QUANTUM SOUP ORCHESTRA

... organised chaos by
Simon Le Boggit

Simon Le Boggit is a UK based multimedia artist currently focusing on distillation of “meaning” from chaos. His work has included the creation of evocatively mesmeric videos and algorithmic music teetering on the edge of chaos – where any melody, harmony and syncopation are a product of chance and the human compulsion to identify patterns.
 
Simon is especially interested in finding statistical sweet-spots where chaos and repetition (and sometimes mutation) may evoke moments of “apparent intentionality”, which feel like they must have been specifically engineered by a sentient creator rather than be a product of non-sentient chance.
 
Rather than following the virtual herd as it stampedes towards ever more complex AI (Artificial Intelligence), Simon has sought to head in the opposite direction in pursuit of AATAPS (Artificially As Thick As Pig-Shit). Just how simple can a mindless system get, while still creating sounds which (some) people will regard as music? And what happens when chaotic music sets the context for random motion, and vice versa?
 
Simon’s audio-visual compositions have been performed and shown in exhibitions and art festivals around the world including Lincoln, London, Edinburgh, Swansea, Manchester, Bath, Stockholm, Athens, Barcelona, Seoul, Vancouver and New York.
 
simon.le.boggit@hotmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/SimonLeBoggit
quantumsouporchestra.weebly.com

Exhibitionism

Artwork: THE TRANSIENCE OF NOW by Simon Le Boggit
Description: algorithmically generated music and video, for string quartet.

Event: Visions of Science Art Prize Exhibition, Andrew Brownsword Gallery, The Edge, University of Bath, UK in September-October 2018.
Artwork: DNA by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Simon Le Boggit performing DNA - a duet for Moog synthesiser and Chaotic Laptop. DNA seeks to sonically illustrate how form and structure may spontaneously emerge out of chaos, using vowels and consonants as a metaphor for simple organic molecules.
 
Event: Performance at the Cabinet of Curiosities, St Mary le Wigford Church, Lincoln, UK on the 30th June 2018.
Curated and facilitated by Robert Steadman.
Artwork: EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: A series of four pictures derived from the same photograph.
 
Event: Online 2018
Artwork: WINDY TURBINE PHASE by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: Windy Miller meets Steve Reich.
Event: This sonic artwork is Simon Le Boggit’s contribution to wireless headphone concert “sounding shore :: COAST TO COAST” during Whitstable Biennale 2018 -  day-long curated programme of live performances, installations and sonic art interventions on the beach.
Curated and facilitated by Marcus Leadley and David Rogers produced in collaboration with Goldsmiths, University of London and DIVAcontemporary STUDIO.
Artwork: SQUALLY WIND CARESSES GLISTENING SEA by Simon Le Boggit
Description: First reading of this algorithmically generated score, performed by members of the Sound of Dragon Ensemble in Vancouver, with their Taiwanese guests from the Little Giant Chinese Concert Orchestra. As the group played through the piece, they paused to improve various sections, and then continued. This recording has been created by stitching together the best bits. The piece was composed algorithmically, with every note spontaneously generated by banks of random number generators feeding into arrays of simple independent statistical equations.
Artwork: SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Simon Le Boggit’s first algorithmically composed piece for Handbells – basically a proof of concept test run.
 
Event: First “reading” of this piece by The Music Makers handbell ringers, Alford, UK, during a rehearsal, 2018.
Artwork: NameQuake by Simon Le Boggit (+ Ai Weiwei)
Description: NameQuake sonic artwork (82 speaker surround sound version) playing “tape” of Ai Weiwei’s multitracked voice.
 
Programme Note: In the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei made a 3+ hour recording emphatically reading aloud the names of 5,196 children and young people crushed to death inside collapsing school buildings of questionable construction quality. Simon Le Boggit created NameQuake by chopping up Ai Weiwei's recording into two-minute sections (the duration of the earthquake) and then playing them all simultaneously. Each utterance a death. The human cacophony is contextualised by a deep rumbling noise from a seismic recording of an earthquake. Rarely have two minutes felt so long.
 
