DIFFUSION
New and experimental sound works in an out of concert setting

The listening space Diffusion ran regularly from September 1999 to July 2001. During that time we built up a regular audience who came to hear new and old electronic music in an informal environment. The intent was to encourage audiences away from the very concentrated listening spaces of the concert hall and to provide a meeting space for this somewhat disparate community of musicians, composers and artists.

As SAN has often been involved in short video collaborations between film-makers and composers Diffusion showed such works alongside live video mixing by resident artist Rob Flint (Scopac). Making good use of pre-installed split screen video projection was also a priority and allowed us to show rare and new video work from London based artists.

At it's core Diffusion allowed DJs to explore mixing in a completely free environment away from the pressure of bar managers, club promoters or an uninterested public. Bringing in a wide selection of acousmatic, old electronic and newer electronica music gave Diffusion a unique music policy within the capital where much of it is under represented in concert programming. The improvisatory nature of some of the mixing led us to start inviting live electronic groups to perform (Extractor and Disinformation) and worked well with live video mixing.

Diffusion built on it's successful formula with larger scale events that incorporated more live acts but retained the DJ slots, films and live video mixing that characterised the club.