Previous Events
Our previous events
The Engine Room Presents: Kate Carr, whose body is this, and Colin Thelermont
25 March 2024
The Engine Room presents: Kate Carr, whose body is this, and Colin Thelermont for an evening of experimental music and sound. Immerse yourself in a night of intimate soundscapes, pulsating synths, live visuals, and sonic innovation that pushes at the boundaries of sound art and music.
Kate Carr’s practice is focused on the textures and technologies entangled with field recording. She creates intimate, delicate and hybrid soundworlds which centre the interactions and collectivity which generate soundscapes. Everything from vibrations caused by cars and footfalls, to overheard murmurs, public speeches, music in public space, and the roar of distant sporting events has found its way into her compositions, and live performances. Her work has been featured on BBC radio, The New York Times and The New Yorker among many other places, and she regularly performs in the UK and Internationally.
She is also the duo Rubbish Music and runs the label Flaming Pines.
whose body is this is the proxy for Ben Mason’s music and other sound-related things. currently, they operate on the border between techno and other dance musics, and ‘experimental’ music in the lineage of computer music, all of which can be found on their Bandcamp page.
whose’s most recent interest has been an adaptation of Curtis Roads’ Pulsar Synthesis in Pure Data and it’s interaction with machine learning and neural networks, “allowing the machine to decide”.
whose’s last project was “Grub’s Laptop Remix”, a full remix of Spookduke’s “Grub’s Laptop Tracks” album, completed in Max/MSP ppooll, accompanied by an ‘acid soaked’ visualiser, made in Jitter. it approaches the idea of a remix through a lens of thick irony, paired with genuine admiration for the source material and the aim to explore digital sonic textures, formed from existing material rooted in a plethora of popular genres.
shortly before, they released “Future Acid 2000”, an exploration of chaotic and unstable digital systems using Pd, initiating an interest in the intersection between techno, acid, and more contemporary experimental aesthetics. the scripts are available on Github.
Colin Thelermont has always lived in London and needs to leave but is figuring out why through sound – London is loud.
The Engine Room 2023: International Sound Art Exhibition
24 April – 18 May 2023
The Engine Room 2023 exhibition took place from 24 April – 18 May 2023 at the Morley Gallery, London and showcased some of the selected works from The Engine Room Sound Art Competition.
19 incredible works were selected and presented alongside the premier of a new work by Guest Artist and Prize Winner (2015) Andrea Patrick-Bryne.
Finalists:
Ville Aalto (Finland)
Daria Baiocchi (Italy)
Jessica Beechey (United Kingdom)
Elliot Buchanan & Benjamin Harrison (United Kingdom)
Original Copy (United Kingdom)
Jason Gibbs (USA)
(United Kingdom)
Claude Heiland-Allen (UK/Germany)
Sujin Jung (South Korea)
Joshua La Gallienne (United Kingdom)
Ke Peng & Bryan Yueshen Wu China)
Kevin Poulton (United Kingdom)
Marina Sanchez (Ireland)
Sam Scott (United Kingdom)
Adam Stanovic (United Kingdom)
Martin Thompson (United Kingdom)
David Upton (United Kingdom)
Chen Wang (China)
Monty Williams (United Kingdom)
Andrew Zhou (Australia)
Guest Artist: Andrea Patrick Byrne (United Kingdom)
Prize Winners:
1st Prize: Marina Sanchez – Wailsong
2nd Prize: Ville Alto – Noise Cancellation
3rd Prize: Benjamin Harrison and Elliot Buchanan – Slow Silence: Happisburgh
Judges special mentions:
Sujin Jung – 1440-0
Joshua La Gallienne – Listening to Immateriality
The Engine Room 2022: Reboot
6 – 17 June 2022
After a three year pause due to pandemic closures and Morley Gallery renovations, The Engine Room is back with a new sound art exhibition: The Engine Room – Reboot, featuring works from the Sound Art students at Morley (past and present) plus a very special work by Tim Murray-Brown commissioned and premiered by The Engine Room.
Morley College students presented works originating from their class exercises, now expanded into more developed concepts and artworks. The exhibition showcased a variety of approaches to Sound Art including audio visual works, sound sculptures, graphic scores, sound installations and more.
The Engine Room 2019 – Taking The Engine Room to IKLECTIK
5-24 October 2019
For this edition, we collaborated with IKLECTIK, in their fifth anniversary, in a celebration of all things experimental. This year 18 finalists were selected from of over 160 submissions by a panel of judges including Scanner, Kate Carr and Eduard Sol
For The Engine Room 2019 instead of commissioning a work IKLECTIK helped us curate a series of performances and workshops including notable ones by Scanner, Kate Carr and HOWLROUND.
Commissioned Artist: Scanner
Prize Winner: BIID Elisea – Njordzitrone [electronic duo: Andrej Cebski + Davide Baldazzi] (ITALY)
The Engine Room 2017
4 May – 1 June 2017
This year’s competition attracted over 130 works from 33 countries from around the world, including France, Mexico, Portugal, South Korea, Finland, and the United States, as well as several UK artists. 20 finalists were selected by a panel of judges The Wire publisher Tony Herrington, sound artist and composer Dr Annie Mahtani, and sound artist Janek Schaefer.
The works selected included sounds sampled from news reports and archived footage, installations that generate sound through resonance, and even some that can be described as “silent sound art”.
Commissioned Artist: Tim Murray-Browne & Aphra Shemza
Prize Winner: Shadowland – Laura Daly (UK)
The Engine Room 2015 – Our First International Sound Art Competition
12 May – 12 June 2015
‘The Engine Room – International Sound Art Competition & Exhibition’ was our first international competition, open to emerging sound artists regardless of country of residence, nationality or age and focused on new works in the broad field of Sound Art. The jury panel included Professor Simon Emmerson, Ray Lee, and Mira Calix.
This competition and exhibition was part of Morley College’s 125th anniversary celebrations.
Commissioned Work: Aerial Aria – Janek Schaefer
Prize Winner: Twinkle – Andrea Byrne (UK)
The Engine Room 2011 – Cardew Festival
24 November – 17 December 2011
In 2011, Morley College marked the 75th anniversary of the birth, and 30th of the death, of one of its more influential former tutors, Cornelius Cardew, considered by many as the founder of British experimental music, with a series of courses, events, and exhibitions. As part of this series of events the first Engine Room International Sound Art Exhibition was launched and exhibited at Morley College Gallery during November and December 2011.
the engine room 2011 exhibition included a selection of sound art works by established and emerging artists from across the globe. The works share a common ground in that they have all been inspired in some way by Cornelius Cardew’s music and/or ideologies.
The works programmed in this exhibition were selected from an international call for works which attracted over 50 submissions from over 15 countries and showcased the far-reaching influence that Cardew continues to have on artists working across a diverse range of disciplines and media today.