imPRINTING: the artist’s brain
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imPRINTING: the artist’s brain -
Somerset House
1 - 25 June 2023
London Design Biennale
imPRINTING: The Artist’s Brain
A Sonic Self-Portrait by Beatie Wolfe
imPRINTING transports visitors inside the artist’s brain via a retro-future “thinking cap” allowing them to tune into and discover its many channels and sonic imprints including conversations, collaborations, music, memory, hopes, fears and dreams.
In this sonic self-portrait, “musical weirdo and visionary” Beatie Wolfe presents a new format for the digital age: a data-encoded “thinking cap” tailored by Mr Fish as a counterpart to their award-winning, wearable Album Jacket. Via retro listening stations, plugged into the hat, the audience will be able to listen to and explore the brain’s many channels which include music (limbic system), memory (temporal neocortex), collaborations (medial prefrontal cortex), conversations (Wernicke’s area) with the data related to each “brain channel” ecologically encoded in glass and woven into the cap to be preserved for up to 10,000 years.
Drawing on her dementia and music research work, this installation takes a creative and playful look at the nature of neurology and explores the importance of imprinting in the digital age: a philosophical principle and overarching theme of Wolfe’s work. imPRINTING shows us how via this sonic portrait we can gain a greater understanding of ourselves and of one another in the process.
Somerset House, London
London Design Biennale 2023
Supporters:
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Wolfe’s sonic self-portrait was created from over 500 hours of footage and material in Avid’s Pro Tools using the Carbon interface
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As an active ambassador and founding member of Music for Dementia, Wolfe’s installation is supported by the charity in celebration of ‘Thank You Day’ on July 2nd
June 01 - 25 in Somerset House
Gallery Room 4, Strand, London WC2R 1LA, United Kingdom
The Brain Channels
“Via retro listening stations, plugged into the hat, the audience will be able to listen to and explore the brain’s many channels which include music (limbic system), memory (temporal neocortex), collaborations (medial prefrontal cortex), conversations (Wernicke’s area) etc”
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A compilation of key collaborations which include Postcards for Democracy with Mark Mothersbaugh, studio sessions with Linda Perry, Solar Signs with Aaron Rose, the Raw Space Broadcast with Nobel Laureate Dr Robert Wilson and Climate x Art with Brian Eno
Collaborations include: Postcards For Democracy, Mark Mothersbaugh, Dr Robert Wilson, Raw Space, E.A.T., Design IO, The Album Jacket, Mr Fish, Linda Perry, Solar Signs, Aaron Rose, Brian Eno, EarthPercent, Bioplastic Record, Michael Stipe, Allee Willis, Laraaji, NASA, From Green to Red, Phil Crowe, NOAA
Locations include: Barbican, Holmdel Horn Antenna, Armadillo, 34 Montagu Square, Bell Labs Anechoic Chamber, V&A, Rauschenberg Gallery, Global Music Vault, Mutato
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A montage of key dialogues that have imprinted which include Shirley Manson talking about truth, Henry Rollins talking about courage, Fred Armisen evangelising about London, Laraaji on laughter, Allee Willis talking about joy.
