Sonic Sideshow
The Amundsen and Slade Sonic Sideshow is an interactive tech-art performance project……
The Amundsen and Slade Sonic Sideshow is an interactive tech-art performance project deployed in the world of festivals, cabaret shows, art galleries, events and parties. Most of the performances are based around the Soul Suits – leather suits that trigger sounds when special patches are touched, and also record sounds onto the performers bodies with a microphone.
The Soul Suits were designed in a retro-futuristic style reminiscent of Jules Verne’s adventure stories and 30’s futurist superhero’s. The suits, the computer program that runs them, and the performances were all conceived and built by Nathaniel Slade and Aste Amundsen over the last few years, with Aste specializing in visual design/costume, and Nathaniel realising the tech/sound design side. They have performed everywhere from squat parties and pop-stars birthday parties to major arts galleries and festivals, including to name few: the Victoria and Albert museum, the Tate Modern, Thames Festival, Bestival, Paradise Gardens, White Mischief and at The Invisible Circus’ Carnyville events.
Other acts include our Sonic Contraptions – Heath Robinson style installations including the scrap metal Mayhem Machine, that plays sampled sounds like a massive junkyard xylophone and the Waterwheel Powered Beat-Sequencer – that takes ‘records’ hand drawn by the audience, spins them on a waterwheel powered turntable, and turns them into percussion sequences, not unlike a percussive Oramics Machine.
