Active Crossover: Simon Whetham

About

Active Crossover is an electronic circuit used in speaker construction, which enables a speaker to transmit sound information consistently and accurately across space. Simon Whetham's project reflects this process, both in terms of the way the space is actually set up, and also in the way the work continues to emerge out of social relationships formed through travel and communication. The exhibition consists of two darkened, acoustically treated chambers. In the left chamber is a surround sound composition created from field recordings made in Tallinn, Estonia, and Bristol and Brighton, charting the journey the project has taken so far. In the right chamber are pieces by artists — such as John Grzinich, Jez riley French, Douglas Benford and Dylan Nyoukis — that Whetham has performed and collaborated with through running the project, and through their ongoing cultural exchanges, recordings and events. Whetham's work is as much about the ‘social' as it is the ‘sonic'. The experience of listening reflects the conditions of the work's creation, and the conditions of his own journey — one of interpersonal exchange and interaction — around Eastern Europe and now the UK. He has exhibited and performed extensively throughout the UK and Europe.