My work incorporates elements of sound, video, sculpture, installation, performance and collage. I draw inspiration from a variety sources and objects including cassette tapes, phonographic records, field recordings, noise and utilising non-musical materials/objects in sound production. My approach is playful, experimental and collaborative – taking an approach akin to the methodology employed by Fluxus and Dada artists.
I also build experimental sound boxes/instruments and upcycled microphones for UK and international musicians, artists and performers.
Since 2009 I’ve provided a variety of workshops/drop-in sessions (with an emphasis on sound), audio guides and sound-based elements in exhibition spaces for museums.
Other projects I’m involved with include running DIY record label Quagga Curious Sounds and recording experimental music (noise, drone, ambient and lo-fi) under my own name and several other aliases. I also form one half of the drawing/zine/mail art duo Ridge & Scrase; and from 2008 – 2015 was a member of the Norwich-based artist collective other/other/other.
For bookings or more information please use the contact page on this site.
FORTHCOMING / CURRENT
Norfolk Broads Holiday 60 Seconds Radio
SOLO AND COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITIONS
Pop-Up Solo Exhibition, Norwich DIY Record Fair, The Common Rooms, St Laurence’s Church, Norwich, 14 Nov 2015
Knit Loop and Grate, Other Worlds Festival of Experimental Music and Sound Art, Abingdon Street Studios, Blackpool, 11 – 12 April 2015
Echoes of Movement, Ridge & Scrase exhibition and mini residency, Yallops Gallery, Norwich, 1 – 2 June 2013
Cassette Works, Nunns Yard Gallery, Norwich, 22 – 28 June 2012
RESIDENCIES
Stretch & Burn, Dove Street Studios Project Space, Hosted by Dyad Creative, Norwich, Jan – Feb 2018
Build Your Own: Tools for Sharing, Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, various days between 3 Oct 2015 – 3 Jan 2016
GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Anxious Loop Fantasy, Radiophrenia 2023, Aug 2023
Bowthorpe Marsh Loops, 60 Seconds Radio (9th Edition), 2023
Avian Xerox (Magenta and Yellow), WINGS International Juried Online Art Exhibition, Wild Heart Gallery (USA), Oct 2022
One Second Crash Silent Anti Cassette Tape, One-Off Moving Image Festival, The Wrong Biennale #5 & Leap Second Festival, Noemata, 1 Nov 2021 – 1 March 2022
Empty Predawn Gaze: Radiophrenia 2022, Feb 2022
Dread Creeping Through Cracks In Stone (Radio Edit): Radiophrenia 2020, 16 Nov 2020
Noise Jam for Coil Spring Instrument and Metal Tray, Mrož Fest 2020: virtual festival organised by DRMK (Collective for Development of Youth Culture), Slovenia, Oct 23 – 25 2020
Norcal Noisefest 2020: virtual festival, video/sound performance, USA, Oct 2-4 2020
Undocumented Happening For CD-R, Undocumented Events and Object Permanence, Noemata, 2020
Mid-Afternoon in Our Garden, The Great John Cage Project – In Lockdown Podcast, 22 April 2020
Double Density: A Compact Journey Into Floppy Disk Substance, Floppy Totaal, Varia, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 19 Oct 2019
Dadada anti-CDr: Dada / Fluxus / Mail Art Exhibition, Exit11 Contemporary Art, Grand-Leez, Namur, Belgium, 15 Sept – 10 Nov 2019
Xerox Show: curated by The Photocopy Club, Hart Club London, 15 Aug 2019
Broken Record Prints, 6×6 Exhibition, Rochester Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA, 1 June – 14 July 2019
Field Cuts, THE CLUNKER art vending machine, Playhouse Bar, Norwich, 17 May – 1 June 2019
All Work & All Play, AIR Gallery, Altrincham, Manchester, 28 June – 28 July 2019
Latex Eden C90, UNCENSORED Festival Exhibition, The Old Baths, London, 17 – 19 May 2019
Acrostics Meet (Radio Edit Version) with Hal McGee, Radiophrenia 2019, Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts, 13 May
