Commotion

An exciting new touring series of programmes put together by curators from the UK , Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands. The programmes are themed and explore different issues or creative genres.

Sound Cycles

Curated by film-maker Mika Taanila Sound Cycles consists of six audiovisual works, which deal with the idea of re-cycling found audio elements. Our daily environment is flooded with sounds amplified by the media, but very rarely there's a chance to stop and listen carefully. The works — by Christian Marclay, Ian Helliwell, Juha vanIngen, Janet Merewether and Mark Boswell — use intelligent, funny and raw strategies to gain control over the mass media brain wash.

" In this age of CDs and MP3s, it is a rare moment indeed when the listener settles down just to listen to music, without doing anything else simultaneously. Some (like me) may instinctively turn on several radios tuned to different stations at low volume in different rooms to fill the empty space. Others prefer to relax on the sofa, clutching a drink and absent-mindedly watching a DVD picked up in the store on the way home. Regardless of such passions or preferences, at some point during the evening it is inevitable that King Television is switched on and the surfing starts. In other words, we are surrounded by noise from early morning until we turn in in the evening.

The raw material of the artists included in Sound Cycles is technology designed to reproduce sound and images in private homes. The lifeless protagonists of these works are records, record players, home amplifiers and television sets. The works are united by their playful and light, almost carnivalesque attitude to the technological world and its sounds."

Mika Taanila, Curator, Sound Cycles

Information for venues

running time: 63 min approx

formats available: DVD, BETA SP

8 page, full colour programme notes accompany the programme

price: £95.00 + VAT

(10% discount for 3 bookings of Commotion programmes or more)

Works included

Ian Helliwell

Disc Break, 2003. 4 min

Janet Merewether

Cheap Blonde, 1998. 5 min

Christian Marclay (above right)

Mixed Reviews (American Sign Language), 1999/2001. 30 min

Mark Boswell

The End of Copenhagen, 2004. 8 min, 20 sec.

Juha van Ingen

(Dis)Integrator, 1992. 4 min

Ian Helliwell

May 2nd 2004, 3.30am, 2004. 3 min, 30 sec

Picture This takes bookings from galleries for touring exhibitions and installations, from cinemas and film festivals for short films and from colleges and universities for talks. For enquiries about hiring exhibitions and for a back-list of short films available please contact Beth Alden at beth@picture-this.org.uk