Antony Hall demonstrates the m-Log (a sensor-driven noise-making interface, housed in a real log) in front of a projection of a deliriously rhizomatic interface

Antony Hall wants to have it both ways. He is disappointed if his science-based projects (which span interspecies communications and fluid mechanics, like creating vortexes in coffee cups) aren’t regarded as serious experiments. On the other hand, seems to be in disbelief that he performs as a experimental sound artist at art events. But when the public wants to acquire his handmade musical instruments, he prefers instead to lead D.I.Y. workshops, acknowledging the (social) aesthetics at work.

The science experiments are smart and interesting. I haven’t had a chance to try the chamber for interfacing with a fish currently in the Interspecies exhibition at Cornerhouse, but the idea and interface are lovely.

The music projects’ low-meets-hi-tech is endearingly ironic. What started out as an elaborate joke (Hall and a friend, whose name I can’t recall, thought it would be funny to make music from a homemade analog interface housed in a log, called iLog, rather than a laptop) has turned into the Owl Project. It’s a grouping of preposterous inventions: the iLog, the m-Log (sort of like the Owl version of an iPod, but with only sensors and no harddrive, I think), and the Sound Lathe (It’s a lathe! It’s an instrument! And it’s pedal-powered!).