Month: July 2016

drums of the centipede no.1

110Sigs_15-17_VT_Hill_1969_OC

…a distorted voice, coming in broken and fractured, over the last functioning closed-broadcast unit…  drums of the centipede, drums of the centipede, drums of the centipede… low-frequency buzzing and a sound like house-keys scraping slates…. a thousand low-watt bulbs flaring-up and extinguishing themselves along an endless corridor… a black crow in flight sails high above a collapsing grain elevator…

…irregular dreams in the insect compound… nine days in serpent graves… a column of ants marches across a dead field; failed crops rotting into the acrid soil… aborted reconditioning of the last water-purification units… an electrical hiss coming over the outpost address system… intermittent insect clicks and centipede limbs on soaked concrete…

…a frame-tent camp left abandoned under a rotting canopy… stone-circle campfire doused in ashy soil and leaves… foot-print pools leading in all directions between scattered refuse, plastic containers and broken branches… ripped awnings, twisted poles and tangled ropes… a small compass sinking diagonally into the sodden path…

6|6|7

fever dreams at the detection facility no.1

amrad detection facility 100616_04

low frequency modulation across the radar-field. fever dreams at the detection facility. centipedes crawl across the consoles, rattle and scratch within the air ducts. white-noise and static, morse-tapping and cut-up voice-tracks coming over the portable units.

faint shadows in the half-light as the temperature steadily rises over the long summer weeks. low drones in the long distance and the image track of rain falling on a corrugated iron awning, rusted under the endless sun. a blazing orb shimmering over the oceans of burning sand.

a giant black beetle burrows under the glinting surface, the vacuum of the absolute desert, absolute silence. walking out into the nothing-field, eyes wide open, hands out. the hammering of a worn shutter breaking free of its fastenings as the winds usher in a gathering storm.

6|6|7

geometry of a mid-town intersection no.1

White_Alice_Site,_Tropospheric_Antennas_HAER_AK-21-A-2

desert heat, and an azure sky above the hazy cement-dust air of the now-abandoned commercial district. crackling white-noise over portable radios; behind smashed windows and barred doors. sunlight glinting in the broken glass, reflecting upon rusting metal spines, prying awkwardly from piles of debris.

an image track of a bustling shopping mall flickers into tainted celluloid life on a plaster wall hosed with kerosene. happy shopper faces hiding confused ideas, bathed in uncertainty.  bags filled to the brim, tired legs, searching for the direction back towards parking lot access. a match-head ignites at one thousand frames per second; flames begin to writhe and crawl diagonally across the image.

vagaries of the street-corner architecture under extreme conditions. complex measurements amidst the fractured landscape snap-shot. slow polaroid exposures framing reinforced concrete in ascending layers. grid networks extending, intersecting; steadily failing across the system. we set up camp on the roof of an office block overlooking a burnt-out gas station.

6|6|7