Alpine Choughs Feeding, Mixtape #IWA, Recital Room, PJ Carroll Building, Dundalk IT, Ireland, 7 – 8 March 2019
Luggage Lock Lathe Cut Locked, It Sounds Devicive!, Fringe Arts Bath, May 25 – June 10 2018
Inherited Home Recording (Enlarged 41%), Inheritance: Norwich Castle Open Art Show, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, 3 March – 20 May 2018
Listen., Studio 20, Norwich, 26 – 28 April 2017
The Balcony of the Best Exotic Geranium Hotel collab w/ Mark Smith (Norfolk & Norwich Association for the Blind) and Karl Foster, ‘Small Stories: At Home in a Dolls’ House’, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, 4 March – 25 June 2017
Nightingale Sandpaper Loop #1 (Sample), Audiograft Festival Jukebox, Oxford, 7 – 19 March 2017
Corrupted Video File (One Second Minimal Glitch Aesthetic Study), One Second DVD Glitch Loops and One Second / One Heartbeat, Leap Second Festival, online exhibition/event, curated by Ars Publica/noemata and Browserbased Group, December 31st 2016 23:59:60 UTC
Turntable Cactus Needles, Streetlight Video Installation Series, Roman Susan Art Space, Chicago, USA, 5 – 30 Dec 2016
Water Damaged Tape Flow, ‘WATER’ single channel video call curated by Crystal Heiden, Bridgeport Art Trail, Bridgeport CT, USA, 12 Nov 2016
God Save The Compressed Queen and The Crank (Acoustic Phonograph Version), Lightworks 2016 Festival, Freeman St Flats, Grimsby, 15 Oct 2016
Urban Garden Survey (for Audio Cassette), Sound Yard, Nature vs Nuture: Shaping the Urban Landscape, IKLECTIK Art Lab, London, July – Aug 2016
Every Rose Bush Has Its Thorn(s), Ice Cream (Cone) and The Lightly Salted Tortilla Chip I Heard In Tijuana Volume 3
An Evolving Thesis, online exhibition residency program, July – Aug 2016
Sound Art Breakfast Experience, [Live] Art Club, Egg Festival Café, Norwich Arts Centre, 16 May 2016
Every Rose Bush Has Its Thorn(s) and God Save The Compressed Queen, ‘Them’ Lemonade Gallery online exhibition and event, 22 April & 3 May 2016
Phonosheet Deconstruction, Cicada Consort Marathon: Music of the Living, by the Living, for the Living, University of Alabama, Moody Concert Hall and Recital Hall, USA, 26 March 2016
Rose Bird Thorn Song, Kinokophonography Night, British Library, London, 27 May 2015
Musique Concrète Fan Three, New Works Exhibition, Yallops Gallery, Norwich, 25 – 28 March 2015
Micro Card Play, Kinokophonography Night, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, USA, Sept 8 2014
71 Second Solo Performance For VHS, In the Frame Exhibition #1, Yallops Gallery, Norwich, 2014
Solo for Voice, Body and Microcassette Recorder, Music, Embodiment and the Body, Sounds Sonic Festival, firstsite, Colchester, 2013
Tree Branch, Walking Wiltshires White Horses, Creative Wiltshire, 2013
Scratched DVD, Lightworks Festival, Grimsby Minster, Abbey Walk Gallery and Gate Gallery, Grimsby, 2013
Sparkler, Audiograft Festival Jukebox, Oxford, 2013
Adam of your Labours, Sound Devices n.1, Rathmines Library, Dublin, Ireland, 2013
Strawberry Lace C1, Open Source, Soup Lab Gallery, Norwich, 2013
2 Minutes of Pink Noise, Humor; Analog Humor, Tipton Gallery, Johnson City, USA, 2012
Switch Off, Lightworks Festival, Grimsby Minster, Abbey Walk Gallery and Gate Gallery, Grimsby, 2012
A Weekend of Art That’s Difficult to Describe, group exhibition w/ other/other/other, Unit 5 Gallery, Norwich, 2008
A recording of the ambient sounds in this room was made…, Degree Show, Norwich School of Art & Design, 2008
Nothing on TV, The Nothing and the Nothingness: A Happening, Louise T Blouin Institute, London, 2008
Dripping Water, Selected Affinities, Outpost Gallery, Norwich, 2007
Superland, Bally 07, Bally Shoe Factory Site, Norwich, 2007
Auditory De/Construction Integration Programme, (collab w/ Holly Sutton), The Factory Show, Bally Shoe Factory Site, Norwich, 2006
