Audio Arts: William Furlong at Tate Britain
by Chante St Clair Inglis

In 1973 sound artist William Furlong established the cassette magazine Audio Arts. Consisting primarily of recorded conversations and interviews with artists, Audio Arts has evolved into the most comprehensive archive of artists' voices, recorded discussions on contemporary art and sound based works.

Audio Arts is the result of Furlong's fascination with the artistic dialogue that was unrepresented in written art magazines. Furlong endeavoured to create a place for this dialogue using the audio medium. This medium allowed him to create a neutral space, a space free from critics and magazine editors. Allied with this space, Furlong developed an interview technique devoid of critical analysis and aimed instead at propagating spontaneous unbiased discussion. The result, as claimed by Furlong, is a continuous conversation. He states:

Audio Arts is an ongoing conversation. I'm not a critic, so I'm not going to try and critically analyse what you do, although I want to know what you do. It's very much a continuation of the conversations we would be having, anyway. (1)

Furlong has recorded this ongoing conversation in a variety of different locations including Documenta, the Venice Biennale and numerous galleries such as Whitechapel, Serpentine and Anthony D'Offay. In each location he strives to communicate the way the artist thinks and envisages the world, believing the spoken voice to be the perfect medium for this. He maintains:

The voice is an incredibly rich medium, an incredibly rich means of communication because within the voice you have so many layers. Just to mention a few, you have, of course gender, you have humour, you have timing, you have innuendo, you can have aggression, you can have humility, you can have power, you can have vulnerability - and I could go on and on - The voice has all these elements. (2)

It is with this approach that Furlong has recorded hundreds of artists including Laurie Anderson, Frank Stella, Gerhard Richter, Douglas Gordon, Anish Kapoor and the list continues.

As the project evolved, Furlong came to consider Audio Arts as an exhibition space for art that had no form other than the playback from the recording medium. Audio Arts began to show case work by sound and performance artists and experimental musicians. This work includes one-off recordings by musicians such as Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars. Furlong also curated shows for this space. In 'Live to Air' (1982) he worked with Michael Archer, asking artists to make a five minute work that could be heard through play back. The result is a collection of intensely diverse works presented on three cassette tapes by forty-five artists who range from Lawrence Weiner to Dieter Roth. In his introduction to the collection Furlong references the unique space that these works occupy stating: In many respects this audial/technological 'space' is parallel to the physical space of a gallery, yet extends it through the potential of widespread dissemination inherent in the multiple production of cassettes and through broadcasting.

Interestingly the production of cassettes, to which Furlong refers, was initially one undertaken on his own kitchen table with a high speed duplicator. The analogue medium allowed him set up a low cost assembly line with which he could produce three ninety minute cassettes every two minutes under his own roof.

With current technology, the archive has been digitized by the Tate who purchased the analogue editions from Furlong in 2004. The digital medium provides protection from obsolescence and increases access to the recordings. For example, the current exhibition of a large section of the Audio Arts archive, at the Tate Britain, allows visitors to access four recorded hours with head phones, while online visitors can access the same material via the Tate website.

Existing as an invaluable record of artists' voices, of sound works and of immensely diverse dialogues concerning contemporary artistic issues, Audio Arts can be seen to operate as a kind of alternate art history. However, it should also be viewed as a work of art in itself. As an artist Furlong works primarily with recordings of original sounds. He never distorts these sounds but instead finds ways to juxtapose them. He aims to create works that, in his words, "refer and relate to a context, a space, to people" This corresponds directly to the ethics of Audio Arts making the publication an integral part of Furlong's own body of work.

Curated by Furlong and Andrew Glew, the exhibition 'Audio Arts: William Furlong' is on display at the Tate Britain until the 27th August, 2007. The exhibition not only allows access to a section of the archive, but also presents original letters, documentation and equipment from the Audio Arts project while contextualising the project with its contemporary art environment.

Online visitors can access clips from Audio Arts recorded between 1973 and 2006 at the following URL: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/audioarts/

(1) Bill Furlong, introduction to 'Live to Air: Artists' Sound Works, Audio Arts Magazine, Volume 5, Nos 3 & 4, London, 1982.

(2) William Furlong in 'Interview of William Furlong by Valerie Vivancos, Part 1 - Clapham Common, London, July 2004. Available at: www.vibrofiles.com/artists/artists_william_furlong.php