In (re-)search of the SONIC WEIRD | Paranormal sound art

The primary mission of the Secret Laboratory is to use materials derived from field recordings to create soundscape compositions that capture and convey the sonic anomalies of paranormal and folkloristic phenomena and the atmospheric, electromagnetic and auratic conditions arising from them.

Using a variety of recording methods and processing techniques, the focus is on specific topographical and architectural sites of known hauntings, with an aim to collecting the sonic residues of ghosts, cryptids, poltergeists, phantasmata, fey folk, goblins, superstitions and UFOs, and adapting them to an experimental field of speculative sonic investigation.

The scope is to create a soundtrack for the folkloristic legacies of North East Scotland and beyond, and to bring them to life through the material contexts of composition, presentation and active listening.

Sonifying the electromagnetic superspectrum

On a similar note, the Secret Laboratory collects field operations that investigate the invisible acoustic parameters of the electromagnetic spectrum, using a specially-adapted wideband radio receiver, a VLF radio receiver and a biofeedback galvanometer to gather sonic materials from anomalous sites of electromagentic activity (transmission masts, electricity substations, hydrodams, pylons, abandoned cold war facilities, radar installations, weather stations, and natural phenomena like thunder storms, aurora borealis, solar winds, and bioelectric organisms).

It is within the scope of the project to show that such sonic investigations of the electromagnetic spectrum may lead to an accumulation of sound-induced auratic glimpses into the superspectrum as theorised by John Keel. It is possible that such places of concentrated electromagnetic activity may actuate ruptures or seepages in the material order through which a variety of superspectral phenomena may reveal themselves as audibly perceptible presences, forces, manifestations, beings or entities.

In this direction you will find various ACOUSTIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE WEIRD >>>

Ghostloristics - Ghost mapping the weird and the eerie through enigmatic portals of sound > ENGAGE

Electrosferics - Ether mapping electromagnetic sites of quantum level sonic activity > ENGAGE