GROUP MAIL ART EXHIBITIONS:
Kurt Schwitters Mail Art Project Exhibition: Día. – Raum für Automedialität, Kötnerholzweg 13, Germany, 15 Sept- 20 Oct 2019
Distorted Landscape Postcard, Dystopia Mail Art Exhibition, 11 – 18 January 2019, Kafkas University, Turkey
Distorted Landscape Postcard, Big Apple IV Mail Art Show, The New York Boyer Foundation, New York Public Library, 1 Nov – 30 Nov 2018
Long Live the Art! 3rd International Mail Art Exhibition, curated by Tamara Jelaca, Droitwich Library, Droitwich Spa, 2 – 31 Aug 2017
Bocksbeutel Flexi, Mail Art Bocksbeutel, Viehmarktplatz in the building of Schreinerei Heinickel, Hammelburg, Germany, 4 June – 17 July 2016
Trash Noise Music, TRAssshART exhibition #1, Post 21, The Netherlands 14 Nov 2015 – 26 Jan 2016
Disruption Postcard, Networked Disruption, Škuc gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia, March 11 – 3 April 2015
Malerwinkelhaus Collage, Malerwinkelhaus goes Mail Art, Museum Malerwinkelhaus, Marktbreit, Germany, 26 March – 1 Nov 2015
Focus Latin America: Art is our Last Hope (as Ridge & Scrase), Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, USA Oct 1 – Nov 2 2014 and MonOrchid Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, Dec 5 2014 – Jan 12 2015
Rebellious Edge: Postcards From The Edge, Juxtaposed Gallery, London 2014
SOLO AND GROUP PERFORMANCE
Solo performance, Hundred Years Gallery, London, 24 March 2024
Vinyl Pizza DJ Party!!, [Live] Art Club, Norwich Arts Centre, 2015
other/other/other Takeover, [Live] Art Club, Norwich Art Centre, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, 2014
Unspool and Bind, [Live] Art Club, Norwich Art Centre, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, 2014
Art Heroes, Borderline Festival, STEW Gallery, Norwich, other/other/other group performance, 2013
Bow/Rub/Pluck, [Live] Art Club, Norwich Art Centre, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, 2013
Fuse, other/other/other present first/site/night, firstsite, Colchester, 2013
Kleeep-A-Kleeep Present Songbook, Stew Gallery, Norwich, 2012
Blind Date (collab w/ Kayla St Claire), A Moving Experience by other/other/other, Art in the Underbelly, The Rumsey Wells, Norwich 2011
A Good Clean Run, Commissioned by Invisible Dust, Norfolk & Norwich Festival and other/other/other, Norwich, 2011
Justified Procrastination, ShopArt!LIVE, Upper King Street, Norwich, 2011
The Comic Late Shift Sans, The Late Shift, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, 2010
Fizzy Drink, Now That’s What We Call Live Art, Norwich Arts Centre, 2010
Microphone/Drill and Listen In(ward), Live/Art/Event, Norwich Arts Centre, 2010
Longwinded in Five Parts (collab w/ Dot Howard and Holly Rumble), FIRSTS 09, Royal Opera House, London, 2009
Unnoticed Audio, Live East, Norwich Castle Museum, 2009
Amplified Dustpan and Brush, Live East Launch, Norwich Arts Centre, 2009
Longwinded in Five Parts, (collab w/ Dot Howard and Holly Rumble), SPILL Festival National Platform, National Theatre Studios, London, 2009
Longwinded in Five Parts, (collab w/ Dot Howard and Holly Rumble), other/other/other Live Art Platform, Norwich Arts Centre, 2009
Glass and Vaseline, other/other/other Live Art Platform, Norwich Arts Centre, 2008
EDUCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL WORK:
Providing technical assistance with audio guides (recording, editing and mastering) and interactive sound-based elements for the following temporary exhibitions at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery:
- The Last Voyage of the Gloucester: Norfolk’s Royal Shipwreck, 25 Feb – 10 Sept 2023
- The Paston Treasure: Riches & Rarities of the Known World, 23 June – 23 Sept 2018
- Norwich Baby House (Strangers’ Hall), 4 March – 25 June 2017
- ARTIST ROOMS: Jeff Koons, 9 May – 6 Sept 2015
