A Sea of Goons

Work • 2009 • Multi-speaker sound installation

Featured as part of Week of Speakers 2009, A Sea of Goons takes the absurdity and surrealism of the BBC's The Goon Show to a new level, by presenting all the episodes of the show's fifth series simultaneously, each episode on its own speaker.

By presenting the material in this way, A Sea of Goons creates a relentless sonic mass, spatialised around the performance area, with the show's regular structure appearing "smeared" as ordered events occur offset at different times. The end of the piece is marked by a gradual defusing of tension, with varying show lengths stripping away the mania until just one episode remains playing, itself soon to conclude.

The (as of yet) only airing of A Sea of Goons took place in the atrium of the University of Huddersfield's Creative Arts Building, and was played using University of Huddersfield Music Department's HISS. A short summary video of that airing, filmed by Scott Hewitt, is presented below.

  • multi-channel
  • The Goon Show
  • installation

Updates [ 1 ]

  • AJ | Works | A Sea of Goons | Week of Speakers, A Sea of Goons

    Week of Speakers, A Sea of Goons

    23 Jun 2009 • A Sea of Goons

    Week of Speakers, the multi-day celebration of electroacoustic transducers, sees the premiere of Adam Jansch's monstrous A Sea of Goons. It airs on Tuesday in the atrium of the Creative Arts Building, University of Huddersfield.