Three Piece (2008)
A kinetic sound sculpture for two electric guitars and one electric bass.
Taking its name from the classic rock combination of guitar, bass and drums, this fairground-esque installation invites the audience to navigate the space around and between the instrument-machine band members and wander through their perpetually aleatoric song.
Air Guitar (2008)
A single wheelchair motor slowly revolves both guitar and amplifier, creating a droning aeolian loop. The motion that produces the sound is one and the same motion which disperses it around the room. The guitar is simply placed within a kinetic system and allowed to resonate. The combination of doppler and leslie effects achieved by the movement of the speaker and the room's acoustics cause subtle shifts within the eternal chord.
Stephen Cornford is an audio-visual artist working between installation and performance. His practice is concerned with reconfiguring consumer electronics as expressive and reflective devices. He studied at The Slade School of Fine Art and Dartington College of Arts and is currently a PhD candidate at Winchester School of Art with Jussi Parikka and Ian Dawson.
Stephen has had solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Berlin, Brighton, Bergen, Ljubljana & London and his work has been included in group exhibtions at the ZKM Center for Art & Media, Karlsruhe; ICC, Tokyo; Haus der Electronische Kunst, Basel; Sigma Foundation, Venice and at Bienalles in Lodz and Poznan.
He is co-director the Audiograft Festival in Oxford and the Consumer Waste record label and is a founder member of Bristol Experimental and Expanded Film.
His audio work has been published by Rumpsti Pumsti, VLZprodukt, Senufo Editions, MoTA, Winds Measure, 3leaves, Vitrine, Mantile and Accidie and he has collaborated with Ben Gwilliam, Patrick Farmer, Daniel Bennett and Samuel Rodgers among others.
Guitar Cradle (2007)
An installation for one electric bass and two electric guitars. They all rest horizontally on a timber which is in turn vibrated by a 3200 rpm motor beneath. The subtle but perpetual shivering of the strings is then heavily amplified using rock PA equipment.
Human Separation (2006-2009)
A performative collaboration with Matthew Appleby
The stock instrumentation of a rock band are played by an elaborate array of adapted domestic machines. Desk fans, fire bells, boiler fans, wiper motors, a sewing machine and a massage bed all strum, pummel, riff and rimshot.
Matthew Appleby and Stephen Cornford performing live at Collision Festival at Area 10, Peckham in 2007.
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
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Daniel Bennett & Stephen Cornford
Fellfield Draff
CD, edition of 100.
Three tracks of analogue and digital electronics | |
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Stephen Cornford
Kinetic Sculptures
CD compiling recordings of installation works for musical instruments
made between 2006 and 2010. | |
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Stephen Cornford
Migration
edition of 15 hand-cut vinyl records plus 5 artist proofs containing four different persepctives on the Migration installation
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Stephen Cornford
Empty Reels
Vitrine cassette
four very close stereo recordings of empty tape reels rotating slowly on a Grundig TK5 machine
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Stephen Cornford
Archipelago (Islet)
artist edition of 12CDrs packaged in laser-engraved portable CD players
the CD contains four tracks documenting Archipelago | |
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Stephen Cornford
SWF
mantile cassette [mantile#026]
Unprocessed stereo recordings of shortwave interference, found noise objects.
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Stephen Cornford
Music for Earbuds
3LEAVES CD [3L027]
a series of works composed from the feedback between earbud headphones
and walkman tape-heads. | |
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Stephen Cornford & Patrick Farmer
a measure of ground
Consumer Waste double cassette [cw12]
a collection of brutalist field recordings.
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 | Stephen Cornford Six Tape Machines accidie LP [a/r 06] Two compositions assembled from recordings of open reel and cassette tape players. audio sample | |
 | Stephen Cornford & Samuel Rodgers Boring Embroidery cathnor CD [cath015] Our third and likely final disc of duo improvisations for piano and electronics. audio sample | |
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John Cage
Cartridge Music
another timbre CD [at57]
Live realisation by Ferran Fages, Patrick Farmer, Lee Patterson, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Daniel Jones, Rob Curgenven and myself. Recorded at Audiograft 2012. audio sample | |
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Various Artists
Wandelweiser und so weiter
another timbre 6CD Box Set [at56]
Six discs of realistions of Wandelweiser compositions by musicians primarily known as improvisers, including works by Beuger, Werder, Pisaro, Sfirri, Thut, Brogan, Frey, Susam, Houben and more
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 | Stephen Cornford | Jason Kahn | Patrick Farmer Bristol pilgrim talk cassette [PT21] (edition of 50) Recorded live in my studio in February 2012 available to download from bandcamp | |
 | Stephen Cornford Binatone Galaxy senufo editions CD [#24] A collection of recordings made using components of the installation. audio sample | |
 | Stephen Cornford | Patrick Farmer | Sarah Hughes | Kostis Kilymis No Islands another timbre CD [at46] Two improvisations and a realisation of JohnCage's Four6. audio sample | |
 | Stephen Cornford Battery Acid banned production MC [edition of 50] Two process pieces for a used car battery and bare microphone cable. audio sample | |
 | Stephen Cornford & Samuel Rodgers Zinc [extracts] consumer waste [conwas01] 3" CDr [edition of 100] A three-track disc of duo improvisations for piano and piano feedback. audio sample | |
 | Stephen Cornford Hysteresis gifts nobody wants [gnw 13] C36 [edition of 100] A pair of pieces made using the SSCD_6.2 cassette delay, microphones and hollow objects. audio sample | |
 | Stephen Cornford & Samuel Rodgers Turned Moment, weighting another timbre [atb-07] CDr [edition of 250] A three-track disc of duo improvisations for piano and piano feedback. | |
 | Stephen Cornford Two Works for Turntables Permanent Gallery edition of 250 7" records, produced to accompany the Works for Turntable exhibition. audio sample | |
 | Stephen Cornford Pinched Tapes #1 self-released edition of 6 C20 cassettes produced especially for ArtEx Sonora 2009. | |
