John Duncan (artist)

Infobox Artist
bgcolour = #DDDDDD
name = John Duncan


imagesize =
caption = Photo by Hagen Stockhausen
birthname =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1953|6|17|mf=y
location = Wichita, Kansas, U.S.
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
field = Performance Art, Video, Installations, Experimental Music
training = California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles
movement =
works = Scare, Blind Date, The Crackling, The Keening Towers, The Error, The Gauntlet
patrons =
influenced by =
influenced =
awards =

John Duncan (born 1953) is an artist who has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam, currently lives and works in Bologna. His body of work includes performance art, installations, contemporary music, video and film, often involving the extensive use of recorded sound. His music is composed mainly of recordings from shortwave radio, field recordings and voice. His events and installations are often confrontational in nature, a form of existential research [Haynes, Jim "Shock Treatment: John Duncan", "The Wire", Number 208, May 2001] .

Early years

Duncan was born in Wichita, Kansas to parents of English and Scottish ancestry, both from generations of European nomads who lived at the extreme edge of efforts to settle the American west. He was raised with a strict Calvinist upbringing where self-reliance, hard work and the suppression of emotional suffering were considered virtues, questioning authority was severely punished.

In his teens he studied classical figure drawing and painting, together with psychology and the physics of light. His first contact with experimental music was the Jacques Lasry LP "Chronophagie", discovered in the record bins of the Wichita Public Library. In 1971 he applied for and received Conscientious Objector status from the ultra-conservative Wichita draft board, supported by letters from several of his instructors. At 19 he left for Los Angeles to attend CalArts, where he studied under Allan Kaprow.

Los Angeles

In the mid-1970s, his Los Angeles performances, events and installations were considered by critics as aggressive, at times threatening, at others bordering on self-destructive, inspiring references to transgressive art and Viennese Actionism. Duncan himself has repeatedly called these comparisons “unnecessarily limiting”. [John Duncan lecture, "John Duncan: on psychic research", Bergen, Norway 2007]

Several of his early events were held in private or in front of a small number of witnesses. "Scare" was an encouragement to examine the physical effects of fear. Duncan donned a disguise and fired a blank-loaded pistol at point-blank range at two carefully selected participants, Tom Recchion and Paul McCarthy, chosen “...because they were close friends who would not expect anything like this to happen to them and who would be able to appreciate the event as I intended it”. [John Duncan lecture, "John Duncan: on psychic research", Bergen, Norway 2007] "Bus Ride" sexually stimulated unsuspecting passengers on a city bus with a liquid poured into the ventilation system in order to observe the results. ["John Duncan: Work 1975-2005" p. 27] "Blind Date", involving intercourse with a female corpse followed by a vasectomy, both conducted in private, was presented as an audio-only event to an audience in a darkened warehouse, a demonstration of how men are conditioned to turn emotional suffering into rage [Kristine Stiles, "Uncorrupted Joy" included in "Out of Actions: between performance and the object 1948-1979" (1998) p. 240-241] . A character-exchange event with McCarthy was held in private in McCarthy's studio, where Duncan recorded actions to video that McCarthy immediately erased.

Other events were presented to radio audiences, at once separated from each other and too large to gather in one place. "No" was Duncan's first public performance of a Reichian exercise (later known as bioenergetic analysis) broadcast live over "Close Radio". "Happy Homes", his last performance before leaving Los Angeles, was a telephone exchange with radio therapist Dr. Toni Grant, broadcast live throughout the United States. Duncan described several child-abuse cases he had personally witnessed as a Los Angeles city bus driver as he asked the therapist for advice.

His first films were shot in Super-8, silent or with separate audio, intended either as stand-alone works or as elements used in live events. The performance "For Women Only" is centered around a film intended to erotically arouse the all-woman audience, who were then invited to enter a back room and abuse Duncan sexually. "The Secret Film" was screened individually to eight viewers before the film itself and the room where it was shown were both destroyed by fire.

Together with Paul McCarthy he co-produced "Close Radio", a weekly series of live radio broadcasts over KPFK that provided airtime to artists working in sound, many of them for the first time. The "Close Radio" archive was donated to the Getty Center in 2007.

His earliest recorded audio experiments were also made at this time, including work with Michael LeDonne-Bhennet, McCarthy, Tom Recchion and Fredrik Nilsen. His first solo LP "Organic" was released in 1979. His first solo recordings with shortwave radio were released in 1982 on the EP "Creed" which also included the complete broadcast of "Happy Homes".

Tokyo

Duncan left the United States for Tokyo in 1982, where he continued his performance work, and expanded his experiments with recorded shortwave broadcasts and film.

