White Out White Noise (2005)

White Out, White Noise was a short-listed proposal for the specially commissioned installation for the White Exhibition for The Lowry Gallery, Manchester in April 2005. The proposal was to create a sensory space where the borders of perception shift in and out of focus; where an almost hallucinatory state is induced by an overload of information perceived as a total absence.

By using carefully sculpted white noise, white light and fog, it would be possible to create a subtle and illusionary space between what can be known and what can be sensed, perceived as an absence in an environment which is overloaded with visual and aural information. Through this juxtaposition of elements it would be possible to demonstrate that concepts of ‘whiteness’ are culturally derived, dependant on our familiarity of the nuances of its hues.

Although White Out, White Noise was not ultimately selected for exhibition, the theme described above fed directly into a number of other projects. Notably, Organ of Corti sculpts broadband noise by means of passive acoustic filtration and David Prior’s eight-channel performance piece, Other Places, commissioned by Lunapark, which is derived from recordings of a slide projector fan.