T E S T C A R D P E R F O R M A N C E S

1995

Shoreham Adur Festival radio electronic music broadcast : SHEPHARD,WADE,SEGAL,PRICE
notes:'the first official testcard performance, on festival radio, transmitted live at about 11pm for 45 minutes. It was the first time i'd ever done radio and i remember thinking how bizzare it was to think that one could be in a room with several people yet somewhere there were people able to listen in to this...For this performance we invited Dr Martin Segal, the political writer from New York to work his unique vocal style into the mix..Marti was living in brighton at the time and we had become good friends, i used to film many of his public performances in brighton and this was the perfect opportunity to experiment with a collaboration..I'd always felt testcard to be a loose organisation which could freely evolve spontaneously and involve a sense of risk.
Margate the Lido : Electronic music performance and slides : SHEPHARD,WADE
notes:'this was the first time we played live in front of an audience,with visuals consisting of 16mm mental hospital films (courtesy of charles mitchel intriguing collection) slides including ones i'd made from the anarchist cookbook on how to build explosives etc. Sound from Simons percussion and various electronic rythmns..the first use of the fighter pilots mask connected to the childs pitch shifter for vocals and rudimentary noise circuits i'd built. It was an onslaught, the room was so big i think it echoed the sound beyond recognition, i think Mutagen played before us and was positively pop music in comparison to our dual attack...Simon would gradually pick out rythmns and hammer the pads until i thought they would explode. God knows how we got the gig and in margate of all places, maybe tracy emin was in the audience ..who knows??'

The Richmond ,Brighton TV installation/sound performance/slides, 16mm film,sound generators : SHEPHARD : HELLIWELL : WADE
notes:'I seem to remember us playing after Vicki Bennet (People Like Us), and i vaguely remember some guy hammering a nail into his face..The Richmond at the time was a hot bed for sound artists in Brighton..In fact I think the audience mostly consisted of friends involved in making sound, and i dont think there were many people there..The sound man at the time was a certain Tim Clarke who later joined testcard a few years later,maybe he was impressed by us at the time(?).. This performance struck me by its darkness, very disturbing commencing with a sample of a child telling a story and continuing into industrial rythmns layers of orchestral loops and metal percussions. I'd worked with Ian Helliwell in previous projects (Giant Clams) and really liked his sensitive approach to sample selections and his use of reel to reel recorders for tape loops at the time..

The Richmond Brighton : Live soundtrack to ‘the holiday’ super 8 film 15 minutes, amplified violins, record decks, rythmn generators : SHEPHARD, PRICE, LEPKE, MITCHEL
The Prince Albert : Live link from studio / children miming to soundtrack for 16mm mental hospital film : SHEPHARD, PRICE, LEPKE, CLARKE
The Albert : Live link for JSA benefit : Converted Televisions react to soundtracks : SHEPHARD, WADE, HELLIWELL, PRICE
Brighton festival radio electronic Exorcism with ouija board built circuits/ church samples : SHEPHARD, WADE, HELLIWELL, PRICE

Brighton Woodvale cemetary: TV as Legs installation : SHEPHARD,
The Nunnery: Meditation room performance 16mm films, electronic childrens toys/ built circuit : SHEPHARD, PRICE
The Zap club, Brighton : Lieber Rausch festival : Electronic music performance : SHEPHARD, HELLIWELL, WADE

1996

Bar Centro , Brighton : JSA benefit : Electronic music and dance : SHEPHARD, RIVOAL, RACHEL , PRICE
Ship St Post Office, Brighton, Squat party : Live soundtrack to the Battleship Potemkin with Electronics and Piano : SHEPHARD, CLARKE HELLIWELL, PRICE
Phoenix Gallery, Brighton : No More Hiroshimas festival, voices and samples with cannibalised tv sculptures : SHEPHARD, PRICE, CLARKE
East st Brighton : Squat party Benefit: Miked up piano and Tvs, Self built video projector : SHEPHARD, CLARKE, PAUL, REED
Sub café, Brighton 666 night: piano soundtrack : SHEPHARD , CLARKE, REED
Brighton Subway performance: Exponential horn, battery sound generators : SHEPHARD, CLARKE, REED, HELLIWELL

