. Food will be present to aid this.
Wednesday 15 – Saturday 18 JulyBookable Studio Sessions
Monday 20 – Friday 24 JulyTypography Summer School
Fraser Muggeridge is joined by a visiting practitioner each day, from specialised areas of typographic design practice and educators at distinguished design schools. The 2015 tutors in London are APFEL (A Practice for Everyday Life), Paul Barnes, Mark El-khatib, Ken Garland, James Langdon, Fraser Muggeridge, OK-RM and David Pearson. Bringing together a range of varied tutors will offer each participant a unique experience to learn from and apply to their future work.
Saturday 25 & Sunday 26 JulyDJ Workshop for Women Workshop with Maria Guggenbichler & Amal Alhaag with Mamiko Motto
Publisher of the Month: Sinkhole
Sinkhole is an online publishing project for audio recordings by artists. Newly commissioned sound and spoken-word works are presented alongside occasional archive material. Recordings are available for sale as downloadable MP3 files. The project is edited and published by James Langdon.
https://sinkhole-audio.net
SUPER WOOFEROne-day Sound Fair and Summer PartySaturday 1 August 2015, 1pm - 11pmFree
Keith Harrison, Plastique Fanstastique, Benedict Drew, Marcia Farquhar, Leo Chadburn, Mikatsiu, John Lawrence, Daniela Cascella, Robert Pratt, Cesura // Acceso, Erinyes, Flange Zoo, Matt Copson, 38b, Exploit.zzxjoanw.Gen, Girolamo Marri, Drawing Room Confessions, Sonic Imperfections, Trestle Records, Daata Editions, Matt's Gallery, Consumer Waste, Editions of You, Top Nice, DISFIGMENT/BANKRUPSEA, The Cast of the Crystal Set, Dancehall, Sinkhole, Lost Toy Records, WE, & more tbc.SUPER WOOFER sound fair has invited artists and audio publishers to have stalls for selling and displaying analogue and digital audio works; tapes, CDs, vinyl, USB, MP3, books, zines and merchandise, alongside a day of talks and listening events.The sound fair will take place between 1pm – 8pm with the performances and summer party continuing between 8pm – 11pm.
The Cast of the Crystal set is a project by X Marks the Bökship In partnership with Matt’s GalleryFunded by Grants for the ArtsCrystal Set designed by Tom Clowney + Nozomi Nakabayashi from Leyton Workshop
