Ultra Nomadic Def Smith Cycle. EDEL ASSANTI project space London2011

Mike Ballard’s latest installation transforms the space into a place of mystic experimentation.

The Ultra nomadic Def smith Cycle explores the sound of the absolute.  Using his own special blend of circuit bending alchemy, he mixes salvaged electronic components, painting and CCTV, to create a unique, live, audio visual experience.

Repetitive sound and imagery have been used for thousands of years to induce trance like spiritual states, from the vision quest rituals of the Siberian Tungus to the Jolo churches of Virginia.  A practice that draws many parallels with contemporary club culture.

As Karl Stockhuasen said in his 1972 Oxford Union lecture ‘Four criteria of electronic music’,

“ Whenever we here sounds we are changed, we are no longer the same”.

Leading the viewer into the basement are the echoing harmonics produced by an assemblage of electronics, antique relics, and a live animated video projection.

This cosmic machine greets the viewer like some futuristic- primitive gateway to another world, providing an absorbing soundtrack to the rest of the installation.

Moving through the space, geometric wall paintings offer navigation, revealing illuminated figures, power animals and a Radar window into the unknown.