Event: concert at BEAST FeAST – BEASTopia, University of Birmingham, UK, in April 2018.
Curated by Annie Mahtani.
Artwork: REMAINS short film music soundtrack by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Music from the soundtrack of the short film “Remains” by Ian Campbell, 2018.
Artwork: REPRODUCTIVE COERCION by Simon Le Boggit
 
Event: Online 2018
Artwork: SURFACE TENSION by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Surface Tension is a CGI animation depicting numerous human-constructed artifacts – past and present – orbiting and tumbling around the Earth. Sometimes they dance in apparent harmony, while at other times they incongruously crowd into the same physical space. The accompanying music soundtrack is an algorithmic composition, computer-generated via mindless chaos fed through an array of simple statistical equations. Technically the sound and vision are not connected, yet they complement one another – just a gentle reminder that direct cause-and-effect ganging together of various media is not the only creative approach available. Sometimes chance can be captivating.
 
Event: Seeing Sound, Bath Spa University, UK, 2018.
Curated by Joseph Hyde.
Artwork: JUST FOR ONE BRIEF MOMENT (EVERTHING SEEMED TO MAKE SENSE) by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Video accompanied by duet for MOOG synthesiser + Chaotic Laptop.
 
Event: Weird Garden, Lincoln, UK, on 23rd February 2018.
Curated by Dex Wright.
Photo by Grey Frequency
Artwork: SOUNDFALL by Simon Le Boggit
Description: acousmatic artwork creating a sonic waterfall on the 22 speaker Sound Wall array at The Collection in Lincoln, UK, accompanying the exhibition From The Land: Henry Moore, Ewan Henderson and other artists.
Curated by Ashley Gallant.
Artwork: SWEET DIVERSITY by Simon Le Boggit
Description: algorithmically composed duet for flute and violin performed in the Anathemas concert at Concrete Timbre, New York, USA.
 
Programme Note: Sweet Diversity - for Flute and Violin.
Sweet Diversity is an algorithmically generated composition in which a flute and a violin spend half of the time harmonically entangled, and the rest of the time doing their own things. Despite being generated entirely from constrained chaos, the resulting music (to my ears) seems to have the feel of a gently playful musical conversation. It’s a scenario where diversity turns out to be interesting and nourishing in its own right, rather than being something to fear.
 
“Concrete Timbre is a collective of working composers intertwining fascinating stories, movement, visuals, and media with our live contemporary music.”
 
Event: Anathemas – a concert of short compositions inspired by 7 words banned by Donald Trump: diversity, entitlement, evidence-based, fetus, science-based, transgender, vulnerable. Performed at Concrete Timbre, Olli Studio, New York City, USA, 21st January 2018.
Curated by Ann Warren.
(This recording is the computer simulated version)
Artwork: ECTOSPASM by Simon Le Boggit
Description / Event: acousmatic sonic artwork providing a wash of restless sound throughout the Movement group exhibition at Left Bank Leeds, UK, 2017.
Curated by the Left Bank Leeds team.
Artwork: NameQuake (30 loudspeaker version) by Simon Le Boggit (+ Ai Weiwei)
Description: sonic artwork playing “tape” of Ai Weiwei’s multitracked voice in concert at Sound + Environment, Hull. Performed on the 32 speaker system “HEARO” (Hull Electoacoustic Resonance Orchestra).
 
Event: In 2017, Sound + Environment brought together scientists and sound artists to illustrate how sound is being used in environmental research, how sound art is presenting environmental issues to the public in new ways, and to explore possibilities for future collaboration between sonic artists and scientists.
Curated by Rob Mackay.
Artwork: MOTHER AND CHILD VIOLATED by Simon Le Boggit
Description: sculpture made from found objects and a smart-arsed play on words.
 
Event: Deconstructed Nativity, 35 Chapel Walk Art Space, Sheffield, UK, 13th to 21st December 2017.
Curated by Naomi Gordon & Liz Rose Dickinson.
Artwork: SLEAFORD SMILIE FACE by Simon Le Boggit

Event: Hidden In Plain Sight, Open Exhibition at Carre Gallery, Sleaford, UK, 2017.


