Successive Actions
Simon Whetham
Successive Actions is an iteration of the larger kinetic sound performance project series Channelling in which various motor devices, salvaged from obsolete and discarded consumer technology, are activated by playing sound recordings through them. In turn, this produces new sounds from the devices, which are amplified using various microphones and techniques.The title comes from Dirk Raaijmakers’s The Art of Reading Machines as a term for mass production processes. As such, the recordings played through the devices are recordings of other devices used in previous versions of Channelling, in which the sounds used were seemingly mundane sound phenomena that occur unpredictably and irregularly in everyday life, as passing traffic, wind, doors closing. So now the sounds of devices malfunctioning and breaking from their programming are causing further action and disruption.Successive Actions has been presented in a number of international festivals and events, most recently Sofia Underground, Bulgaria; WeSA Festival, South Korea; New Adits, Austria; and Sonica Festival, Slovenia, where it was also exhibited as an installation. Since 2005 Simon Whetham has worked with sonic activity. He often uses environmental sound, employing a variety of methods and techniques in order to obtain often unnoticed and obscured sonic phenomena. He also explores ways of creating physical traces of sound and transforming energy forms. Whetham performs and exhibits internationally, has received a large number of commissions and awards, has many published composed works and regularly collaborates with other artists. In addition his practice covers giving active listening, field recording and technology repurposing workshops. (Label PR)