Ugly Knitting

The fabulous Ujino Muneteru (Ujino and The Rotators) has two works on display on the Southbank at the moment. Ugly Knitting (above) is upstairs in the Project Space at The Hayward Gallery whilst Sherbert Dab Swivel (below) is on show outside the Royal Festival Hall.

The YouTube video of Ugly Knitting doesn't quite do it justice since there are about four or five separate "instruments" which play in sequence. I was particularly impressed by the turntables which spun records with bits of wood spouting from the surface of the vinyl. As the disk turned, each of the pegs struck a metal switch creating a syncopated beat. Very clever.

Perhaps we could install something like this in a classroom in our summer project? Mike Shaw, the art technician and artist in residence at Tallis, is a very well-respected sonic artist (I think that's the right term) who performs as DJ Tendraw. He is a master of turntablism and does all kinds of wonderful things with records. He's also created soundscapes for other exhibitions and has attempted to teach the art of circuit bending at Tallis. It might be cool to commission Mike to help us interfere with the sounds of the building in various ways. He has some other cool ideas about how we might encourage people to re-imagine the school. Shall I invite him to a future meeting?