Lightning Field

In 1991 we visited Walter De Maria’s Lightning Field in New Mexico USA. It was a harvest moon at the time and we made VLF recordings with Joyce’s newly built portable antenna. You can hear the Omega tracking signal which is used by the military to communicate with submarines. The omega tracking signal has now been switched off. You can also hear the sun and the milky way in the forms of pops, crackles and whistlers. VLF recording at Walter Demaria\’s Lightning Field 1991

More info on Walter De Marias lightning field can be found here at http://www.lightningfield.org/

It’s been wet lately, hasn’t it? Really wet. So wet, in fact, that two artists got bogged on the way to their opening at Kellerberrin last Saturday, arriving only after being dug out by a few of the locals. Still that’s what you get for cloud busting and playing around with orgone energy.

For the past month in Kellerberrin, David Haines and Joyce Hinterding have been chasing atmospheric phenomena in the way someone else might fish for trout. Through hope, coaxing, and a fair degree of positive thinking, Haines and Hinterding have been siphoning sexual energy into the Wheatbelt. Yes, this is cultish, but don’t be alarmed, it’s all in the name of creating rain.

In the 1940s and 50s in the American State of Maine, Wilhelm Reich was investigating the existence in the atmosphere of what he called “orgone” energy. Reich at one stage was part of Freud’s inner circle in Vienna and many of his psychoanalytical methods are still used today. But in the course of time and on a different continent Reich turned his attention to more esoteric issues and in the process, many would argue, instigated the greatest sexual revolution in human history.

His inquiry into universal sexual energy and its application through something called the orgone accumulator also saw him hounded by the FBI. In the end Reich’s inventions were confiscated, his life’s writings burnt and he died in jail. Something tells me there was more to this man than meets the eye.

As with all good contemporary art, Haines and Hinterding at the International Art Space Kellerberrin Australia (IASKA) is thick with research and high on the sub-culture factor. These two are by no means the only artists in the world interested in Reich’s theories but their application of his ideas is timely and offers more than a tongue-in-cheek look at the esoteric history of art.

With droughts the norm in much of Australia and every second year now being predicted to be droughtaffected, millions of dollars are being poured into water research (pardon the pun). This is not only research into the water we have but also the water we want.

The amount of money being put into cloud-seeding has hit new levels, so why not look at all the alternatives? Reich had some success with his Cloudbuster, according to eye-witness accounts anyway, but what Haines and Hinterding expose are not just alternative ways of approaching environmental issues but the ability to think well and truly outside the square.

Isn’t this what we need today, isn’t this what artists are supposed to do? Haines and Hinterding question the role of art and arts research but also remind us of the courage of some thought processes and the necessity for them.

For this residency at IASKA, the artists have built two Cloudbusters, one of these being a more portable model. They have been testing it out and well, it’s been raining a lot.

The two Cloudbusters are there for viewing in the gallery space, along with some rules for cloud-busting (according to Reich) and a shot of a storm brewing over a salt lake.

I would have liked more documentation on the walls or in video form, just to go along with the ride and feel a bit more involved in the process. There is a blog that does this (www.anticinema.wordpress.

Gallery View Left hand side

Cloudbusters 1 (Over horizon Big Cat) and Mighty Mini Mouse in background

View through front windows

Side View through Gallery Windows

Images on the floor

Daylight Starmaps and Cloudbuster 1 (Over the Horizon Big Cat)

cloudbuster Number one (Over the Horizon Big Cat) detail

Images made from sulphur mud found at a  salt lake nearby. Its a fould smelling photo-sensitive black material the images change colour over time from pitch black to yellow.

RULES TO FOLLOW IN CLOUD ENGINEERING
by Wilhelm Reich

Published by Orgone Institute in “CORE” July 1954

Vol. VI Nos. 1-4; appendix A”

1. Shed all ambition to impress anyone.

2. Never play around with rain making or cloudbusting. The OR envelope which you tackle while “drawing” energy from the atmosphere is an energetic continuum of high power. You may cause twisters. You may stir a forest fire into the wrong direction. You may do other damage without intending to do so. Never do anything unless you must.

3. If experimenting: it is important to observe and know why you are doing what, that you can achieve immediate results. Slowly growing comprehension will secure later results safely.

4. In cloud engineering you do not ” create rain,” – you do not ” destroy clouds,” – briefly, you are not playing God. What you do is solely helping nature on its natural course.

5. Have your equipment, truck, etc. especially all metal parts well grounded into water, preferably flowing water. Lack of grounding imperils your organism.

6. Do not let workers draw OR energy any longer if they become blue or purple in their faces or feel dizzy. Exchange the workers; let them rest far enough way, and have their faces and arms always wetted down with fresh water.

7. Do not hold on to pipes or other metal parts while you draw OR. Always use a separate plastic or wooden handle to move equipment while drawing. Have your hands always well insulated with rubber or heavy cotton gloves.

8. Have signs put up in such a manner that no one is hurt by OR charges. Do not let people stand close by. Among them may be men or women who are ill and would run some danger to their health.

9. Never ” drill a hole ” into the sky right above you unless you aim for a long drawn rain.

10. When you feel a breeze or wind setting in due to your operation, stop drawing if the wind direction becomes too strong or even if it acquire the appearance of a twister.

11. If you wish to remove DOR clouds, draw in direction of run of OR envelope.

12. If you wish to DESTROY clouds or to stop rain, aim at center of heaviest clouds.

13. If you wish to make clouds grow heavier, draw from the vicinity of the smaller clouds, and have the large or heavy clouds undisturbed.

14. If there are no clouds in the sky and clouds should be created, disturb the stillness or evenness of the OR envelope all around you by brief, sweeping draws and draw mainly against the run of the OR envelope. To create clouds you must create differences of OR energy potentials.

15. ( by PORE* ) Under no conditions should you have any electrical wires, electrical instruments of any kind, or any radioactive material near a cloudbuster during any operation. Severe health problems may result.

*http://www.orgone.org/forums/pubfrmcb96.htm

detail

RAINMAKER

CLOUDBUSTER UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Cloudbuster in progress in the backyard makeshift workshop. There is an abundance of agricultural irrigation fittings to choose from. It would be ironic if it was those very fittings which formed the device that solved the drought. Are we tempted to turn this thing on ? We shall see !

The Image below shows the back drainage nozzles which are in stunning black injection molded plastic.

It should stream in quicktime pretty quickly if you click on the link or you can download it as well .
Warning: This MP3 is 9 meg, so it might take a while to download if you are on a slow connection.
Will add compressed file soon.

Keleshnapash set.mp3

This is the first part of Sunvalley’s Damned Revolutions that Michael Morley and myself recorded in his house in Port Chalmers, way back when. This recording is 2 x 72 mins Double length CD with no track points. This the first 15 minutes or so ??? Its the software (supercollider) and guitar onto a revox 1/4 inch tape.

Damned Revolutions (first part)

This is the last section essentially for the Nihblock set at Tonic in NY, this was actually documentation of an Imepermanent audio set I think. I note that if you are running firefox it downloads the file first, this might be bad if you dont have a fast connection. The rest will be either small samples of VLF audio and such like or the remix/dj sets I have been doing here while working, which will be in MP3 format.

Study for American Modern

12:19:42 pm 123 degrees from North 17 degrees from Horizon Kellerberrin 19/07/08: FOV 78 degress Horizontal. 160 degrees Vertical L Mag 5.9:  The Black Flower.