His performances centered on Reichian breath exercises conducted in public arenas, including "Cast" performed on the floor of the women's public toilet at the 'Second Annual Alternative Media Conference' in Tokyo in 1986.

In the mid-1980s he began pirate radio and television broadcasts with portable custom-made transmitters built by Duncan himself, operating (very) illegally from apartment block roofs in central Tokyo and an abandoned US Army hospital near Sagamihara, as well as periodic broadcasts made from his own home. "Radio Code" broadcasts featured the early live work of musician Keiji Haino and Butoh soloist Hisako Horikawa, which were also relayed throughout Tokyo via other pirate radio stations, particularly Radio Homerun in Shimokitazawa. "TVC-1" television broadcasts were transmitted from central Tokyo rooftops, over the frequency assigned to NHK 1 after the station had concluded its broadcast day, limited to 12 minutes in order to avoid contact with Tokyo police.

His work in film and video included the Super-8 films "Trigger" with a solo soundtrack, "Brutal Birthday" with a live soundtrack performed by Duncan's group C.V. Massage, and a support film for the performance event "Move Forward" that included images from hardcore pornography and animated technical drawings of nuclear attack strategies. He also directed a series of commercial adult videos for Kuki, Inc. under the name John See, for which he also wrote the scripts, edited, composed soundtracks and occasionally acted in incidental roles. Several re-edited versions of John See videos were broadcast over TVC-1, also appearing in the 2003 video installation "See".

His audio releases in this period include "Kokka" (National Anthem) with Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter (musician), the solo LP "Riot" and "Dark Market Broadcast".

Amsterdam

In 1988 Duncan moved to Amsterdam, where his work became more introspective.

In 1988 and 1989 several of his films were broadcast over Rabotnik TV along with "Anthem", a Reichian exercise performed for the Rabotnik TV camera in a derelict building used by heroin addicts. Location sound for "Anthem" was recorded by Andrew M. McKenzie.

Between 1990 and 1993, "Radio Code" FM broadcasts continued as weekly programs which he produced and hosted over pirate stations Radio 100 and Radio Patapoe.

His audio installation "Stress Chamber" consists of three independent motors vibrating the walls of a shipping container at its resonant frequency, remote-controlled from outside. Participants enter one at a time, nude, to be locked inside, allowing the vibrations to move at random around and through the participant's body. "Stress Chamber" was premiered in Amsterdam at the "Absolute Threshold Machine Festival". Initially the festival organizers threatened to cancel the work due to its tendency to vibrate the grounds of the surrounding area to a 90 meter radius, concerned that it would become a 'torture device'. Finally the work was allowed, and the queue it created kept the entire festival open several hours longer than anticipated. [John Duncan, interview by Daniela Cascella; Scrutto di San Leonardo, Italy 2000]

The "Kick" performance series involving Reichian exercises was conducted before live audiences throughout Europe from 1989 at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria, to 1993. The final event was held on the altar of the Parochiale Kirche in Berlin, concluding a live solo concert.

The "Maze" event in June 1995 involved a group of seven volunteer participants, including Duncan and an infant child, locked naked and blind overnight in an Amsterdam cellar in order to directly experience workings of the mind in a situation of unexpected sensory deprivation. The event ended when several participants pried open the exit door with their fingernails and broke it down. The infant child slept through the entire event. [John Duncan, interview by Daniela Cascella; Scrutto di San Leonardo, Italy 2000] A video created from infrared photos taken during the event was produced later that year at Contained in Linz, Austria.

Music from this period includes CD releases "Contact" with Andrew M. McKenzie, "Send" with tracks by McKenzie and Zbigniew Karkowski and "The Crackling", composed with Max Springer in 1996 from field recordings made by Duncan at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. A 1997 review by Rob Young claimed "The Crackling" rendered the Stanford research facility '...perhaps the largest musical instrument ever created'. [Rob Young, “Exotic Audio Research”; The Wire, March 1997]

crutto di San Leonardo

In 1996 he met Giuliana Stefani. Their first collaboration, "Charge Field", was released that same year. Duncan himself says the following about their years together: “Among the collaborations I was part of in that time, ours were by far the most numerous and formative for my art. We composed several pieces of music together, performed "Palace of Mind" together twice. The debut performance premiered at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, France beginning at 23:15 on 31 December 1999, ending almost exactly 48 minutes later at midnight on 1 January 2000. We ran the label Allquestions together, she was essential in setting it up. Her photographs are featured on the covers of all but one Allquestions release up to 2006, as well as several of my installations and events from the period. She was the key figure in a number of discussions we had about aesthetics and projects inspired by them. Through her, my work took on a repeatedly positive aspect for the first time. In a deeply intuitive way, she understood the search that drives my work and for a decade did an enormous amount to bring it out into the world, in ways I couldn't have imagined.” [John Duncan in conversation with Thomas Bailey] In autumn 2006 they left Amsterdam and set up a studio in Scrutto di San Leonardo, a village of fewer than 100 inhabitants in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia province of Italy at the border with Slovenia. They were married in 1998, until 2005 when they agreed to separate.

