As a developing project, this two screen video  installation, filmed on location at the former Rampisham Transmission Station, explores the interstices between dimensional planes- looking through the ‘corner of one’s eye’- where what is half seen appears more ‘real’. 

 

The contrast of human and mechanical emphasizes the collision between natural and manmade environments. 

 

The human voice intoning switch numbers engages the viewer on an imaginative level reflected in the overexposed  image suggesting the entranced behaviour of being ‘caught in the spotlight’.

‘SWITCHES’ - Matrixmix and Turbomix

 

As an ongoing project, these two sound pieces are part of a week’s reconnoitering expedition starting at the Rampisham Transmission Station.

The site was a 140 hectare rural location in Dorset and transmitted digital and short and medium wave radio from broadcasting stations internationally.

These sketches are recordings taken internally through the building, the switching control rooms and transmitter halls where incoming signals are processed and routed to external high frequency aerial curtain arrays. 

Externally a matrix of aluminium ducted cable feeds with hydraulically operated switches connect when transmissions are broadcast. Below them elusive residues of sound, seeming to switch arbitrarily, can be heard, caused by minute instances eg. A rusty nail or even a tooth filling, acting as a conductor, resonating in sympathy with the huge RF field  outside, creating a  microphonic effect of a current news programme. This effect is pronounced nearer the VRP of the curtain arrays. 

The changing architecture of the spaces is articulated by two voices: our host describing the site factually, and Stephanie Rogers imaginatively interpreting images evoked by the location with references to text by J. G. Ballard.