- Homage to Manet, 31 Jan – 19 April 2015
- John Wonnacott and John Lessore: The Life Room and the City, Oct 2014 – Jan 2015
The Green Man: A Wintry Broadcast (soundtrack and editing), Norfolk Museums Service, winter 2021
See Me, Hear Me – Turner, Landscape and Light (soundtrack and editing), Norfolk Museums Service, 2021
Sound Scramble drop-in interactive sound based activity themed around The Paston Treasure: Riches & Rarities of the Known World, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, 30 – 31 July, 12, 14 and 20 Aug 2018
Audio accompaniment for the 12 Towers Festival Digital Exhibition, curated by Lucy McNeill, 1 – 30 June 2017
Small Story Soundscape – drop-in interactive sound workshop for families, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, 4 April 2017
Lean on a Wall / Step on a Ball, Free Family Saturday, firstsite, Colchester, 13 Sept 2014
Instant Narrative, CAN09, Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery (performer and typist) 18 July – 4 Oct 2009
TV AND RADIO COVERAGE
BBC Radio 4 – The Digital Human, The Disk (series 29), 5 June 2023
Future Radio – interview with Richard Fair, 3 April 2023
Rude Tube – Welcome to 2017: New Five Pound Note Playing a 7″ Vinyl Single featured in the top 100 list, Channel 4, 30 Dec 2017
ITV News Anglia: interview/demonstration playing vinyl records with a polymer £5 note and other objects, 12 Oct 2016
BBC Radio Norfolk: interview/demonstration playing a vinyl record with a polymer £5 note, 12 Oct 2016
BBC Radio 3 – Late Junction: The Crank (Acoustic Phonograph Version), 23 March 2016
Future Radio – Platform (Arts & Culture Show), In conservation with Susanne Anderson, 27 April 2014
Other radio stations/shows/podcasts that have played my work include: Destroy All Music (WREK 91.1 FM), Collapsing Drums, Concertzender Radio, Auricular Shelter, No Pigeonholes (KKUP-FM), Strength Through Failure (WFMU), Serious Moonlight Sonatas with Carol (WFMU) and Fae Ma Bit Tae Ur Bit Radio Show (Resonance Extra), Lost and Found Sounds (2BOB Radio 104.7FM) and KOWS (92.5 FM) Radio Summit
PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA
PAUSE published by Ali Buh bAeh (France), Aug 2024. Features an interview and several images of past cassette tape releases/objects
Extreme Music: From Silence to Noise and Everything In Between (Michael Tau), published by Feral House, Oct 2022. Features articles and images of my anti/conceptual record and tape works
Lighthouse, Issue 24, Summer 2022 (collage submissions)
TIP-TAP Issue C2, curated by Alan Dunn, April 2022
Hunden Som Vägrade Dö (Swedish fanzine), interview/article on my art and label activities, 2020
Interview in Musique Machine (webzine), June 2019
Found Home Recordings, Please Hold Magazine – Winter 2015 Home (online multimedia arts + literary magazine)
Enjoy the Other World of VHS and Music Tapes article by Anna Cryer in the Blackpool Gazette, 8 April 2015
A House Travels Around the World. The Malerwinkelhaus as a Historic Postcard View and Modern Mail Art Object by Simone Michel-von Dungern, Museum Malerwinkelhaus exhibition catalogue, Germany, 2015
Shiver, Drawing Paper #7 , Ridge & Scrase multimedia collaborative drawing submission, edition of 3000 copies, July 2014
Extinction Volume 4 review by Byron Coley, The Wire #331, Sept 2011
COLLECTIVES, COLLABORATORS AND AWARDS
‘Ridge & Scrase’
Co-founder, sonic art and drawing collaboration with interdisciplinary fine artist Elizabeth Scrase
Norwich, 2013 – present
http://scridge13.wordpress.com/
‘Other/Other/Other’
Norwich, member from 2008 – 2015
http://otherotherother.wordpress.com/
An overall honourable mention received for my work in WINGS International Juried Online Art Exhibition Oct 2022
The Drawing Prize, Diploma in Foundation Studies (Art and Design), Norwich School of Art and Design, 2005
Michael Ridge 