Design for music, retail and cultural projects, alongside installation, sound and text-based art.︎︎︎Scroll down for selected work.
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Studio
improvisation
08.08.26 -09.08.26
︎︎︎Sound/Art installation
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︎Client – self-initiated
︎Role – artist
Artists statement –
Title – Studio improvisation 08.08.26 – 09.08.26 – David Barrington 2026
Two circular mirrors, polystyrene beads, blue and red light and a layered electronic drone establish a spatial field between microscopic and cosmic scales. The installation considers the sublime as an effect of unstable scale, positioning the self as relational and permeable.
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Wanting to push my creativity as far as I can, after a series of positive and negative personal challenges this year, I wanted to see if I could improvise a sound and sculpture installation in under four days.
Beneath the offices where I work are a series of audio studios for burgeoning musicians. I have known the studio owner for over twenty years, when he told me they were moving out. I negotiated to use one of the empty spaces over a weekend.
Far from a sterile white cube, each studio has LED lighting around the walls, with hue control. So a very loaded space, but that’s what made it interesting.
So this wasn’t a public exhibition, more an opportunity to see what I could do if pushed, establish my practice and document the evidence for future work.
Very big thank-you to Dominic for so kindly letting me use the space!
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︎︎︎Press play to hear the accompanying audio piece
︎︎︎Installation details
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A selection of
sound pieces.
︎︎︎Audio
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︎Client – self-initiated
︎Role – artist
A selection of sound pieces.
These early stand-alone works explore of how different technologies can determine the composition of he piece whilst still remaining evocative.
I’ve chosen these particular ones as they still resonate with me today. It’s been fascinating to write about them, unpicking connections I wasn’t aware of at the time I made them, and placing them into a more theoretical framework.
01
Harmonic drift piece
for Korg Prophecy.
34 minutes 44 seconds.
Improvised in one take on a Korg Prophecy synthesiser. A single key is sellotaped down, leaving both hands free to slowly retune the two oscillators so they drift in and out of phase, while delay and chorus are adjusted in real time.
As they drift, they pass through moments of pure tuning, a similar set of techniques that both Terry Riley and Tony Conrad spent decades exploring. Though built on a single note, the piece never settles, harmonically or emotionally: a metastable state, in Gilbert Simondon's sense, charged with potential it never fully resolves.