Tim Meacham

A Few Dollars More 2018 

Record player, light & magnifying glass

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Projected as silhouette, the piece follows the movement of a record player tone arm on its journey across the landscape of a vinyl disc. A focused beam of light directed at the meeting of the needle and surface of the record, reveals the rotating surface not to be flat, but an undulating ever-changing landscape, traversed by the magnified needle. The record player is placed on the floor of a room and the surface of the record aligned with the skirting board, echoing its circular journey round the room. The skirting board considered as a "seam" between the vertical plane of the wall and horizontal floor (needle & record) The LED light reveals the miniature world of marks and scratches telling the history of the space. The viewer is placed at floor/skirting board level. 

 

The role of the needle is considered in first embedding sound, through creating the grooves of the record, and then as a “rider" travelling across the surface landscape of the disc to release the sound trapped within. 

Viewed at eye level, the landscape of the record reveals a world within a world (like a model railway) its topography mediated through touch in order to release sound. The human, gentle physical ritual of lifting the arm to place the needle on and off the record at the beginning and end of the music, is mirrored in the movement of the tone arm itself. 

The work provides a point of haptic focus through the touch of the needle on the surface of the record, and its projected shadow on to the skirting board- suggesting a “playing” of the surface through touch. In our relationship with space, the surface is the first point of touch/contact for our eyes, ears, hands and light – the story of space is borne in its skin.  This work is one of a series using analogue records and players.