The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum book, film, & exhibition in Bourges

Following Graeme Cole's EMAP/EMARE artist residency of September 2017, an exhibition and outpouring of new materials are due to take place in the city of Bourges, France.

The exhibition celebrates the collaborative (p)reconstruction of yet another episode of Mr Cole's artist film cycle, UNIVERSAL EAR. It contains the movie itself, looping every half-hour; additional video materials and properties from the set; scraps of discarded research; and an artist's book, available to buy from the gallery or online. The limited edition book will be removed from sale at the end of the exhibition.

From November 16th-December 2nd 2018, the exhibition UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum will take place at Le Haïdouc – Antre Peaux, the premises of media arts organisation Bandits-Mages, who hosted the residency. The show is a satellite manifestation of an exhibition of EMAP artists' work, RACCOMMODER LE TISSU DU MONDE (Mending the Fabric of the World), curated by Annick Bureaud, which takes place during this year's Les Rencontres Bandits-Mages.

EXHIBITION: UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum
OPENING EVENT: Friday 16th November, 2018, 20.00 (FREE)

WHERE: Le Haïdouc – Antre Peaux, 24-26 route de la chapelle, 18000 Bourges, France.

WHEN: Friday 16th November - Sunday 2nd December, 2018. Monday to Saturday, 14.00 – 18.00. Sunday on demand.

COST: FREE

Launch of a temporally-limited edition book: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum

The Institute is proud to announce the launch of our first book.

UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum was created by Graeme Cole with Aleksandra Niemczyk, in response to Mr Cole's EMAP/EMARE residency at Bandits-Mages in Bourges. It is available for just 21 days during this year's Rencontres Bandits-Mages, where this UNIVERSAL EAR episode will also appear in movie form as part of an installation until 2nd December.

Here's the science:

UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum by Harley Byrne

229pp, paperback, 12/11-02/12/2018

Reconstructed by Graeme Cole (text) and Aleksandra Niemczyk (illustrations) from the unfound memoirs of Harley Byrne.

Available to buy in a temporally-limited edition during Rencontres Bandits-Mages 2018, 12th November-2nd December.

BUY NOW £8 +£5 postage and packaging (UK & international)

Harley Byrne’s ongoing mission is to capture and make available for download “all the world’s music, ever.” This novella-length extract from his memoirs tells the full story of Byrne’s adventures in Bourges, France, 2187AD.

While working on his escape from slavery in the reverb mines of 32nd-century Detroit, Byrne is tipped off to the existence of a form of ‘rogue sim electroacoustic pop’ created by a pair of sentient statues in 22nd-century Bourges.

But when he arrives in the historical city, he discovers it to be an ontologically dubious virtual heritage site, overrun with corrupt holograms, cyborg saints, and the occasional native telling fisherman’s tales from deep VR.

What’s more, one of the musicians is missing: the lab-cultured, organic statue of Saint Ursinus, recreated from ancient DNA but barely more than an adolescent.

In order to track him down, Byrne must navigate the ever re-loading maze of the city, outwit the crazed busts of Bourges’ most celebrated sons and daughters, and keep hold of his senses under the effects of the curse of the phantom tympanum.

Available for 21 days only, the first UNIVERSAL EAR book was created as part of an EMAP/EMARE artist residency at Bandits-Mages, Bourges, further supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. The book also contains a photographic project - A New Ontology of Hallucination - and Mr Cole’s studio log from the residency. A film adaptation of the adventure will loop as part of a Curse of the Phantom Tympanum exhibition at Le Haïdouc – Antre Peaux in Bourges from 16th November-2nd December 2018.

* Please note this is a small-scale, non-profit art project. We will endeavour to dispatch your book anywhere in the world within 5 days but please bear with us. Queries before and after purchase can be directed to graeme[at]zoomcitta dot co dot uk.

Slip Road exhibition: Epizoda ?, Amateri, and Murmurs in Mayfield

A one-day exhibition of three recent projects from Graeme Cole, all co-produced by the Institute, will take place as part of the second Slow Short Film Festival in Mayfield this Saturday. The videos will be shown on a loop in the Memorial Hall opposite the main venue. It is the first chance to see any of these movies in the UK, and includes a special preview version of the previously unseen, ASMR-themed Murmurs across two synchronized screens. Mr Cole will be in attendance at the festival. Aleskandra Niemczyk's Investigations Of A Dog, which Mr Cole highly recommends, will play in the main program. In fact, the whole day-long festival has been very thoughtfully prepared.

EVENT: Graeme Cole: Slip Road at The Slow Short Film Festival 2018

WHERE: Mayfield Memorial Hall, Tunbridge Wells Road, Mayfield, East Sussex TN20 6PJ.

WHEN: Saturday, 1st September 2018, 13.30-20.00

COST: Entrance to the exhibition is free. Tickets to the festival are £10 + fee.

NOTES: The three films will play concurrently: Epizoda ? (40 minutes), Amateri (20 minutes), and Murmurs (special preview version, 65 minutes). Facebook event.

'Selfie w/ test card' in Frankfurt

Graeme Cole's videowork Selfie w/ test card will be installed as part of VKunst's exhibition Mon Amie, L'Image in Frankfurt this weekend.

WHERE: Affentor / Fahrgasse 23, Frankfurt, Germany 

WHEN: 9th-10th May 2014

COST: FREE

NOTES: Facebook event

"We live in pictures. They are a part of every life, and everyone has built his or her personal relationship with them. In visual art, reality and fiction become pictorial. The artist's results are manifold and direct. The picture in itself can be both friend and enemy. It is part of the family and of life. This is particularly true in the artist's view and phantasy. The artists work with the pictures in their heads every day, in nature, on the wall in front of their eyes. Friendships and relationships form. If one separates from one's work, the putative friendship lasts. To a friend one may say everything, ask him everything, love and hate him; he can be beautiful or ugly, boring or exciting. Which friend do I prefer to be seen with and which friendship is too intimate for public disclosure, or are there no boundaries at all?

"mon amie - l'image" is this year's title of vkunstfrankfurt. It is in its nature (in the nature of the case) that art is primarily a visual experience for the viewer. With this in mind, the curators of vkunstfrankfurt, Christoph von Löw and Andreas Greulich, let themselves be guided in their concept of the sensuous-pictorial aspect of video art. What meaning may the image have for the video artist? Is it just an end in itself and appearances? Is the aesthetic deliberately negated, and the improvised, i.e. the non-professional, emphasized? What does the examination of the picture of our time place emphasis on? It is the task of vkunstfrankfurt 2014 to investigate this."

Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom in Liverpool

Pilot For A 22nd Sitcom as part of exhibition Science Fiction: New Death

SECTION: The Personal Archive: Myths of the Near Future

WHERE: FACT (Atrium), 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ

WHEN: 27th March to 22nd June, 2014

COST: Free

LAUNCH: Thursday, 27th March 2014, 18.00

NOTES: "Explore how our relationship with technology has blurred the lines between the real and the virtual; making our everyday lives feel increasingly like science fiction. Artists including James Bridle, Jon Rafman, Mark Leckey, Larissa Sansour and Ryan Trecartin, plus award-winning science fiction author China Miéville will present works which explore how technology is creating new ways of living (and dying), of fashioning identities and the growth of cult-like communities. Presented as part of the FutureEverything Festival"