Artwork: a series of experimental ceramic abstract sculptures
Artwork: TANGLED UP IN BLUE by Simon Le Boggit

Description: abstract ceramic sculpture
 
Event: Something Blue online exhibition 2017
Curated by Sean Worrall
Artwork: SHADOW MIRROR by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: acrylic paint on canvas
 
Event: Something Black online exhibition 2017
Curated by Sean Worrall
Artwork: QUANTUM RED-SHIFT by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Quantum Red-Shift mimics the chaotic creation and cooling of energy in the universe, with particles of matter (quanta) condensing out from pure energy in its ever expanding / stretching space (red-shift). The acoustic parallel is drawn by high energy chaotic white noise being relentlessly slowed, allowing quantisation artifacts to manifest amongst an ever deepening drone. Unusually this piece of sonic art does not seek to emphasise spatialisation. Instead, all sound is generated in dry mono, thus allowing the edgy texture of sonic singularities to have their own specific and untainted moment.
 
Event: Quantum Red-Shift was one of 20 sonic artworks in “The Space of Red” group installation created by the sound artist Yulia Glukhova. Devoted to the sound representation of the colour red, this exhibit was part of the parallel program of the exhibition "Russian Red Ordinary", at the National Centre for Contemporary Art (NCCA) in Moscow, Russia, June-July 2017.
Curated by Natalia Fuchs and Yulia Glukhova.
Artwork: UTOPIATE 6 by Simon Le Boggit
Description: UTOPIATE 6 is the 6th variation in the UTOPIATE pseudo-choral series, which were all generated / grown from the same algorithmic seed. The music has been spontaneously generated by banks of random number generators feeding into a matrix of simple statistical equations. Each primary “quantum” note is generated in isolation and then subjected to repetition and mutation. All musical activity within the piece is non-sentient. Any emergent melody, harmony and syncopation in his compositions are a product of chance, and the human brain’s compulsion to identify patterns.  
 
Event: acousmatic algorithmic composition in group exhibition New Day Music @ SONISCAPE, Yongin Poeun Art Gallery, Seoul, South Korea, 19th August 2017.
Artwork: QUANTUMISED BEIJING DRUM TOWER by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Quantumised Beijing Drum Tower was created by isolating full single drum-hits from an original recording of a performance, and using them as individual sound samples. Each sample is triggered randomly in isolation, and then repeated a few times. Any apparent connection between adjacent drum-hits is purely coincidental, so any perceived rhythm and syncopation is a product of chance, plus the human mind’s compulsion to identify patterns.
 
Original Sound Source: a field recording by Mark Wilden of a performance inside the Beijing Drum Tower - a booming, reverb-filled temple that resounds with dozens of traditional drums.
 
Event: Cities and Memories online exhibition 2017.
Curated by Stuart Fowkes.
Artwork: SURFACE TENSION by Simon Le Boggit
Description: CGI + algorithmic soundtrack.
 
Events (2017):
 
FUSE Ättiksfabriken Art Space in collaboration with Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden.
 
Segnali audi-visual festival in Perusia, Italy.
 
Balance – Unbalance (A Sense Of Place). a 360 degree projection with surround sound in the Fulldome at Plymouth University.
Artwork: UTOPIATE by Simon Le Boggit

Description: algorithmic choral composition
 
Event: group exhibition The End Is By Yur (Expedition Into The Afterlife), Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK.
Curated by Ann Jordan
Artwork: THE SORTING OFFICE by Simon Le Boggit
Description: The bells of the Church of St. Thomas the Martyr, Bristol, UK, with “reimagined” shifting pitches by Simon Le Boggit: "I chose this recording due to the clarity of its bells. It strikes me that church bells not only summon church-goers to worship, they also intrude upon the lives of any non- church-goers who happen to be within earshot – a relentless reminder of the simple notion that some dead people get to ascend to heaven, whereas the rest descend into hell. I have attempted to inject that simplistic mindset into the audio itself, by bending the pitch of each bell upwards or downwards."
 
