DEAD FINGERS TALK: THE TAPE EXPERIMENTS OF WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

DEAD FINGERS TALK:
THE TAPE EXPERIMENTS OF
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

ALMA/JOE AMBROSE
STEVE AYLETT
ALEX BAKER & KIT POULSON
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS
LAWRENCE ENGLISH
THE HUMAN SEPARATION
RICCARDO IACONA
ANTHONY JOSEPH

CATHY LANE
EDUARDO NAVAS
NEGATIVLAND
O.BLAAT
AKI ONDA
JÖRG PIRINGER
PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUE
SIMON REUBEN WHITE

GORGIO SADOTTI
SCANNER
TERRE THAEMLITZ
THOMSON & CRAIGHEAD
LAUREANA TOLEDO
ULTRA-RED
ASCSOMS
SOLINA HI-FI

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CURATED BY
MARK ROHTMAA-JACKSON

28 MAY - 18 JULY 2010

Something wordless called me to this exhibition, the dry hissing of ghost tapes echoing sibilantly around the streets. As I entered the space, a portal reached out to me, bending space with cones of acceleration and deceleration. Plastique Fantastique's three-dimensional diagram was charged with a subliminal feline Scientology spell. It pricked my skin with a strange energy, and my brain was infected with the parasite-thought of Burroughs' reality-changing playbacks of tapes.

- ANA BENLLOCH | AN

Dead Fingers Talk presents two unreleased tape experiments by William Burroughs from the mid 1960s alongside responses by 23 artists, musicians, writers, composers and curators.

Few writers have exerted as great an influence over such a diverse range of art forms as William Burroughs. Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine and Junky, continues to be regularly referenced in music, visual art, sound art, film, web-based practice and literature. One typically overlooked, yet critically important, manifestation of his radical ideas about manipulation, technology and society is found in his extensive experiments with tape recorders in the 1960s and ’70s. Dead Fingers Talk: The Tape Experiments of William S. Burroughs is the first exhibition to truly demonstrate the diversity of resonance in the arts of Burroughs’ theories of sound.

The exhibition includes work by Alma/Joe Ambrose, Steve Aylett, Alex Baker & Kit Poulson, Lawrence English, The Human Separation, Riccardo Iacono, Anthony Joseph, Cathy Lane, Eduardo Navas, Negativland, o.blaat, Aki Onda, Jörg Piringer, Plastique Fantastique, Simon Reuben White, Giorgio Sadotti, Scanner, Terre Thaemlitz, Thomson & Craighead, Laureana Toledo and Ultra-red, with performances by Ascsoms and Solina Hi-Fi.

listen to your present time tapes and you will begin to see who you are and what you are doing here mix yesterday in with today and hear tomorrow your future rising out of old recordings

everybody splice himself in with everybody else

Inspired by the expelled Surrealist painter Brion Gysin, and yet never meant as art but as a pseudo-scientific investigation of sounds and our relationship to technology and material, the experiments provide early examples of interactions which are essential listening for artists working in the digital age.

In the case of the work in the exhibition the contributors were asked to provide a “recording” in response to Burroughs’ tape experiments. The works, which varied significantly in media and focus, demonstrated the diversity of attitudes to such a groundbreaking period of investigation.

The centerpiece of this exquisitely staged show is two unpublished tape experiments by William Burroughs, made in the 1960s and 70s with his British assistant Ian Sommerville. Twenty-three artists, musicians, writers and curators were invited to respond to the tapes and the results are dense, rewarding and thoughtful.

- CHERRY SMYTH | ART MONTHLY

A public programme of events accompanied the exhibition with the screening Words of Advice – William S. Burroughs on the Road, a documentary directed by Lars Movin and Steen Møller Rasmussen including never-before-seen footage of Burroughs’ visit to Denmark in 1983, and his later years in Lawrence, Kansas.

In 1983, Burroughs traveled throughout Scandinavia making a series of personal appearances. Twenty years later, filmmakers Lars Movin and Steen Moller Rasmussen found never-before-seen footage of his Copenhagen visit and set out on the road to record new material, telling the story of the acclaimed author’s later work – especially what is known as The Last Trilogy – and his unique performance skills.

Ascsoms and Solina Hi-Fi performed works inspired by Burroughs’ cut-up experiments and the exhibition. Solina Hi-Fi developed from arts collective CutUp, known for their advertising billboard interventions. Solina Hi-Fi utilise hand built sound machines that apply Burroughs and Brion Gysin’s methods of cutting up and reassembling as audiovisual performance.

Ascsoms is London based audio artist Adam J Wimbush who primarily works with processed field recordings, electronics and acoustic elements. His compositions are assembled from the results of numerous improvised and manipulated sonic experiments, in this case from recordings collected from Dead Fingers Talk.

On the evening there was also additional music by Joel Cahen, a curator, photographer, filmmaker and sound artist. Cahen’s mashups are rearranged cut ups of various genres of music, sound environments and dialogue.

Listening in Present Time saw Salomé Voegelin, David Burrows and Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson discuss the exhibition in relation to contemporary practice.

Rearrange the Word brought David Toop, Anthony Joseph, Kit Poulson and Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson together to considered the influence of Burroughs’ work.

The exhibition toured to Galleri Box in Göteborg on the 28 April – 27 May 2012.

I wanted to find artists, musicians, composers and writers who were still engaging with Burroughsian themes and techniques and see what they would do in reaction to the tape experiments specifically. Everyone involved either has acknowledged the direct influence of Burroughs, or demonstrated in their work something I had identified as unmistakably Burroughsian.

- MARK ROHTMAA-JACKSON | DAZED INTERVIEW

According to Mark Jackson, these prescient examples of user-generated, multimedia investigation combining news broadcasts, music, vocal performance and tape effects remain relevant. "Are they 'performance', 'sound recording', 'music'? They defy catergorisation, which I think reflects the increased propensity for artists to attempt such rupture of definition. [...]

- DANIEL SPICER | THE WIRE

Dead Fingers Talk: The Tape Experiments of William S. Burroughs curated by Mark Rohtmaa-Jackson as part of his doctoral research. Supported by the London College of Communication, CRiSAP and ADi Audiovisual and has been made possible by the kind assistance of the William Burroughs Trust, Riflemaker, the British Library and Donlon Books.