Welcome to episode 4 of Anechoic Chamber, free-from audio reportage from the margins of arts and culture. This episode’s guest is John Duncan, multi-disciplinary artist, psychic researcher and key figure in a fluid subculture based upon explorations into the extremes of information and expression. Duncan’s long-standing propensity for working with either an overload or deficit of stimuli have made this work more, rather than less, relevant to the present, while his declaration of quote “take me as you will” hints at an ethos of directness in a media landscape of seemingly universal deceit. Interestingly, our discussion for this episode focuses not just on the artist himself but on the actions of several other individuals whose work he has recommended.
Topics discussed: nearness to death and proving worthiness / learning from isolation / Narcomantic sleep performance, and an interesting participant (Nicola Valentino) / social media and “no picture didn’t happen” / taking up shortwave radio as an instrument, and Gary Jo Gardiner / another new instrument: Aurora Borealis radiation / resonant sites for recording / Bryan Lewis Saunders: an example of risk-taking art / art as a mirror, as a hammer, and more
Sound used in this episode: John Duncan / Bernhard Günter “Home, Unspeakable” | John Duncan “Change” from ‘Mind of a Missile’ compilation | John Duncan directing Ensemble Phoenix Basel “Phantom Broadcast (acoustic)” | John Duncan “Move Forward” soundtrack | John Duncan “River in Flames” | John Duncan + Elliot Sharp “Tongue” |
John Duncan “Lady Grinning Soul” [David Bowie cover, currently unreleased]
artist link: www.johnduncan.org
Anechoic chamber links
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