His best known works from this time are the outdoor audio installation "The Keening Towers" (2003) for the 2nd Gothenburg Biennial composed with children's voices, and the performance event "Voice Contact" (1998-2000) where volunteer participants enter alone, nude and blind into an empty room as Duncan, also nude and blind, responds uniquely to each according to their movements within the space.

Video from this period includes "The North Is Protected", based on the text with the same title written by Leif Elggren.

"Cross Radio" broadcasts were three-hour live experimental music programs produced and hosted by Duncan, aired weekly from 23:00 to 02:00 over Radio Onde Furlane in Udine, syndicated over Resonance FM in London, Radio Autonoma in Madrid, Radio Kinesonus in Tokyo and WPS1 in New York. Over Radio Onde Furlane, each show continued until 05:30.

Audio releases from this period include "Crucible, Tap Internal, Palace of Mind" (cited above), "Nav" with Francisco López (musician), "Fresh" with zeitkratzer, "Phantom Broadcast, Infrasound Tidal" from sources by Densil Cabrera, "Tongue" with Elliott Sharp, "Presence" with Edvard Graham Lewis and "Da Sich Die Machtgier..." with sources by Asmus Tietchens.

Bologna

Duncan relocated to Bologna in 2005, setting up a studio near Porta San Vitale.

In 2006 he recorded "Our Telluric Conversation" with Carl Michael von Hausswolff and "Nine Suggestions" with Pan Sonic members Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen. The audio installation [http://www.johnduncan.org/installations.html#GARDEN "The Garden"] with Valerio Tricoli was included in the 2006 edition of Eco e Narciso held at the IPCA Ecomuseum in the province of Turin. In January 2007 Duncan performed "Something Like Seeing in the Dark" with Leif Elggren, premiered at Palazzo Re Enzo, Bologna for the "Netmage 07" festival.

In August, his solo audio installation "The Tolling" was introduced at [http://www.smepp.com Smepp: Società Mezzi Portuali Piombino S.p.a.] at the Piombino dockyards for "Piombino eXperimenta 3".

In September, Duncan curated "Cross Lake Atlantic" with large-scale works by Scott Arford, Gary Jo Gardenhire, Kim Gordon and Jutta Koether, Brandon LaBelle, Teresa Margolles and Fredrik Nilsen at [http://www.enricofornello.it Gallery Enrico Fornello] in Prato.

In October, three pieces from "The Plasma Missives", with texts written in Duncan's blood, and three pieces from his "Distractions" series, with his blood used as paint, were exhibited together with work by Leif Elggren at [http://www.niklasbelenius.com Gallery Niklas Belenius] in Stockholm. Blood for the Stockholm "Distractions" paintings was extracted by Carl Michael von Hausswolff.

In 2008, he began teaching at the [http://www.accademiabelleartibologna.it Accademia di Belle Arti] in Bologna.

Recent work

In February 2008 Duncan's audio installation "The Gauntlet" was held at [http://www.fargfabriken.se/index.php?tabell=content&id=183 Färgfabriken] in Stockholm: a series of anti-theft alarms with infrared sensors, turned on at ten-minute intervals and triggered at random by visitors moving blindly through the darkened hall.

In June 2008 [http://www.ensemble-phoenix.ch/ Ensemble Phoenix] performed acoustic interpretations of "Phantom Broadcast", scored and conducted by Duncan, in live concerts held at Gare du Nord in Basel and Dampfzentrale in Bern. The Dampfzentrale concert was recorded for broadcast in Switzerland over DRS2.

In 2007 he began living and working together with dancer-choreographer Melissa Pasut. On 20 and 21 June 2008 she premiered an untitled solo dance at "Ottomax" in Rome with a soundtrack by Duncan.

Bibliography

Monograph:

* "John Duncan: Work 1975-2005" (Errant Bodies Press, 2006) with contributions by Daniela Cascella, Leif Elggren, Cosey Fanni-Tutti, Mike Kelley, Brandon LaBelle, Paul McCarthy, Tom Recchion, Takuya Sakaguchi, Giuliana Stefani and Carl Michael von Hausswolff.

