Delicate Instruments - CAMP Research Residency

Gabrielle Hoad & Megan Calver | Delicate Instruments (work in progress) | 2023

My CAMP Research Residency with Megan Calver is now concluded, but the ‘Delicate Instruments’ work we conceived while supported by them (and our insightful critical friend Kate Paxman) continues.

The two-month residency proved to be an invaluable and intense period of collaborative research and making, and also gave us the opportunity to share our findings with the public in the extraordinary surroundings of the historic Devon & Exeter Institution.

We used our time to explore the work of Alec Harley Reeves (1902 -1971). Reeves was a brilliant engineer, who also conducted experiments to test psychical phenomena. By reconstructing some of those experiments, we’ve been seeking new ways to connect with the more-than-human.

We began our research process thinking about Reeves’ pioneering work in digital communications and how he had applied his engineer’s rigour to “mechanising the process of mediumship” as his colleague Richard Epworth put it.  As a radio and telecommunications engineer, Reeves spent his professional life attempting to extract signals from unwanted ‘noise’, and his digital innovations were one way of achieving this. However, when it came to the paranormal, Reeves seemed to be attempting to deliberately generate random ‘noise’, assuming that ‘spirit’ would be able to influence it and that, when properly translated, it would convey meaningful messages. Reflecting contemporary developments in science and technology, these experiments involved everything from Geiger counters to cathode ray tubes.

As new work evolves from this residency, we’re hoping to take our discoveries about Reeves back out into the landscape and to tune in to the ‘noise’ emanating from the more-than-human.

This work was supported by the CAMP Research Residency. CAMP is a member-led support and professional development network for artists, arts producers, curators and arts writers in Devon and Cornwall www.camp-membership.org

Delicate Instruments Event

Gabrielle Hoad & Megan Calver | Delicate Instruments | 2023

Join me and Megan Calver at the atmospheric Devon & Exeter Institution to explore the paranormal experiments of Alec Harley Reeves (1902-1971). Reeves was a brilliant engineer, a pioneer of digital communication and the inventor of a World War II radio navigation system called Oboe; he also devised many practical experiments to demonstrate psychical phenomena. We've used our recent CAMP Research Residency to explore these experiments as a cue to finding new ways to tune into hidden signals from the more-than-human. This is an interactive session with opportunities to experience some of Reeves’ methods and the hints they give of multiple ways of knowing. There is time included towards the end of the session for informal discussion, with refreshments provided.

Delicate Instruments
Saturday 22nd April 2023, 5.30pm - 8.30pm
Devon & Exeter Institution, 7 Cathedral Close, Exeter EX1 1EZ
Open to all, free but booking via CAMP essential

If you can’t attend in person, you are encouraged to participate remotely in one of the experiments. Download the instructions

CAMP is a member-led support and professional development network for artists, arts producers, curators and arts writers in Devon and Cornwall www.camp-membership.org