Event: Cities and Memories online exhibition 2017: “Sacred Spaces examines the crucial role sound has played in our spiritual and religious lives for thousands of years, and explores the sonic similarities between different religions, and different types of sacred space from across the world.”
Curated by Stuart Fowkes.
 
Original Sound Source: Belfry of Church of St Thomas the Martyr, Bristol, UK.
Recorded by Nick St. George, with thanks to the Churches Conservation Trust.
Artwork: DANGK by Simon Le Boggit
Description: An adapted version of the Sound Waves group project featuring DANGK, the audience were allowed to interact physically with the sounds in the exhibition space, exploring how sonic memory can differ from what we hear at any given time or place.
 
Event: physical installation of Cities and Memory: Liquid at Art Quarter, Budapest, Hungary, 2017.
Curated by Laura Denning
Artwork: HELLO GOODBYE by Simon Le Boggit
Description: A short video in which Simon Le Boggit inadvertently finds himself at the top of a ladder at the centre of a swirling swarm of bees.
 
Event: 44AD – 48 HOURS, where artists have just 48 hours to create an artwork, 19th June 2017.
Curated by Len Four-o
Artwork: REFLECTIONS ON WATER by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Video showing drops of rain falling onto shallow waves in a sea harbour. The accompanying music is an algorithmically generated composition for Acoustic Guitar Septet. Although technically unconnected, both sound and vision may feel symbiotic due to their common routes into chaos, repetition and mutation. As such, there may arise moments when the audio and visuals feel like they were "meant to be together".
 
Event: Online 2016.
Artwork: DAWN CHORUS PERCEPTION by Simon Le Boggit
Description: An hour in length, this is an electronically manipulated field recording of English birdsong at sunrise. Multiple layers of that recording, simultaneously played back at lower and lower speeds, offer some insight into how smaller animals and birds with higher metabolic rates may perhaps perceive the world around them.
 
Event: Part of the Timeframe group exhibition during Fringe Arts Bath, UK, May / June 2016.
Curated by Melissa Wraxall.
 
Here is an abridged 20 min version:
Artwork: UTOPIATE by Simon Le Boggit
Description: an algorithmically composed choral composition.
 
Event: Part of Fringe Arts Bath, the Utopia:Dystopia group exhibition took place in Walcot Chapel, Bath, UK, in May / June 2016.
Curated by Geoff Dunlop and Sophie Erin Cooper
Artwork: DANGK by Simon Le Boggit
Description: sonic artwork generated by slowing down the sound of a saucepan of water being struck by a wooden spoon.
 
Event: Part of Fringe Arts Bath, the Liquid group exhibition took place at Cleveland Pools in Bath, UK, in May / June 2016. It was adapted from Cities and Memory: Sound Waves online group exhibition featuring Simon’s sonic art piece DANGK.
Curated by Laura Denning.
Artwork: CLOCKWONK MECHINASM by Simon Le Boggit

Description: acousmatic algorithmic composition
 
Event: Lightworks 2016, Grimsby, UK.
Curated by Chris Lillywhite & Patrick Holley.
Artwork: NameQuake (The Loss Of Innocents) by Simon Le Boggit (+ Ai Weiwei)

Description: algorithmic composition
 
Event: performed by string quartet Quartet Metadata + “tape” of Ai Weiwei’s multitracked voice, at Concrete Timbre, New York, USA. 2016.
Curated by Ann Warren
(This recording is a computer simulated version)
Artwork: BOSCH by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: algorithmic Voice + Chamber Ensemble + Electronic Delay
 
Event: The Grandiarta Goes Jheronimus Bosch group online exhibition, 2016.
Artwork: UN CHIEN EST SOMNAMBULE by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: an algorithmic composition for classical ensemble
 
Event: Performed by Ensemble Dissous during the Satie Reconstitue birthday concert, Edinburgh, UK, 17th May 2016.
Artwork: DEWDROP MIST by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: an algorithmic composition for Chinese instruments + classical ensemble .
 