Critical and scholarly studies:

* Kristine Stiles, "Uncorrupted Joy" included in "Out of Actions: between performance and the object 1948-1979" (1998) p. 240-241
* Daniela Cascella, "John Duncan: From noise, installations, shortwave radio, field recordings, one of the masters of experimentation of the last 20 years", "Blow Up" November 2000
* Jim Haynes, "Shock Treatment", "The Wire" May 2001

* See also: [http://www.johnduncan.org/review-index.html interviews and comments]

Discography

2007
* "Untitled" CD released by Die Stadt, DE2006
* "Our Telluric Conversation" CD w/C.M. von Hausswolff released by 23Five, USA
* "The Garden" CD w/V. Tricoli released by Eco e Narciso, IT
* "John Duncan: Work 1975-2005" Monograph w/CD published by Errant Bodies Press, DK
* "John Duncan: First Recordings 1978-1985" 3xLP and DVD released by Vinyl-on-Demand, DE
* "The Keening Towers" (excerpt) 2xCD released by Institute of Contemporary Art, USA2005
* "Conservatory" CD w/P. Parisi released by Allquestions, IT
* "Nine Suggestions" CD w/M. Vainio and I. Vaisanen released by Allquestions, IT2004
* "Presence" CD w/E.G. Lewis released by Allquestions, IT
* "Tongue" CD w/E. Sharp released by Allquestions, IT2003
* "Phantom Broadcast" CD released by Allquestions, IT
* "Infrasound-Tidal" CD released by Allquestions, IT
* "The Keening Towers" CD released by Allquestions, IT
* "Stun Shelter" CD released by Galleria Nicola Fornello, IT
* "The Gossamer Dispatch" EP released by Die Stadt, DE
* "Da Sich Die Machtgier..." CD released by Die Stadt, DE
* "The Scattering" CD w/Peter Fleur released by edition ..., USA2002
* "Fresh" CD w/zeitkratzer released by Allquestions, IT2001
* "Palace of Mind" CD w/G. Stefani released by Allquestions, IT
* "Nav" 2xCD w/F. López released by Allquestions, IT2000
* "Tap Internal" CD released by Touch, UK1998
* "Seek" CD released by Staalplaat, NL
* "The Elgaland/Vargaland National Anthem" EP w/Z. Karkowsky released by Die Stadt, DE
* "Crucible" CD released by Die Stadt, DE1997
* "Split Second" track on 5xCD "Tulpas" released by Selektion, DE
* "The John See Soundtracks" CD released by RRRecords, USA1996
* "The Crackling" CD released by trente oiseaux, DE
* "Home: Unspeakable" CD w/ B. Guenter released by trente oiseaux, DE
* "Change" track on CD "The Mind of a Missile" released by Heel Stone, DE
* "Charge Field" track w/G. Stefani on 2xCD "Antiphony" released by Touch, UK
* "Hymn" track on 3xCD "State of the Union" released by Atavistic, USA
* "Trinity" track on 2xCD "A Fault In the Nothing" released by Touch, UK
* "The Ruud E. Memorial Choir / Psychonaut" EP released by Robot Records, USA1995
* "Incoming" CD released by Streamline, DE1994
* "The John See Soundtracks" LP released by RRRecords, USA
* "Send" CD released by Touch, UK
* "River In Flames / Klaar" 2xCD released by Staalplaat, NL1993
* "Chapel Perilous" and "Kick" tracks on "Anckarström Live" CD released by Staalplaat, NL1991
* "KLAAR" CD by Extreme, Australia1990
* "Dark Market Broadcast" CD released by Staalplaat, NL
* "Mirror Pulse" Cassette released by Extreme, Australia
* "Riot / Brutal Birthday Soundtrack" CD released by Dark Vinyl, DE
* "Contact" CD w/A.M. McKenzie released by Touch, UK1988-89
* "Radio Code" Cassette released by AQM, NL1985
* "Dark Market Broadcast" Cassette released by Cause & Effect, USA
* "Purge" track on 4x cassette "Journey Into Pain" released by Beast 666, JP
* "Riposte" Track on "Morality" cassette released by Broken Flag, UK
* "Probe" Track on "Assemblée Generale 4" cassette released by PPP, Paris1984
* "Riot" LP released by AQM, Tokyo
* "Pleasure-Escape" Cassette/book released by B-Sellers, Tokyo1983
* "Kokka" EP released by AQM, Tokyo1980
* "Creed" EP released by AQM, Los Angeles1979
* "Organic" LP released by AQM, Los Angeles1978
* "No" Cassette released by AQM, Los Angeles
* "Station Event" Cassette w/M. della Donne-Bhennet and T. Recchion released by AQM, Los Angeles
* "Two Solos" Cassette released by AQM, Los Angeles

References

External links

* http://www.johnduncan.org
* http://www.ensemble-phoenix.ch
* http://fargfabriken.se
* http://www.accademiabelleartibologna.it