Thursday 12 November 2009

FTW- The Analogue Tape Glove by Niall Quinn & Ollie Wilshen







This interactive sound installation deals with exploring the physical connection between people and technology. A tangible user interface, taking the form of a glove is worn by the participant as they are invited to interact with an analogue tape surface. As the glove comes in contact with the tape, sound is generated and can be manipulated via touch and movement. This piece intends to explore the somewhat obsolete medium of tape through a playful and sonically interesting experience, appealing to a wide audience. The pre-recorded sound on the tape is a random collage of compiled material including a range of musical styles & found recordings.
This piece is informed by works such as Nam June Paik’s “Random Access Music” and Stockhausen’s Tape experimentations as well as the notion of using analogue tape as an instrument


FTW is very pleased to show you work from these two ever growing artists. Niall Quinn (a North London boy) and Ollie Wilshen (a West Country lad).They have been friends since they started at Brighton uni (and finished with flying colours) They both studied MAVA (to the civilians who don’t know, it stands for MUSIC AND VISUAL ART). The idea for this work has been in the making for some time but they have finally finished it and the outcome is amazing. The only thing that we wanted to see was it on a bigger scale but due to the time and space they had they could not achieve this. Apart from that the tape glove was stunning, it seemed to have a mind of its own by only selected some people to really experience what the boys where trying to do/show. By having this random selection it gave the tape glove some power over its audience like getting picked last in the playground for football. The audience members that got it right seemed very happy with themselves like they have just learnt how to play “stairway to heaven” for the first time. The other lot who just didn’t seem to get anything from the tape glove stared at Niall and Ollie like they just broken one of the lads soldering iron (and a soldering iron to these boys is a must). But aside from the tape glove only selecting the coolest people to work for (FTW got the first go) the whole experience was truly brilliant. When you look at the work you see a board covered in stretched tape (from a cassette) which in itself is very interesting. They way the boys have put the tape (which is the string of a guitar for the piece) on a board stuck on a wall is something I wasn't expecting. When the punters put the glove and started to mess around with the tape their heads would lean towards the board as if they were trying to pick up the sound from the actual board by doing this they have given whoever has the glove on a platform, the board works like a stage. As not a huge fan of interactive art this has made me think twice, what works best for this piece is when something was not working right and the glove was not picking up anything and it seemed to be broken or on standby but the audience member didn’t stop moving the glove up and down almost like stroking the tape back to life. The tape and glove act as a living thing it can go in moods it can choose not work and it also can be playful and choose to make some truly amazing sounds. This piece of work has so much room to evolve. This is stage one for the tape glove and Niall and Ollie and at FTW we really hope we can see this work again.

In the tape glove we trust.


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