Event: performed by Sound Of Dragon Ensemble at the Roundhouse, Vancouver, Canada, during the Sound Of Dragon Festival 2016.
Curated by Lan Tung.
Artwork: DNA by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Duet for improvised Moog synthesizer + chaotic algorithmic laptop.
 
Programme Note: Simon Le Boggit will be performing a single electronic piece called DNA, which explores the way apparently meaningful patterns and structures may emerge from chaos and repetition.
 
Event: Performed at St Nicholas Church, Lincoln, UK, during the Electromatronic part of Sonophilia – Lincoln’s Festival of Sound, 2nd October 2016.
Curated by Stuart Russell and Chrissie Caulfield.
Artwork: DANGK by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: sonic art piece derived from the sound of a saucepan of water being struck by a wooden spoon.
 
Event: Café headphones installation throughout the Sonophilia – Lincoln’s Festival of Sound, 2016.
Curated by Amie Slavin.
Artwork: REAL VIRTUALITY by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: Improvised harmonica + electronic delay, broadcast via a “Sonic Helmet” mini PA system.
 
Event: The RAN TAN noise parade, opening Sonophilia – Lincoln’s Festival of Sound, 2016.
Curated by Amie Slavin
Artwork: NameQuake by Simon Le Boggit (+ Ai Weiwei)
Description: NameQuake expands upon work done by artist Ai Weiwei after he and thousands of bloggers collected the names of 5,196 children and young people who lost their lives during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 - crushed inside collapsing school buildings of questionable construction quality. The intention was to pressure the Chinese government into acknowledging the possibility that the deaths may have been a product of corruption. In response, Ai Weiwei was incarcerated and discussion stifled. Since his release, Ai Weiwei has created many artworks relating to the Sichuan earthquake and its aftermath. In 2014 he read aloud the names of the 5,196 young victims, and made this recording available for other artists to interpret. NameQuake condenses all 5,196 names into two minutes - the approximate duration of the earthquake which killed them.
 
Event: Where Is Your Humanity? group exhibition at 44AD Artspace, Bath, UK, 2016.
Curated by Laura Keenan.
Artwork: IN THE BALANCE by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: abstract painting – acrylic on wonky canvas
 
Event: THE OPEN SQUARE exhibition at Royal United Hospital Bath, 2016
Curated by Fringe Arts Bath
Artwork: DILATION by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: abstract CGI video.
 
Event: One Minute Hull, Artists Moving Image Festival (Friday 6th Nov 2015)
Curated by Kerry Baldry
Artwork: SWARM by Simon Le Boggit
Description: SWARM musically explores how the mind invents connections in order to make sense of the world. Despite the music being composed algorithmically from mindless chaos and repetition, it appears to contain moments of emergent melody, harmony and syncopation - all of which are the product of chance, and the brain's compulsive need to identify patterns. Beyond this, the music may also seem to generate moments of "apparent intentionality", where the listener finds it difficult to believe that the coherence of the composition is not the direct product of a human composer. Conversely, the accompanying video shows how the mesmerising chaos of swarming bees is actually the product of the distinct intentional behaviour of individuals. This raises the question: in music and nature, is the difference between chaos and coherence simply a matter of perspective?  The hypothesis that people appear to relentlessly derive "meaning" from chaotic patterns, opens up a further intriguing possibility: that some belief systems (such as religion) may perhaps result from inappropriate overuse of pattern-recognition, which has previously evolved in animals (including humans) as a survival strategy appropriate for the physical world.
 
Event: Circe: the Black Cut, Athens, 2015
Curated by Anna Stereopoulou.
Artwork: Sonic Arts Forum - Huddersfield 2015
 
Description: Group freeform sonic improvisation
 
Event: Sonic Arts Forum
Curated by Coryn Smethurst.
Artwork: MINDLESS VOICES by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: algorithmic stereo choral work
 
Event: premiered during Festival X-24 at X-Church, Gainsborough, UK. (12noon Sat 18 - 12noon Sun 19 July 2015)
Curated by Marcus Hammond
Artwork: VISTA by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: acousmatic algorithmic composition
 
Event: Part of the group exhibition Heaven Is A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens, at Pi Artworks gallery, London, UK, 2015.
Curated by Ash Conery.
Artwork: ASCENT (666) by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: algorithmic double-surround-sound 12 channel choral work.
 
