From Signal to Decay: Volume 1 was the first solo exhibition in a UK institution by composer, artist and sound designer Trevor Mathison. The presentation comprised an ambitious sound installation, drawings, archival material, sculpture, video, and live performance.

In the months leading up to this exhibition, Mathison undertook a sonic investigation of the Goldsmiths CCA building, producing numerous recordings using an Ambisonic microphone. These samples were periodically played back in the first basement gallery, reverberating with the architecture and providing a constant signal with which the sound pieces in other gallery spaces could converse and collide. In the Oak Foundation Gallery, a number of compositions – selected from Mathison’s archive, were reconfigured and combined with new sounds, while in the back basement a video work, shot in Scotland and featuring an independent soundtrack, was on display. In an adjacent corridor, a microphone provided a live feed from outside the building, picking up sounds from New Cross Road. Mathison’s sound installation played the building back to itself, using its open and porous layout as an opportunity to mix different sounds into a multi-layered, mutating composition.

Curated by Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom and Oliver Fuke.

The work later toured with new iterations to Peltz Gallery 2023, Birkbeck ('From Signal to Decay: Volume 3), Argos, Belgium 2023 ('From Signal to Decay: Volume 4) & Atelier Nord, Oslo, Norway 2023 ('From Signal to Decay: Volume 6).

X2 Vinyl Records ('From Signal to Decay: Volume 2 & Volume 5) & book (release date TBC) have been produced from this project. Essay text by Kodwo Eshun in Volume 2 and Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom & Oliver Fuke in Volume 5.

Curated by Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom & Oliver Fuke

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/38443