Geraldine Swayne and Jude Montague explore the light and dark in the visions of John Logie Baird. Expanding his narrative out into the esoteric historical landscapes of Sussex, this adventure takes place through visual and audio transmissions alongside paintings, and uses dream logic to follow his mechanical and electrical journey to the moon above us.
Locations used for the exhibition痴 filmic elements include the follies of local philanthropist and slave-owner anti-abolitionisa church spire, yet it is modelled on the loaves of sugar from the trade which financed Fuller痴 estate. The pyramids of both Fuller’s funerary monument and that of Decimus Burton draw on traditions of Western magic including sacred geometry and geomancy.
Hastings has fostered technological activity and esoteric ideas for generations. It has been said that the town has a strong occult presence, of which the most famous example is its ex-resident, the notorious magician Aleister Crowley, who founded the religion of Thelema and who is known for his practice of what some term black magic. Inventors drawn to Hastings include codebreaker Alan Turing and of course Baird, who came to the town for his health and developed his prototype of television here.
A highlight of the exhibition is a facsimile of letters concerning John Logie Baird’s accidental self-electrocution in his development of mechanical-electrical transmission technology. The originals are in the HMAG archive.
TRANSMISSIONS curator Oli Rogers (also HMAG Visitor Services Manager) is a writer and artist with an interest in the intersection of esoterica and technology.
The artist, writer and actor Julian Firth appears alongside Jude Montague in films created by Geraldine Swayne.
