tim hunkin/spectacles & performances

SOUNDS UNUSUAL
South Bank, London, 1987

An Emergency Exit Arts
performance

The car was slowly winched up the ramp while a variety of noise making contraptions in the scaffolding built up the tension. It paused at the top, when fireworks inside the scaffolding go off and the working washing machines, spewing foam, crashed to the ground. Finally the car falls off the end of the ramp into a skip.

COLLAPSING CONCERTO
The sound of Wangford, 1984

Built in collaboration with Bob Pendred.
This was a good idea, which worked brilliantly in tests. Fast fuse burning at about a foot a second releases a sequence of mechanisms which make different noises. Unfortunately the day of the performance was very cold, wet and windy. Hardly anyone came to watch and most of the noises were inaudible in the gale.
collapsing concerto glass.jpg (4870 bytes)
Weight swings against gong and, after a delay, drops through glass plate into dustbin.

collapsing concerto bell.jpg (11058 bytes)
Ringing bell, with thunder sheet in background

Fuse releases weight which turns on transistor radio. Catapult then shoots radio into air (brilliant doppler effects).		Fuse releases air in tyre through swanny whistle, with mechanism to slowly change note.