Adam’s Platform B radio show and events platform, Search History, combines his interest in experimental scenes across the globe with a desire to push boundaries and challenge norms – in event spaces and the airwaves alike. Through Search History, Adam has collaborated with artists across disciplinary lines, like House of Kenzo, AYA and Hard Fantasy.
Adam is devising a short performance piece that aims to confront the fragmented, chaotic and apathetic relationship we have with digital consumption.
Reflections: On Lighthouse Young Creatives, Isolation and Ideas
It feels like the other day we all gathered for the first time at Bottega Rooms to embark on this 6-month journey with Lighthouse, in much the same way that the days under lockdown seem to melt into one. I used to mourn the passing of time but increasingly I think of time as nonlinear. I revel in the anticipation of the past/s that present themselves to me, seemingly at their own will.
Through being a part of the Lighthouse Young Creatives program, I have taken ownership of my creativity and gained the confidence to think of myself as an artist in my own right. I’ve always been a lower-case “creative”, with a background playing music, doing, producing and playing at my own club nights and radio shows. My event and radio series, Search History, was born in 2018 out of a desire to showcase other people’s talent and artistry and experiment with live contexts. Search History lives on, and I’m excited for the future as I develop my own creative practice and to think about what expressions I want to make.
Search History (as a name and project) has acquired new meanings over time. While researching online subcultures at the University of Sussex, my interest in the dislocation of time and space that occurs online - and specifically in the context of forming subcultural identity - came into an even sharper focus. In many respects, the digital age was thrust upon us so quickly that we haven’t had time to think about its implications in terms of things like subcultural formations. My research was largely concerned with examining the old models through which identities are formed, giving us insight into whether their forms and shape still apply.
For the Lighthouse showcase that was originally scheduled for 8th April (inevitably cancelled due to the current COVID-19 crisis), I had devised a performance art piece that would combine my interests in digital consumption, identity and time/space. With assistance from METTE, the browsing experience would be made physical. Articles read, cat videos and Tik Toks watched and music listened to would pile on top of each other as the space became a jittery reflection of how we absorb - and consequently become influenced by - media. While in many ways the adaptation to an online-only showcase presents new possibilities for us, I remain keen to interrogate these ideas in a physical space. There is a tendency to think about digital politics digitally, something I want to challenge.
The piece will see the light of day eventually, for now I’m focusing on my work in audio. My monthly Search History show on Platform B goes on strong, and I’m taking this time locked inside to work on some sketches for podcasts and radio documentaries I will be producing. I’m ironically exercising more than before the lockdown, maybe out of the fear of becoming a blob (watch out Joe Wicks). My Mum is teaching me the Saxophone (watch out Colin Stetson) and I’m teaching her Yoga. I spent six hours re-sorting all of my DJ folders on Traktor and it didn’t save. I spent 2 hours connecting my autotuned and pitch-shifted microphone to Zoom to sing eerie T-Pain lullabies to friends. I think Hustle Culture is attempting to find a way into our homes and I’m shutting it out by doing things that invigorate me, however mundane.
