Slow Circuits and Noisy Design by Dr. John Richards
Abstract:
The development of technological devices continues at breakneck speed along with the straight jacket of never-ending upgrades and expansions. With this comes the danger of being left behind in terms of understanding how things work, and the feeling of disempowerment and reliance on others. But what of a counter movement: downgrading, reductionism, the self-made and post-optimal?
John Richards discusses his work as Dirty Electronics and the DIY maker music scene and how this has led him to engage with broader design issues. Within his work, he has become more and more disinterested in instrumental efficiency, ergonomics and virtuosity, and delighted in embracing the clumsy, inefficient, awkward, and seemingly difficult as a fruitful means of sound and music making. This position also extends to method with circuitous design routes, wrong tools for the job, soldering in candlelight and adopting what could be considered a sticks and string approach: the seeking of materials ‘at hand’ in the design and construction of technological objects.
Slow circuits and noisy design are used as metaphors within the context of DIY maker music to describe alternatives to the rapid development of technological devices, the highly specialised, esoteric nature of microprocessors, the miniaturisation of electronic circuits and design efficiency governed by economics. There is a clear attempt to build on post-optimal design aesthetics as expressed by Anthony Dunne in "Herzian Tales" who talks about the challenge for designers of technological objects now lies in “the realms of metaphysics, poetry, and aesthetics.” Ideas of publicly-oriented making, and ambiguous and ludic design are also discussed and how such ideas may manifest in a kind-of DIY product.
Bio:
John Richards explores the idea of Dirty Electronics that focuses on shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction. In Dirty Electronics process and performance are inseparably bound. The "performance" begins on the workbench devising instruments and sound objects and is extended onto the stage through playing and exploring these artefacts.
Richards is primarily concerned with the performance of large-group electronic music and DIY electronics, and the idea of composing inside electronics. His work also pushes the boundaries between music, performance art, electronics, and graphic design and is transdisciplinary as well as having a socio-political dimension. Richards has been commissioned to create sound devices and performance works for numerous arts organisations and festivals and has released a series of hand-held synths with designer Adrian Shaughnessy on Mute Records.
He has collaborated with, amongst others, Japanese noise artists Merzbow, Pauline Oliveros, Howard Skempton (founder member of the Scratch Orchestra), Gabriel Prokofiev, Nicholas Bullen (ex-Napalm Death and Scorn) and Yan Jun. Other notable collaborations include working with Rolf Gehlhaar (original Stockhausen group), Chris Carter from Throbbing Gristle, Keith Rowe, and choreographer Saburo Teshigawara. John Richards is Associate Professor at the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, and has been visiting lecturer at a number of leading institutions in the field of information experience and interaction design including the Royal College of Art, London, Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) and Centre for Digital Innovation (CDI), Tongji University, Shanghai (CDI).