Event: World premiere in the Sound | Place exhibition inside St James Hatcham Church, Goldsmiths University, London, UK, 2015.
Curated by Sandra Ka.
Artwork: SOME ALGORITHMICALLY COMPOSED MUSIC by Simon Le Boggit

WE ARE ALL RIPPLES IN A QUANTUM SOUP - a distillation for Orchestra


SUNNY RAINDROPS - a distillation for Solo Piano


  STRANDED (aka THE LOSS OF INOCENTS) - a distillation for String Trio


ANTICIPATION - a distillation for Orchestra


SONIC MANDALA - a distillation for Indian Ensemble


OUTBACK INFRONT - a distillation for Australian Ensemble
Artwork: DANGK by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: DANGK is an electronically manipulated field recording  of a saucepan of water being hit by a wooden spoon.


Collaborative Artwork: SOUND WAVES by various artists (incorporates DANGK).
Description: Cities and Memory: Sound Waves featured a collaborative 30 minute sonic tapestry woven from 38 "re-imagined" sound pieces (DANGK being one of them) contributed by sonic artists from around the world. “Cities and Memory is a sound project that records both the present reality of a place and its imagined, alternative counterpart.”
 
Event: Cities and Memory: Sound Waves sound composition for the “water” themed World Listening Day 2015.
Curated by Stuart Fowkes.
Artwork: REFUGE FROM CHAOS by Simon Le Boggit
Description: REFUGE FROM CHAOS illustrates how chaos may sometimes create something greater than the sum of its parts. It is an algorithmically generated composition where each musical note is created in isolation, uninfluenced by other notes. Those notes come from random numbers fed through an array of statistical equations / algorithms which form a sort of Law of Musical Quantum Physics. By pure statistical chance, moments of apparent coherence between notes (such as melody, harmony or syncopation) may spontaneously emerge. This composition is for an ensemble of three Middle Eastern instruments: Nay (end-blown flute), Kanoon (zither), and Duduk (double-reed woodwind instrument).
 
Event: Contributing to the No Room 2015 downloadable album by Sound Collective for the homeless charity Shelter.
Curated by Stuart Russell.
Artwork: HAPPY DEATHDAY by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: CGI picture.
 
Event: A BOOK ABOUT DEATH, The Royal Cambrian Academy, Oriel Gallery, Conwy, Wales, 18th October to 15th November 2014.
Artwork: TALES FROM THE FIGMENT CLUB by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Debut of TALES FROM THE FIGMENT CLUB – Simon Le Boggit’s post-punk band MENTAL HEALTH playing a one hour show against a backdrop of his surreal videos – it was the closing show of GNARL-fest 2014, Festival of Live Performance and Video, Lincoln, UK.
 
Event: GNARL-fest 2014 - Festival of Dance and Video.
Curated by Fenia Kotsopoulou.
 
MENTAL HEALTH website: healthilymental.weebly.com
Artwork: QUANTUM SOUP ORCHESTRA MALE VOICE CHOIR by Simon Le Boggit
Description: On-the-fly algorithmic choral performance for solo voice + 52 channel electronic delay, performed inside an inflatable Sound Spiral. Solo singer Simon Le Boggit’s voice was electronically repeated until its growing layers created the glorious cacophony of a full choir. This effect was achieved within the remarkable environment of the 52-audio-channel SoundSpiral. The algorithmic music composition itself was instantaneously computer generated throughout the performance, with Simon receiving instructions about which notes to sing via earphones. The installation was augmented by a computer generated virtual Quantum Soup Orchestra, which algorithmically played orchestral sound samples kindly made available by the Philharmonic Orchestra.
 
