Contemporary Turning Exhibition
Owl Project
February 8th - March 10th 2012
Owl Project is a collaborative group of artists consisting of Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall and Steve Symons. They work with wood and electronics to fuse sculpture and sound art, creating music making machines, interfaces and objects which intermix pre-steam and digital technologies. Drawing on influences such as 70’s synthesiser culture, DIY woodworking and current digital crafts, the resulting artwork is a quirky and intriguing critique of the allure and production of technology.
“The Owl Project are a wonderful combination of inventiveness, precision, lateral thinking and single-minded quirkiness” Tim Marlow, White Cube Gallery 2009
Sound Lathe explores of the sonic properties of woodwork. The Sound Lathe is unique audio instrument based on a traditional green wood turning pole lathe. It creates audio data, saw dust, noise and wood chippings. With this human powered machine, turned spindles are shaped into complex sounds such as tones, glitches and beats. Unlike many electronic instruments, the Sound Lathe produces a unique wooden object at the end of each performance. This object serves as a memory of the performance, slightly faulty and incomplete as it represents the conclusion rather than an accurate recording of the process. Sound lathe explores the relationship between the crafting of physical objects and the shaping of sound. It was developed in collaboration with traditional green woodworkers, notably with Mike Abbott, a leading UK professional wood-turner, author of the seminal text on green wood work - "living Wood"