Prof Colin Fallows

Liverpool School of Art and Design

Prof. Colin Fallows is an artist, curator and Professor of Sound and Visual Arts at Liverpool John Moores University. His research explores crossovers between sound and the visual arts, frequently investigating the conditions and potentialities of listening in resonant spaces. As artist and curator, he has produced soundworks for live ensemble performance, recordings, exhibition, installation, radio and the Internet – and his artistic and curatorial projects have featured in numerous international festivals, galleries and museums world-wide.

He leads the Colin Fallows Ensemble – an electric guitar group dedicated to the performance of multi-layered soundworks, dense with microtones which generate numerous overtones through bespoke tuning to resonant performance spaces. The CFE performed Reverbs (2015-17), a series of related compositions by Fallows for prepared and treated electric guitars, at Wilkinson Gallery, London - staged in collaboration with Boudicca fashion house, and recorded in ambisonic surround-sound by the British Library Sound Archive for publication as limited edition artist’s multiples. Related works by Prof. Fallows include Colourfield For Strings (2012) originally produced as an immersive sound installation in conjunction with the exhibition of Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals at Tate Liverpool (2009). The installation utilised a dense sonic mix of sustained electric guitar recordings by Fallows and Will Sergeant (Echo & The Bunnymen). Further versions of Colourfield For Strings included: music for the play Red (by John Logan) about Rothko, with accompanying sound installation at EuroTheater Central, Bonn, Germany (2012-13); and a one-hour radio programme for ORF Kunstradio, Vienna, Austria (2013) for listeners to experience the piece via three radio sources simultaneously. CFE published recordings are in many permanent collections including: Tate Archives; the British Library Sound Archive; the Research Centre for Artists’ Publications, Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen, Germany; SCCA-Ljubljana, Center for Contemporary Arts; the International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia; and the Archive of Recorded Sound, Stanford University, USA.

Prof. Fallows’ large-scale curated exhibitions, with related internationally distributed book publications, reinterpret previously under-researched figures and works in popular culture/counterculture including: Stuart Sutcliffe – A Retrospective (2008); Astrid Kirchherr – A Retrospective (2010); and Cut-ups, Cut-ins, Cut-outs: The Art of William S. Burroughs at the Kunsthalle, Vienna (2012) and the International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2013).

As curator and researcher, Prof. Fallows has been instrumental in the strategic acquisition of world-class archives of popular culture and counterculture held at Liverpool John Moores University. Punk and Counterculture Archives and Exhibitions is a long-term research and curatorial project founded in 2000 by Prof. Colin Fallows at LJMU where he has strategically compiled the biggest punk archive in the world. The project focuses on punk, its relationship to counterculture antecedents and to wider socio-political contexts. Prof. Fallows engages with artists, authors and collectors in the strategic identification, cataloguing and acquisition of specific archives followed by research and curatorial practice. Exhibitions and events create impact on the cultural sector and international public audiences. The significance and wide reach of this impact is demonstrated through institutional partnerships, high-profile exhibitions and cultural events, publicity reach, and support from the cultural sector, including key progenitors of the movement. Prof. Fallows has curated rare, and many previously unseen materials from across the Punk and Counterculture Archives held at LJMU, in a variety of contexts, in a series of large-scale exhibitions in galleries and museums, experienced by over one-million people across nine countries. The exhibition Punk 1976–78 (2016) curated by Prof. Fallows (with Cleary, S. & Linehan, A.) at the British Library, London coincided with the 40th anniversary of the unique cultural phenomenon. This ongoing research also resulted in Prof. Fallows discovering and curating Sex Pistols – April 1976: The Art of PT Madden (2016) at Wilkinson Gallery, London, in an exhibition that presented and contextualised all twenty-six surviving photographs as a unified artwork for the first time.

Prof. Colin Fallows is Director of the Contemporary Art Lab and Head of Research Degrees at the Liverpool School of Art and Design. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Composition

Fallows C. 2023. Sounds For Quiet Spaces

Fallows C. 2020. Reverb Variations 1 & 2

Fallows C. 2020. Reverbs - LP Publisher Url

Fallows C. 2020. Reverbs - CD

Fallows C. 2017. Spring Reverb Publisher Url

Fallows C. 2017. Analogue Publisher Url

Fallows C. 2017. Light Night Reverbs

Fallows C. 2015. Winter Reverb II

Fallows C. 2015. Autumn Reverb

Fallows C. 2015. Summer Reverb

Fallows C. 2015. Winter Reverb

Fallows C. 2014. Tonement I

Fallows C. 2009. Colourfield for Strings

Chapters

Fallows C. 2022. The Beatles and Place: The Photography of PTMadden PTMadden Liverpool Beatles :1-2 PTMadden Editions. UK 978-0-9550940-1-9

