Dead Songs

Deadsongs is a body of research work based on a collection of 12-inch records, which have been buried, exhumed, and transformed into beautiful and tragic slates of dissolved phonic information.

Justn Wiggan has been exploring the content of these dead records by sonic investigation of the surface decay in which exhumed vinyl records that have been buried will be given one last chance to reveal their swan song. The work based around the sonic investigation of a collection of 12 inch records which have been buried outside for one year, and explores death as a starting point for creativity, the effects of the natural world on sound, and the resulting emotional responses. The records have some areas untouched by decay and others obliterated by it, and consequently present Wiggan with the challenge of not knowing the content of the discs before they begin.

“Witness the deterioration of melody into harsh noise as medicine, the blurt of recognized data into the unwanted fetish of nostalgia and the desire for the end.”