Audigraft at OVADA

I'm standing in OVADA's empty warehouse space, buffeted between two sonic installations. Upstairs, snippets of speech, laughter, jingles and electronic twitterings are emitted from an array of tiny, tinny speakers. I'm reminded of 90s samplists like Meat Beat Manifesto (who's use of commercials and public service announcements has been influential) and Scanner (who appropriated private conversation using a CB radio). The artist here, Ben Gwilliam, studies at Oxford Brooke's. It's apocalyptic, deranged and unnerving; the sound of civilisation breaking down. 

The other, constant, rumbling, thunderous noise  comes from an imposing circular tower of cardboard boxes. Walking inside through an opening, the sound is less organic, more fractal; the appearance of thousands of ping pong balls on wires attached to motors create a link to the rumble machines of futurist Luigi Russolo.  Another visitor compared it to a giant hive, invisible workers beavering meaninglessly away, producing nothing but sound.  It's empty, hollow, sinister. Its creator, Zimoun, is from Bern, Switzerland, and is interested in that tension between the natural and mechanical in modern life.

The most inventive and complex of the sound installations is a Lego Technics construction which constantly churns out acid techno. 

The device, built by Alex Allmont, resembles the set of a Sci fi film, rows of gears and moving parts made out of colourful Lego blocks. The hundreds of cogs and mess of wires and chips are plugged into an M303 which was used for tracks like Josh Winks Higher State of Consciousness and Chime by Orbital. Here it creates languidly evolving soundscapes thanks to the mechanisms slowly, almost imperceptibly, twisting its banks of knobs.  It's a clever, whimsical piece, and the sounds it makes are as hypnotic as the colourful, intricate machinery that produces them.

Also in this collection of sound generating devices is a recording of Christina Kubisch's magnetic sound recordings, made with specially doctored magnetic headphones which pick up the constant fluctuation of electromagnetic waves in our environment. Hear you can hear recordings from a bank, "public transport" and a sinister of a security system. Her work can be further explored over the next week by visiting Oxford Brookes  university.

These pieces are part of audiograft, an annual celebration of sonic sculpture and experimental music.