Very cool project this that we’re stoked to have been a small part of. Earlier this month Spencer Graham exhibited his follow up to last year’s Pressing Detroit installation. Going under the extensive title of 15:06:13-16:06:13/15.06.13/SG Subtitle: The One Hour Piece (The One Hour…), the work is a display and listening experience composed of records featuring ‘Detroit‘ in their title (by way of artist or track name) acquired within a 60 minute window from Vinyl Underground. Spencer recorded the tracks on to cassettes (recording time 60 minutes) to be listened to, creating not only the right environment but a stunning aesthetic for it to be experienced in.
To back up a bit, Spencer Graham is a key member of A Place In Time?, a collective of artists (or self-described “embryonic research group”) who are balancing a variety of interesting art projects across their members’ work. For his own part, Graham has dedicated his research to the music of Detroit. Not limited to just audio, but the wider influence that the Motor City’s music has had on the city itself and outside it’s borders, everything from flyers, to record sleeves to CD inserts and beyond.
A few months back Spencer got in touch around using the Science & Romance EP from Chairman Kato as part of the project, more specifically the ‘Andres Detroit Soul Mix’ of ‘Low Rises.’ Gutted that we totally spaced on covering this up until this point, but well happy that he took the time to send us photos from the event.
Some of the details and photos below, but to check the full collection of shots and the final tracklist head over here: http://aplaceintime.info/members/spencer-graham/the-one-hour-piece
The One Hour proposal:
As a development of my research into the city of Detroit I propose to spend my “one hour” in an independent record store. Within this timeframe I aim to search for and buy specific records that include the word Detroit within track titles/record titles/artists’ names. The proposed work will develop from extended research into the particular records acquired within the “one hour.” These records will determine a specific, restricted and personal soundtrack up to the time and place of “One Hour.” Alongside this concentrated listening I will study all associated sleeve notes and artwork, together with the language of any corresponding press releases in order to consider how Detroit is represented both in terms of a concrete place and a signifier with longstanding cultural resonance.
All tracks recorded on the fluorescent green cassettes were acquired from Northampton’s Vinyl Underground record store on Saturday 15 June 2013. Each tune or artists’ name includes the word Detroit. The tape length is 60 minutes, reflecting the time spent looking for said records.
The personal stereo, more often associated with the urban, is presented here in a rural setting to listen to music that specifically references a particular post-industrial city that is itself, due to a massive decline in population, beginning to look more like a rural environment.
I hope that whilst the listener has access to REW and FFWD buttons, the personal tape player is less likely to prompt the skip-inducing habits of digital technology, resulting in a context more conducive to concentrated listening and encouraging consideration of Detroit’s cultural currency and the interrelationships between music, place and memory.