The Leeds School of
Art, Architecture Design

Alan Dunn has been researching the distribution of sound art to new audiences. Taking as his starting points Russolo’s 1913 ‘Art of noises’, the writings of Bill Drummond and the sounds of Chris Watson and Carol Kaye, he has curated seven sound art CDs around precise themes: 

Silence
Dripping water
Revolution
Grey
Catastrophe
Background
Numbers 

Each CD contains archival material alongside new works from existing artists and staff and students from Leeds Metropolitan University. Dunn negotiates full permissions on all content and each CD is packaged by Graphics Design students for production in editions of 1,000 and free distribution.

Content to date has come from Chris Watson, John Cage, Yoko Ono, Douglas Gordon, David Bowie, Carol Kaye, Brian Eno, Scanner, Andy Warhol, Lydia Lunch, Gerhard Richter, Agnes Martin, Bill Drummond, Bo Diddley, Marcel Duchamp, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and The Residents alongside recordings from deep space, youtube amateurs, ex-footballers and poets from Kurdistan. The CDs have featured in WIRE Magazine and sound art festivals and broadcasts in Argentina, Spain, Ireland, Denmark and Canada.

In support of new approaches to sound art, in 2009 Dunn instigated the Chris Watson master classes at LMU to introduce students to high-end sound art recording, post-production and playback. In 2012 he will exhibit aspects of the research at an exhibition of short-listed Liverpool Art Prize artists at METAL. The CD series sits within Dunn’s artistic practice of socially-engaged collaborations that bring artworks of the highest standing to new audiences, such as The Bellgrove Station Billboard Project (1990-91) and tenantspin (2001-7).


Alan Dunn, Adventures in numb4rland – work in progress

The seventh CD in the series ‘Adventures in numb4rland’ has just been completed, mastered by Michael Ward from Music, Sound & Performance and packaged by Graphic students Dane Chadwick and Olivia McCarthy. 

The collection has been inspired by Alex Bellos’ book ‘Alex’s Adventures in numberland’ and a BBC Horizon documentary from January 2010 in which scientists expressed confidence at ultimately finding some structure behind reality, which would be in their words ‘numerical’. I became interested in the fact that mathematicians such as Professor Ian Stewart were suggesting that the number 4 or 8 would prove to be our most important. Interviewing Chris Watson for ‘Stimulus Respond’ about his experiences across the globe, he also suggested that we would ultimately find some pattern behind reality, rather than chaos.

The collection looks at the manners in which artists, musicians and writers have used numbers, specifically the number 4, in their works. The 67 tracks include works about four-letter words, 4am, four horsemen of the apocalypse, 4th July, the four seasons, pas de quatre, 4x4, tetraphobia, 1234!, Clough’s 44 days and 4-minute warnings. Contributors include Diamanda Galas, the Pixies, the 1234s from Manchester and the 5678s from the ‘Kill Bill’ movie, Clinic, alva noto, Trixie And The Merch Girls and The Residents.

Staff and students contributing to the collection are Aidan Winterburn, Jo Hassall, Andrew Wilson Lambeth, Alexi Hall, Alice Withers, Baptiste Goichon, Ian Truelove, Manni Cowlin-Zala, Michael Jenkins, Nicky Hamer, Nikos Stavropoulis, Rob Graham, Ryan Thompson, Stephen Roberts, Vikkie Mulford and Lawrence Nash.

In January 2012 I presented the ‘Grey is the colour of hope’ CD at the Leeds Library in the exhibition ‘Boredom’ curated by 3rd year CAP student Michael Jenkins and in March various tracks from the ‘Artists uses of the word revolution’ CD were broadcast on the French radio station webSYNradio. Also in March, all seven CDs were presented as a listening station at Cirrus Gallery in Los Angeles and in April I’ll be presenting some further aspects from his research into sound as part of the exhibition of short-listed artists for the 2012 Liverpool Art Prize.

See http://alandunn67.co.uk/67projects.html