The Institute of Unnecessary Research participated in Brussels Meets Brighton, scintillating week of cutting-edge multimedia performance, gigs and installations. See photos here.

Between Wednesday 30th April and Saturday the 3rd of May London’s exciting Shunt Lounge (an incredible labyrinth of caves and arches underneath London Bridge station which serves as an artistic playground, a concert venue and a gallery) hosted a massive exhibition involving Arts Collectives from Brighton, Brussels and London. The event incorporated a feast of fascinating performance including: live music, puppetry, dance and physical theatre, video and sound installations, photography, slam poetry, scientists, robotics and more. The themes for the show were: metacommunication, real-time improvisation and inter-cultural understanding. The exploration of these themes was facilitated by the MetaHub.

The MetaHub was a computerised Audio-Visual pool operated by 11 Vj’s, Dj’s and Hackers through which all audio and visual feeds from the entire exhibition passed; all participant artists could then take any data-stream to use as they pleased.  Influenced by the Interdisciplinary Exhibitions « EMMA » run by Artefakt and Kimera in Brussels between 2003 till 2006, Frédéric Monnoye, a Brighton based Belgian digital artist, and Guillaume Serve co-ordinated the project by gathering artists from different cultures and disciplines and asking them to perform together within improvised collaboration.

From the point of view of the Institute of Unnecessary Research this was an exciting opportunity to investigate the nature of cross cultural, meta collaboration on a grand scale. We created a temporary unnecessary research facility at Shunt.

Director Anna Dumitriu engaged the audience in a collaborative crochet based on the bacteria from her own bed and showed images of her microbial collection (in collaboration with Dr John Paul) including images (in collaboration with Dr Simon Park) of the bacterial flora soil of Brussels and geotagged the location where Fred Monnoye (the curator of the event) collected the soil (using Socialight) in an extension to her previous work Bio-tracking, which used microscopy, geotagging, GPS, sound art and text to look at the microbial flora of the city of Brighton. That work can be found here and via your mobile phone (details on the Socialight website).

Anna Dumitriu put out a call to Brussels Meets Brighton participants to collaborate with her and to bring her soil from wherever they start their journey to Shunt from. The artwork grew throughout the event combining projections, geotags, installation and performance in response to the other participants. Anna Dumitriu was also collaboratively crocheting the bacteria from her bed.

Monia Brizzi's work with Metaluna was be an extension of the psycho-social studies she undertook with the audience at The IUR Karaoke Experiment. Is there joy in collaboration?

Luciana Haill continued to experiment with the creation of sound works using IBVA technology (Interactive Brainwave Visualisation Analyser).

Ian Grant will made annotations on a classic songs by Belgian chanteur Jacques Brel in French and in English, including a virtual performance by the late great Jacques himself.

Theresa Sundt was “Performing Colour”. Through a the use of costume and performance Sundt created dramatic colour visualisation experiences for the audience and potential collaborators. 

The Physarum Dynamic (represented by Dr Simon Park) attempted to breach containment and assimilate any offerings that were brought to it.

Ian Helliwell set up pressure sensors connected to a Hellitron tone generator, the sound of which was processed via the Hellisizer 1000, and a visual representation projected via a Miniscope. This was audience activated and also involved a special dance performance. A live soundtrack performance also took place for the 8 minute film Holes.

Throughout the event the following recent short films were alsoshown in the screening area:

The Atomium Age (2007) Split-screen film shot at the Atomium in Brussels, the centrepiece of the World`s Fair in 1958. The remarkable 335 feet high structure representing an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times, is captured with spontaneous super-8 camerawork, in all its silver spherical glory. (2’25)

Soundtrack: Hellisizer 2000, Hellitron generators.

Playing Up (2007) Naturally decayed found super-8 footage of children`s and adult`s games, has been cut up and spliced back together to reveal new rhythms and connections. (3’45)

Soundtrack: Tape loop, keyboard and ring modulator, Hellitron generators.

Grid (2007) Circles in formation glide by, in this abstract direct animation film. Coloured inks were applied onto clear super-8 with felt-tip pens, using an old speaker grill as a stencil. (2’20)

Soundtrack: Hellitron tone generators.

Signal Tracing (2007) Abstract audio-generated waveform patterns from an oscilloscope and modified TV, were filmed with super-8 and then treated with bleach and vinegar. The electronic music features a special Hellitron photocell audio generator which reacts to varying amounts of light in the film. (3’20)

Soundtrack: Hellitron generators.