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The Origin of Painting : Disinformation

28 October – 2 December 2006

"The Origin of Painting" by Disinformation is a highly interactive, entertaining and accessible sound, light and live performance installation, which encourages audiences to photograph their shadows, to a soundtrack of live (and surprisingly musical) electromagnetic noise. The installation also enables participants to draw with light directly onto the painting's surface - producing graffiti, portraits, abstracts etc which are literally incandescent. The installation draws its title from "The Corinthian Maid, or The Origin of Painting" painted by Joseph Wright in 1782. The fading shadows produced by this exhibit function as a contemporary form of traditional Vanitas painting. Sci-Fi author Jeff Noon wrote in The Independent that "people are fascinated by this work, it brings a shiver, a sudden recognition of death, as if we have seen or heard our own ghost", and the exhibit has been described as "visually stunning" by The Metro newspaper, and as "actively thrilling" by The Financial Times.

Disinformation "The Origin of Painting"
photo copyright © Duncan Shepherd 2003

The exhibition also features a Disinformation installation which takes its title from "The Analysis of Beauty" - the book written by artist William Hogarth in 1753. "The Analysis of Beauty" is a contemporary equivalent of Trompe L'Oeil painting - using signals from sine-wave generators to create a pattern on the screen of a laboratory oscilloscope, which produce an illusion know as the Kinetic Depth Effect (whereby impressions of sculptural form emerge despite the absence of the perspective, precedence and parallax cues traditionally thought to control perceptions of visual space). "The Analysis of Beauty" was described as "subtle, visually sophisticated (and) distinctive and intelligent" by Art Monthly, and The Guardian wrote that "Disinformation combine scientific nous with poetic lyricism to create some of the most beautiful installations around".

Disinformation "Fire in the Eye Test Image"
copyright © Joe Banks 2004

The exhibition also features "Blackout" - Barry Hale's highly influential (and frequently copied) video of monolithic, ruined, concrete air-defence Sound Mirrors; the "Spellbound" video ("An Allegorical Portrait of J Robert Oppenheimer"); and test images for the new Disinformation project "Fire in the Eye", which is created by (as its subtitle suggests) literally "Painting with Electricity".

Disinformation is an experimental installation art and electronic music project, active since 1995, which pioneered the use of electromagnetic noise from live mains electricity, lightning, laboratory equipment, industrial and IT hardware, railway systems, magnetic storms and the sun etc as the raw material of musical and fine-art presentations. The new Disinformation CD "Sense Data and Perception" is described by The Wire as "engaging... illuminating, fascinating" and is available from Warp Records, Woolworths and Tesco. The Disinformation vs Strange Attractor "Circuit Blasting" CD is about to be released by the record company Adaadat.

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