testcard :: the voice phenomenon project

nine years ago we formed a co-operative venture with a floating membership, aiming to disturb people into personal change or self reflection through a series of performances based on a 'new sound and vision' manifesto. the projects operate through testcard: a battle into the unconscious in which any footing is quickly lost to an illusionary and devious mind.

the testcard is the symbolic end to programmed schedules, the fear of losing structure, the fear of habitual behaviour patterns. we operate under the premise that there can be very little conscious awareness of a structure to one's action, but unconsciously one is subject to a loosely determined destiny: future, present and past existing as one, accessed intuitively through divinatory methods...

ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENA

electronic voice phenomena (EVP) were first discovered by the swedish artist friedrich jürgenson in 1959. jürgenson was recording birdsong using a reel-to-reel tape recorder. when he replayed the tapes, he heard faint but intelligible voices in the background, even though there was no-one else in the vicinity when the recordings were made. by repeating the procedure, jürgenson found that the voice recordings could be reliably replicated. these phenomena were subsequently investigated by the german parapsychologist hans bender and by the latvian psychologist konstantin raudive.

taking their inspiration from jürgenson's work, in this first series of experiments testcard have composed the soundtrack using a sound pool of samples taken directly from haunted locations in paris, london, brighton, and from the internet.

SOUNDTRACK LOCATIONS

ghosthunting societies of the internet
père lachaise cemetery paris
the catacombs paris
notre dame paris
newington prison london
brighton spiritualist church
all saints church lewes
the herron gallery london

WITH THANKS TO:

lepke b, glen langdell and laura cerezuela uribe for their invaluable help; lindsay wellstead, monica hogan and dominic o'brian for their clairvoyant advice.

this project is dedicated to carlos lanterna magica and doris stokes.

testcard have recently returned from performing in russia, and received a year of the artist award for the 'mirror' project. their notorious ouija board transmission is featured in john rackham's book 'brighton ghosts, hove hauntings'.

testcard are adrian shephard and matt grey. they are currently searching for local hauntings for the voice phenomenon project. for more information visit www.testcard.org or email testcard@rocketmail.com.