A short biography of composer Daphne Oram, co-founder of the BBC Radiophonic workshop and inventor of the Oramics ‘drawn sound’ system. For a reprint of her treatise on sound, electronics and metaphysics.
A chapter on the extraordinary life and work of Muriel Howorth, science fiction writer, composer, choreographer and pioneering atomic gardener. For The Odditorium, a compendium edited by David Bramwell and Jo Keeling.
Written just before the pandemic, thoughts on the design of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and its minimalist Doomsday Clock which coldly measured the fluctuating risks to humanity during The Cold War and beyond. For The Wire Magazine.
A chapter on musicians’ attitudes towards the first drum machines and samplers, in this book published by the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press (2013).
Published online by Wire Magazine (June 2014), Unheimlich Manoeuvres is a short essay on ventriloquism and the uncanny. It’s illustrated with videos of many fine ventriloquists including Ray Alan, Arthur Worsley and the great Terri Rogers.
A short statement on my work with algorithms and robotics, for The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music. Edited by Roger T Dean and Alex McLean, Oxford University Press 2013.
A paper with performer and theatre historian Caroline Radcliffe on our interpretion of The Machinery. This astounding industrial dance from the early nineteeth century was devised by women working in the Lancashire cotton mills. Wearing clogs, they copied the sounds and actions of the factory machines. In Performance Research.