www.simonwhetham.co.uk
Residency at KIBLA PORTAL, Maribor, Slovenia
Following two performances at 28.MFRU festival in Maribor, Slovenia in October 2022 I then joined the residency programme at KIBLA PORTAL. My participation was postponed for two years and fortunately I was able to join directly after the performances. During the two week period I worked with some new devices which I then added to the "ChannellingAV" project and also ran a 'Sonic Jam' with Žiga Pavlovič, based on an event from the gaming community where groups join for the first time and brainstorm for some days to produce a new collaborative work. We were joined by Monika Pocrnjić, Maša Dobrina and Valérie Wolf Gang to improvise with various pieces of obsolete technology and salvaged electronics, plus any spare materials at the PORTAL to develop a kinetic sound and light work
With Maša we took a back massager as our source of movement, suspending various lengths of aluminium pipe to it which struck each other and made a bell-like sound. With Monika I then was able to use this sound to trigger some mains powered striplights, which lit in quite random ways - fitting with my aesthetic of working with systems that have a degree of imperfection in them.
The resulting piece "Altered Perceptions" was exhibited as part of the KIBLIX festival in November 2022.