ED CHIVERS
My portfolio focuses on exploring the unheard electromagnetic spectrum which surrounds us, using it as source material from which to create new works. For me it is interesting because it is both normalised through day-to-day technologies such as WiFi, radio, and Bluetooth, but also feels somehow magical. Ross Birdwise sums it up perfectly in his introduction to the Snap, Crackle and Hum conference: “Electromagnetism is all at once incredibly mysterious and deeply familiar. It permeates our culture and the natural environment but it is nonetheless seemingly immaterial, a presence in no way distinct from absence, like a ghost or some other form of apparition.” (Ross Birdwise, ‘Introduction to Snap, Crackle, Hum’, 2012)
The electromagnetic spectrum could be seen as a parallel world surrounding us, and through my portfolio I have sought to blend, and crossfade between the audio-visual and electromagnetic worlds.
I have created three pieces which explore:
● What we can’t hear – the invisible natural radio environment
● What we’re forbidden to hear – coded broadcasts and signal jamming
● What we think we can hear – brain’s tendency to find meaning in randomness
These three compositions, the Ghost box instrument, and the audio visual performance that I have submitted for this portfolio are part of a larger body of work that I intend to release as an album project, and to perform live. There are supplementary ideas that have been generated whilst making the works that I hope to develop into installation pieces in the future.