Event: GNARLfest Festival of Performance and Video, Lincoln, UK, 31st October 2014.
Curated by Fenia Kotsopoulou and Daz Disley.
Artwork: THEREFORE by Simon Le Boggit
Description: This audio-poem is “perpetual” in the sense that it organically mutates and regenerates itself from a “stanzacloud” of verse, as Simon explains: 
 
“I originally wrote the static poem THEREFORE back in the 1980’s. I was suffering from a very painful mystery disease, which was later diagnosed as a form of spinal arthritis. The poem was my rather futile effort to express the mind-altering state that can arise from relentless pain, fatigue and uncertainty. Although I was happy enough with the resulting poem, I did feel that there was more to say… but finding a way to express it seemed like an impossible task.
 
More recently, modern advances in computer technology have allowed me to revisit THEREFORE, and use it as the nucleus for a broader piece of audio work. Each whispered line of the poem is relentlessly shifting in relation to every other line, so the poem is endlessly renewing itself. With each phrase expressed in a variety of new contexts, this is as close as I’ve got to being able to express a state of mind where physical and psychological suffering shifts the goalposts so randomly and rapidly that you don’t know what you are – let alone who you are, where you are, or where you are going…”
 
Simon feels that the toilet is a particularly apt location for THEREFORE to be heard because going to the loo is the one time and place in humdrum daily life where none of us can escape the fact that, ultimately, we are slaves to our own biology.
 
Event: World premiere of Simon’s computer manipulated perpetual poem THEREFORE, installed as an endless whisper emitting from the false ceiling in Lincoln Drill Hall toilets throughout Sonophilia 2014 – Lincoln’s Festival of Sound.
Curated by Amie Slavin.
Artwork: QUANTUM SOUP by Simon Le Boggit
Description: QUANTUM SOUP an algorithmic composition by Simon Le Boggit for orchestra, here performed experimentally using orchestral sound samples. Recent technological developments are allowing Simon to fully embrace the possibilities of algorithmic music, video and text manipulation as a means to explore how the apparent intentionality of “meaningful” moments can spontaneously emerge out of chaos. This piece of music is essentially an early proof-of-concept, from which Simon is further developing his algorithmic compositional techniques, under the umbrella of his QUANTUM SOUP ORCHESTRA project - the aim being to create genuinely listenable and enjoyable self-generating music to be performed by real ensembles ranging anywhere from solo instrument to full orchestra.
 
Event: UK premiere of QUANTUM SOUP algorithmic music video at METANAST 2014, MediaCityUK, Salford, UK.
Curated by Coryn Smethurst.
Artwork: THINGS I NEED by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: Video of Simon Le Boggit’s song THINGS I NEED accompanied by lively old archive film footage, for his post-punk band / project MENTAL HEALTH.
 
Event: THINGS I NEED video at Lightworks 2014, Grimsby Town Hall, UK.
Curated by Chris Lillywhite & Patrick Holley.
 
MENTAL HEALTH website: healthilymental.weebly.com
Artwork: SAF Free Improv Session
 
Description: Freeform sonic improvisation with no shared preconceptions.
 
Event: Sonic Arts Forum, Grimsby, 27th April 2013
Curated by Coryn Smethurst.
Artwork: “Heroes” by Simon Le Boggit (+ David Bowie & Brian Eno)
Description: Compiled & edited by Simon Le Boggit, this is a montage of multicamera video images shot during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations of late 2011. The Bowie-Eno song "Heroes" is performed here by Simon's band MENTAL HEALTH. Neither the audio recording of the track nor the video are intended for commercial release. They were both simply a labour of love and respect (corny but true).

Event: Online 2012.
 
MENTAL HEALTH website: healthilymental.weebly.com
Artwork: by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: Atheistic CGI video BOMBASTIC MIND projected onto Grimsby Minster, UK, on Friday 16th March 2012. Part of the Lightworks 2012 exhibition.
Video & song by Simon Le Boggit - music performed by his band MENTAL HEALTH. Even the vicar applauded (one of life's great mysteries)...

