Each exhibition is a unique creative process, offering a myriad of sensations. The Vinyl Factory, a record label, vinyl pressing plant, and online magazine, embarks on a special collaboration with 100 artists at the significant multimedia exhibition ‚Reverb‘. This exhibition, at 180 Studios, celebrates the ‚intersection of art and sound‘ and features 18 installations that showcase the diverse and innovative work of the artists.
09:00: I wake up and make a coffee with my ’niche‘ playlist, which has some jazzy, funky mix of tunes.
10:00: After the coffee session, I’m more energetic and play with my cat. The jazzy morning turns into an electronic portal.
11:00: I’m getting ready for the exhibition with the tunes of Odelie, whom I had a chance to listen to before Max Cooper’s performance at Barbican a few months ago.
12:00: I take the tube, watch people’s moves, and think about how their movements create sound and music in their own way.
13:00 – 16:00: I enter the 180 the Strand, the brutalist labyrinth building that gives me the sensation of the outer world feelings. The exhibition starts with Stand Douglas in Luanda-Kinshasa, a reconstruction of Colombia Records‘ legendary 30th Street studio homed for Bob Dylan and Miles Davis recordings. We watch the single-channel video project, where the musicians improvise with the fusion of jazz, rock, and afro-beat. I contemplate the power of improvisation and how the performance brings out the different rhythmic sensations of our bodies on many different levels. I experience the immersive fusion of sound and art from room to room: quasi-therapeutic. From Virgil Abloh’s 12-inc voices sound installation with the collaboration of Yussef Dayes to Carsten Nicola’s Baustz Noto. I spin some records in Nicolai’s Four Technics SL-1210 turntable. The turntable allows us to play several sound loops endlessly and create, combine, and mix new sounds. I spend quite some time on Caterina Barbieri’s work with Ruben Spini, Vigil 2.0, which explores machine intelligence and object-oriented perception in sound; I transcend time and space. The atmospheric presence of the work is like aurora borealis in a different universe. I enter Jeremy Deller’s section, Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992; he lectures on the socio-political and cultural effects of the rave.
My body starts moving when I enter the room of Jenn Nkiru Black to Techno, which explores the Black Art Movement to Detroit’s heritage, playing many Detroit-released pieces such as Cybotron’s Clear. There’s a section comprising 100 Records published and released by Vinyl Factory between 2009-2024, including Marina Abramovic, Fred Again, Thom Yorke, Massive Attack, and many more; I take a musical journey there to contemplate the vinyl culture and how it has reshaped the act of listening. I watch Julianknxx’s Untitled (01 Bodi Na Sta) and Cecilia Bengolea’s Shelly Belly Inna Real Life, as well as the works of Es Devlin and Hito Steyerel. My body moves, and the audial and visual journey creates a different conscious state. I find myself in a dreamy feel room of Devon Turnbull’s Hifi Listening Room Dream No.1. The place orbits around the handmade sound system with brutalist speakers, turntable, and seats, and we all listen to Joe Coltrone’s record. Turnbull honours the mediative experience of listening and how this simple act affects our senses of being. I think about the concept of sound and how everything’s shaped by it: even we – as a species, hear ourselves somewhere deeper in our bodies.
17:00: I leave the exhibition. I’m so inspired to order the book of the composer and musicologist David Toop’s Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound, and Imaginary Worlds and book my first session for djing (for house parties for my friends, haha).
Duration: Thu, 23rd May 2024 to Sat, 28th Sep 2024.
Address and contact:
180 STUDIOS
180 The Strand, London WC2R 1EA
www.180studios.com
Ecem Yucel is a researcher-writer based in London. Being torn between academia and research, she has also found a way to incorporate writing with her background of dancing and acting. She created the experimental editorial project ‚Existential Manifesto‘ to collaborate, improvise and share intellectual reflections on contemporary existence. www.instagram.com/ecemmyucel, www.existentialmanifesto.com, www.instagram.com/existentialmanifesto