Skate is a project that exploits the physical qualities of sound on vinyl to create a random playing record that generates two types on media: a series of sound reactive light installations, a composition on 3“ CD.

The “anti-skate” facility of a modern turntable inspired me to make a new way of playing and listening to a record. The Skate LP breaks down the standard spiral groove into tiny shards of sound. The needle can then skate freely around the surface of the record making a new composition each time it is played. To do this I developed a technique of cutting tiny individual “sound scars” onto the disc. I took apart an antique wind-up gramophone and pumped sound backwards into it in order to make the analog stylus a vibrating cutting head. Then, winding up the gramophone, I built up the collage concentrically scar by scar.

I used the complete works of Pierre Schaeffer as the source material for this lo-fi process. The type of record player, its speed and the user will all affect the results, which can be either chaotic, controlled or rhythmically complex. The Skate installation develops this source material. A collection of 60 skate sounds and 30 silent tracks play back from three random play CD’s in a darkened gallery. Connected to the three pairs of speakers are sound reactive light bulbs which flicker and glow in response to these intermittent sounds. Together they create a complex ‘living’ space.

When there is no sound, the lights die and the audience is left with a visual imprint of the space as they stand in blackness and silence awaiting the next phase of activity.

The 3“ CD is a composition using a mix of the installation room recordings and the original LP sounds.