Event: Lightworks 2012, Grimsby Minster, UK.
Curated by Chris Lillywhite & Patrick Holley.
 
MENTAL HEALTH website: healthilymental.weebly.com
Artwork: The Cadillac CTS-V according to Simon Le Boggit
Description: Video submitted for the MOFILM Cadillac (New York) competition 2011. The brief required the video's tone to be: "Progressive, Intelligent, Modern, Confident, Charismatic, Provocative". It didn't win.
 
Event: Video submitted for the MOFILM Cadillac (New York) competition 2011.
Artwork: SPOT THE DIFFERENCE - Easter special "Doubting Thomas" by Simon Le Boggit (+ Caravaggio)
Description: Caravaggio's "The Incredulity of Saint Thomas" (In A Parallel Universe). When does familiarity become normality? When does normality become unchallenged truth? Sometimes a slight shift in perspective is all that's needed to highlight the absurdity of truths learned by mindless rote.
 
Event: Online 2011.
Artwork: IF MY HEAD WAS A HOUSE by Simon Le Boggit
 
Description: Projection-mapped CGI video projected onto a building in central Brighton.
 
Event: Part of the Dream Machine large scale architectural animation group project at White Night Festival 2010, Brighton UK.
Curated by Kate Genevieve.
Artwork: BOMBASTIC MIND by Simon Le Boggit
Description: Simon Le Boggit’s first CGI music video, created using only legitimately free “found” software and models.
 
Programme Note:
Religion is superstition exploited on an industrial scale.
It's all in your fantastic mind - your fantastic bombastic mind...
 
Event: several international film festivals throughout 2010-2011 including:
Cabbagetown Short Film & Video Festival (Toronto, Canada)
Portobello Film Festival (London, UK)
Hitter International Film Festival (Stamford, UK)
Salford Film Festival (Salford, UK)
Red Stick International Animation Festival (Baton Rouge, USA) Stuttgarter Filmwinter (Stuttgart, Germany)
West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival (Morgantown, USA)
Melbourne International Animation Festival (Melbourne, Australia)
Bornshorts Film Festival (Bornholm, Denmark)
 
MENTAL HEALTH website: healthilymental.weebly.com
Artwork: BUSH OF GEORGE by Simon Le Boggit (+ David Byrne and Brian Eno)
Description: Simon Le Boggit’s 2006 remix of HELP ME SOMEBODY by DAVID BYRNE and BRIAN ENO, from their groundbreaking 1981 album MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS. Strongly featuring the cut-up voice of George W Bush rapping and virtually singing, this remix dominated the BUSH OF GHOSTS REMIXED charts throughout the life of the website.
 
Event: BUSH OF GHOSTS REMIXED (2006) – original 24-track recording from the album My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts by David Byrne and Brian Eno made available for remixing, 25 years after the album’s original release.
Curated by David Byrne and Brian Eno.
Artwork: A SECRET GAZE by Simon Le Boggit (+ Brian Eno)
Description: this ambient track / remix was constructed from two ambient tracks lurking amongst the original 24-track recording of A Secret Life.
 
Event: BUSH OF GHOSTS REMIXED (2006) – original 24-track recording from the album My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts by David Byrne and Brian Eno made available for remixing, 25 years after the album’s original release.
Curated by David Byrne and Brian Eno.
 
Other remixes by Simon Le Boggit may be found here, under the banner of his MENTAL HEALTH project:
https://soundcloud.com/extraordinary-renditions/sets/archivage
Artwork: MENTAL HEALTH
 
Description: Simon Le Boggit’s MENTAL HEALTH multimedia project, roughly centred around his sporadic post-punk rock band of the same name.
 
MENTAL HEALTH website: healthilymental.weebly.com
Artwork: DO THE BRIAN JONES by Slaughterhouse 5
 
Description: First 1977 recording by seminal punk band Slaughterhouse 5.
Montana Wildhack (aka Simon Le Boggit) played drums for the first (and last) time on this recording - playing guitar after that.