2008 World Telekinesis Competition

Team Profiles


Tactical Tape Loop Division
(EVP Unit)


The movement of air currents are capable of causing a candle to quiver or waver. Air currents are the providence of the breath of the dead. The spirits of the deceased traverse the River Styx as souls of air. In Sanskrit, prana; in Greek, psyche or the pneuma of the aura; in Latin, the animus and spiritus of being. Gathering the spirits of the dead -- their disembodied voices -- into a wind capable of influencing a candle's flame demonstrates the telekinetic power of the beyond. Two members of the dead will be marshalled for the purposes of the 2008 World Telekinesis Competition. The first member, Konstantin Raudive (1906-1974), a student of Carl Jüng, explored the 'voices of the dead' in what he called 'Electronic Voice Phenomenon' (EVP). The voices of the dead as air currents also possess electromagnetic properties; thus they are capable of leaving traces on blank tape, communicating through untuned radio crystals and speaking in the white noise of static. The Tactical Tape Loop Division (EVP Unit) is indebted to Raudive for developing the techniques of deciphering, by way of analog reel-to-reel machines and blank tape, the voices of the dead. The second member, William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), also investigated the unconscious properties of language that control the brain. To this end, with Bryon Gysin (who unfortunately is unable to participate), Burroughs developed a technique of the 'cut-up', again using analog tape, to disconnect and disrupt the Grey Room properties of control language. The third member, tobias c. van Veen (b. 1978), will combine the EVP and cut-up techniques of deceased members Burroughs and Raudive. Working together from the Beyond, Raudive and Burroughs will attempt to exert their spiritus on analog tape deciphered by van Veen. By applying the technique of the cut-up to this Electronic Voice Phenomenon, van Veen hopes to disrupt the control mechanisms of language insofar as language takes the form of material currents of air, qua the spiritus of dead members Raudive and Burroughs, and thereby, and of course telekinetically, directing this spirited wind from the location of Montréal, causing the candle to flicker, waver, extinguish or inflame.


William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914 - August 2, 1997; pronounced /'bʌroʊz/), more commonly known as William S. Burroughs was an American novelist, philosopher, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer. Much of Burroughs' work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life. A primary member of the Beat Generation, he was an avantgarde author who affected popular culture as well as literature. In 1984, he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Dr. Konstantin Raudive (1906-1974). Dr. Raudive was born in Latvia and later became a student of Carl Jüng. He then went on to be a psychologist who taught at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. He studied parapsychology all his life, and was especially interested in the possibility of life after death. He and German parapsychologist Hans Bender investigated Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). He published a book on EVP, Breakthrough in 1971. Dr. Raudive was a scientist as well as a practising Roman Catholic.

[tobias c. van Veen], was born in 1978 under the black flag of the sonic arts. After Montréal, now lives in a small West Coast hamlet. Techno-turntablist, writer & artist. Since 1993 he has instigated conceptual and sound-art events, online interventions and radio broadcasts, working with STEIM, the New Forms Festival, the Banff Centre, Eyebeam, the Video-In, MUTEK, MDCN.ca, the Vancouver New Music Society and Hexagram. His work has appeared in CTheory, EBR, Bad Subjects, Leonardo, Locus Suspectus, FUSE (contributing editor), e/i, the Wire, HorizonZero and through Autonomedia, among others. His writing has been translated into Spanish, Lithuanian and French and his sound & net.art disseminated through Rhizome.org, Javamuseum.org, Kunstradio, BURN.fm, CiTR, Juniradio.net and Alt-X. He has sonic and mix releases on No Type's BricoLodge and the and/ OAR labels. From 1993-2000 he was Direktor of the sonic performance Collective [shrumtribe.com]. Co-founder of technoWest.org with Dave Baphomet, controltochaos.ca with DJ FISHEAD and thisistheonlyart.com with artist ssiess. From 2002-2007 Director of UpgradeMTL [upgrademtl.org] and Concept Engineer at the Society for Arts and Technology [SAT.qc.ca]. Currently doctoral candidate in Philosophy & Communication Studies at McGill University. Writes on the philosophy of technology and AfroFuturism -- though perpetually distracted by renegade soundsystems & turntable piracy. His latest exhibition, 'espaceSONO :: audio.lab', presented 36 global sound-artists in a uniquely constructed listening environment at the SAT[GALERIE] in Fall 2007. He also mixes a mean absynthe martini. [www.quadrantcrossing.org/blog].











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