singlesingles

A single copy of the John’s Children single MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SCENE has been sold on eBay for over £6000. Vinyl recordings can eclipse their original status as mass produced items of popular culture and Record Store Day (18th April) is the perfect moment to join an open conversation with Andy Ellison (John’s Children, Radio Stars) and Paul Harvey (Happy Refugees, Penetration) about the remarkable afterlife of some singles made in the 60s and 70s. The event is hosted by Chris Dorsett who has created hand-drawn sleeves for a limited edition vinyl single which will be produced as a recorded souvenir of the conversation. These cost £10.00 each and can be ordered online (http://www.chrisdorsett.com/) or at the singlesingles event. The Stand, High Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne Saturday, 18 April 2015, 2.00 - 4.00 pm. Records are cast objects. And when viewed without sound, very like plaster casts. In singlesingles a very particular kind of sound object is present through this unplayable status. You are an audience where there probably wasn’t one before, and yet we assume you were already there waiting to respond. Unlike records, casts were exemplary museum objects. At a conference about cast collections in art schools, I chaired a discussion in which the eminent art historian Stephan Bann, who has made a long commitment to photographic theory, draw semiotic parallels between casting and photography in 19th century museums. According to Bann, the V&A did, at one time, see the two processes as options. Trajan’s Column could be either cast or photographed. Here a cast was made. With photographs, something else happens. Dissemination supplants presence.