Conversations include: Aaron Rose, Allee Willis, Brian Eno, Fred Armisen, Henry Rollins, Laraaji, L. Frank, Lesley Chilcott, Linda Fleming, Linda Perry, Mark Mothersbaugh, Money Mark, Nishma Amand, Peter Hammarstedt, Queen Cora, Rick Carter, Sara Sidner, Shirley Manson, Stephen Pavlovic, Timothy Morton, V. Vale
Topics include: Art, Connections, Change, Courage, Creativity, Death, DIY, Ecology, Ego, Energy, Equality, Fear, Freedom, Ideas, Intuition, Joy, Life, Love, Power, Presence, Purpose, Tenacity, Truth, Now
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A portrait of the outer self, work and philosophy featuring key projects (from Space Beams to Anti-streams) and the overarching ethos that connects it all
Outer self philosophy includes: Activate Awareness, Anti-Stream, Art & Nature, Box-Free, Bridging Worlds, Ceremony Tangibility & Storytelling, Deeper Experiences, Detours, Imprinting, Inner Vision, Innovate, Intention, Nature’s Technology, Orange Juice for the Ears, Reclaim, Retro-Future, Tangible-Digital, Why, Why Not
Projects include: 8ight, Montagu Square, From Green to Red, Raw Space, Music for Dementia, Barbican film, V&A exhibition, Postcards for Democracy, dublab radio show
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An exploration of the inner self and everything from breakdowns to breakthroughs via journal entries age 11-19 which include poems, lyrics, meditations and musings
Adolescent journal themes include: Autonomy, Awakenings, Being, Body, Brainwaves, Breakdowns, Breakthroughs, Clarity, Consciousness, Darkness, Determination, Dreams, Embodying, Epiphanies, Expectations, Evolution, Feelings, Freedom, Healing, I Am, Ideas, Illusions, Imagining, Intuition, Light, Lyrics, Meditation, Messages, Metamorphosis, Pain, Poems, Portal, Power, Presence, Projections, Process, Ramblings, Rants, Reality, Rebirth, Release, Remember, Reflection, Signs, Soul, Synchronicities, Time, Transmissions, Truth, Vision, Watson, Wisdom, Wounds, Wolfe
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A chronological selection of back catalogue material including early demos (from age 9) live performances (Dodgers Stadium, Nobel Prize Summit etc), and collaborations (with Linda Perry, Laraaji etc)
Tracks featured: Pink Balloon (age 9), Let It Boil (1st studio recording), Troubled (age 15), For the Ego (age 17), From Green to Red, Need Somebody (dementia research tour), Little Moth (world’s first 360 AR livestream), As You (live world’s quietest room), The Man Who (live BBC Radio Theatre), Apart From Us, Barely Living & Lose Myself (with Linda Perry), What I Feel Inside (live for Dezeen’s VDF), To Be Saved (live She Rocks Awards), Oh My Heart (live Nobel Prize Summit), Something (live Dodger Stadium), Space and Time (with Laraaji)
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A selection of unreleased home demos of new self-produced tracks that will make up the next album
New Unreleased Music: I Guess, Break Away, Tell Me Right Now, Do You, In This Town, Oh Lord, Cold In LA, Something, Little Things, Wolf At Your Door, 4D, In the End
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Formative memories of being a adolescent in London in the 90s and 00s which include gigs, school trips and home life
Formative memories include: Family, home life, 88 Stephendale Road, music, ninjutsu, rooftops, Tilly, Iris, Strokie, Ibstock, friends, songwriting, Aurum, gigs, plays, Salema, Swiss boys, Carioca bar, US road trips, Steranko, Libre, birthdays, school trips, Youngblood, N64, driving, smoking, slot canyons, rock art, Devils Garden
Locations include: Portugal, London, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, I-70, Navajo Nation, Hopi Mesas, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Moab, New Mexico, New York, France, Switzerland, Dorset, Sussex
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Sounds that imprinted growing up in London in the 90s and 00s which include everything from school bus routes to video games
Sounds include: Basketball, BBC Pips, BT landline, Carioca Bar, Captain Planet, Car Radio, CERN Hadron Collider, Checkout Beeps, Devil’s Garden, Doorbell, Fax Machine, Holmdel Horn Antenna, Ice Cream Van, Letterbox, London Buses, TFL Mind the Gap, Ninjutsu, Popcorn, Portuguese, Prince of Persia, Record Crackle, Sainsbury’s, SF 49ers, Shipping Forecast, Skateboarding, Slot Canyons, Speaking Clock, Spelunx, Strokie, Tape Cassettes, Terence McKenna, The Archers, TOTPs, TV, Willo the Wisp, Wood Pigeons
imPRINTING at Somerset House by Beatie Wolfe (photo: Manuela Batas)
ImPRINTING Highlights
The Backstory
“I had been thinking about a version of this idea for quite a long time. Probably about four years” Explains Beatie Wolfe. “I tend to have an idea and it happens very quickly. So, this one was peculiar as originally it started out as something quite different. It started out as a way of taking people inside a radio, which was supposed to be exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020, then Covid happened and so it didn’t happen. I thought that maybe it was meant to be something else.”