1997

Strawberry Fair, Cambridge: Piano , noise generators, turntable : SHEPHARD, REED, CLARKE, WADE
The Zap, Brighton : First public performance of the prototype Brain Machine : SHEPHARD, GRAY, CLARKE, BILL, LEPKE

The sanctuary café, Brighton : Scanned conversation : SHEPHARD, CLARKE, HELLIWELL
Cybar, Brighton : Testcard vs Koan : SHEPHARD, CLARKE, LEPKE, HELLIWELL, REED

1998
The Lift , Brighton: Live soundtrack to Exorcism film : SHEPHARD, CLARKE, REED
The Lift , Brighton: Live soundtrack to The Sound Mirror, film 20 minutes , video : SHEPHARD, CLARKE, LEPKE

The Zap club , Brighton: Dead Astronauts installation for Scratch magazine : SHEPHARD, CLARKE, LEPKE, SEGAL , PRICE

Ray Tindle centre, Brighton: Pioneers of Electronic music festival with zoviet france: Surface Scan , 10 minutes slide and live soundtrack : SHEPHARD, CLARKE, PRICE, DEHASSE, TODD

Phoenix Gallery : Vinyl Festival : Exponential horn and turntable : SHEPHARD, LEPKE

1999

Lighthouse, Brighton Media Centre, Demonstration of the Brain Machine CDROM : SHEPHARD
Gardner Arts , Brighton University , Circulations Festival: Surface Scan experiment : SHEPHARD, URIBE, SIPPINGS, PRICE
Gardner Arts, Brighton University, Tv sculptures for Web site launch : SHEPHARD

2000

The legacy of Misconstruction May 6th-june 16th 2000
funded by gallery100. Donne Mileham & Haddock Solicitors
An installation for The gallery100 window space : consisted of two sculptures to demonstrate the legacy of the human mind in the later part of the 20th century. The obsessions with televisual culture, scripted human communications human-machine relationships were addressed within the sculpture : SHEPHARD

International Performances

2000

TRANSMIT August 23rd - 29th 2000
St Petersburg International festival of Experimental and Performance Art
Russia : SHEPHARD, DICK,TELESE,CORCIO

2001

Dresden
CYNET Festival
An active biofeedback ‘soft’ machine installation.The piece was a collaboration with Malcolm B Dick and Emilia Telese all of whom have worked with confrontational media for many years. SHEPHARD, DICK, TELESE

MIRROR - anatomy of attack May 2001
funded by the arts council and national lottery
LEWIS ALL SAINTS CHURCH
Testcard were awarded a ‘Year of the Artist’ prize for the piece entitled ‘Mirror’ installed in the All Saints church in Lewis during the late Summer of 2001. The installation used pattern recognition s/w and MIDI triggers together with micro cameras on hammers to document the emotions towards the new technology by allowing people to destroy banks of computers and monitors set up in the space. Each micro-movement was fed through to a giant monitor cross set in the computer graveyard : SHEPHARD, LEPKE, GRAY, URIBE, LANGDELL, PARTRIDGE

2002

THE FEATURE CREATURE – March 2002
Funded by British libraries.
TATE MODERN – London
A six hour sound performance to mark the opening of world book day in the Turbine room of the Tate Modern. The performance accompanied dancers controlling six huge helium filled inflatables designed by the German artists from Hexenkessel : SHEPHARD, GRAY, LEPKE

September 2002
Helden Der Arbeit
Funded by East German government
East Germany
Live soundtrack for the ‘working class heroes’ festival : SHEPHARD, GRAY, LEPKE, CORCIO

October 2002
Transmit
Funded by the British government in Kiev
Kiev international media Art Festival (KIMAF)
A brain frquency installation in collaboration with the Spanish butoh dancer Esther Hoyuelos. Performed in a 17th century fortress museum : SHEPHARD, GRAY, HOYUELOS, PRICE

2003

Transmit, July
Funded by Occulture Brighton
at the Occulture festival Brighton Art College : SHEPHARD, GRAY, LEPKE, SCOTTY, PRICE, JENNY, DICK

2004

Transmit
TECHGNOSIS,Man Myth and Magic Festival,Corsica Art Studios, Elephant and Castle, London : SHEPHARD, LEPKE, HARDLESS