Dirty Electronics: Solder and Score

The composer and instrument maker John Richards takes up temporary residence in the gallery with Solder and Score, a unique participation opportunity for visitors to the ICA. Over the course of five days workshop attendees will build a large patchwork quilt-like instrument and co-write a musical score with John, culminating in a group performance and auction. Referring to his process as Dirty Electronics, Richards conjures electronic phenomena at odds to those found in today’s mass produced digital culture and utilises characteristics such as designer trash, hand-made, ready-made, hacked, bent, fedback and kitsch in the process.

For Live Weekends: Notation and Interpretation, the proposed workshops will immerse attendees in the interplay between process and performance beginning on the workbench, co-devising the modules that will form the ‘instrument’ and then extending onto the stage. The workshops will be informed by a musical score written especially for Dirty Electronics by sound artist Nicholas Bullen (founder member of Napalm Death and Scorn and a frequent collaborator with artist Mark Titchner).

Workshops take place daily 16-18 February and are free entry, all ages welcome. On Sunday 20 February the sessions conclude with an open afternoon of performances followed by an instrument auction.

Please call the Box Office on 020 7930 3647 to book tickets.