Fallows C. 2022. Port Sunlight: The Photography of PTMadden PTMadden Port Sunlight :1-1 PTMadden Editions. UK 978-0-9550940-2-6

Fallows C. 2021. Chester Fog: The Photography of PTMadden PTMadden Chester Fog :1-1 PTMadden Editions. UK 978-0-9550940-3-3

Fallows C, Clements N. 2014. Vintage Girls Vintage Girls Men’s File Archive in association with Photo Ed Press. London 9780955932250

Fallows C. 2014. The Art of the Rockers’ Jacket’ Pride and Glory: The Art of the Rockers’ Jacket Daab Books. Cologne, Germany 978-3-942597-20-3

Fallows C. 2012. The Art of the Rockers’ Jacket Daab R. Pride and Glory: The Art of the Rockers’ Jacket Daab Books. Cologne, Germany 978-3-942597-20-3

Fallows C. 2009. Soundings Biggs B, Sheldon J. Art in a City Revisited :209-227 Liverpool University Press / The University of Chicago Press 9781846310836

Other

Fallows C. 2021. William S. Burroughs & Brion Gysin Fallows C, Cleary S. Publisher Url

Fallows C, Friedrichs H. 2014. The Art of the Rockers' Jacket Publisher Url

Fallows C. 2012. Kunstradio Classics Fallows C, Zimmermann E.

Fallows C. 2012. Cut-Ups Fallows C, Zimmermann E.

Fallows C. 2012. William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin

Fallows C. Audio Research Editions Fallows C.

Journal article

Fallows C. 2013. Faith - Friendship - Freedom: The Fifty-Nine Club and the Art of the Rockers’ Jacket Nicolai: Magazine for Art, Culture, Design & Architecture, :23-23

Fallows C. 2012. Chance Encounters: The Art and Methods of John Cage and William S. Burroughs Dussini M. Falter,

Books (authored)

Fallows C, Genzmer S. 2012. Cut-ups, Cut-ins, Cut-outs: The Art of William S. Burroughs Fallows C, Genzmer S. Verlag fur Moderne Kunst. Nurnberg, Germany 978-3-86984-315-5

Fallows C, Clough M, Bracewell M, Savage J. 2010. Astrid Kirchherr - A Retrospective Fallows C, Clough M. Liverpool University Press / The University of Chicago Press 9781846314773

Fallows C, Savage J, Biggs B, Kuspit D, Murray R, Harry B. 2008. Stuart Sutcliffe - A Retrospective Fallows C, Clough M. Victoria Gallery & Museum. Liverpool UK 9781846311765

Exhibition

Fallows C. Cut-ups, Cut-ins, Cut-outs: The Art of William S. Burroughs

Fallows C. Punk Archives

Fallows C. Punk Archives

Fallows C, Clough, M . Astrid Kirchherr - A Retrospective

Fallows C, Clough, M . Stuart Sutcliffe - A Retrospective

Fallows C. Sex Pistols - April 1976: The Art of PTMADDEN Publisher Url

Fallows C, Miles B, Kugelberg J, Young K, Daley MP, Chinn L. Cut-ups: William S. Burroughs 1914 - 2014

Fallows C, Cleary S, Linehan A. Punk 1976-1978 Publisher Url

Fallows C, Miles B. Real English Tea Made Here Publisher Url

Fallows C, Cleary S, Linehan A. Punk 1976-1978 Publisher Url

Fallows C, Cleary S, Linehan A. Punk 1976-1978

Fallows C. Eric’s Club

Fallows C, McCready J. Believe in the Ruins: Situationists | 1968 | Sex Pistols

Fallows C, Savage J. 1966 | 1976 SEX BEATLES

Fallows C. Punk 1975-1976

Conference organisation:

Punk 1975-1976: Art | Style | Music, Fallows, C. (2023-24) Punk 1975-1976: Art | Style | Music, curated conference. Conference Chair and Interviewer, as part of Punk 1975-1976, the British Music Experience, Liverpool. Part of the Punk 1975-1976 exhibition programme. In collaboration with UNESCO City of Music, Culture Liverpool, Liverpool City Council, the BME, London, and the British Library Sound Archive. Exact dates tbc.. 2023

Punk 1976-78: Art | Style | Revolt, Fallows, C. (2019) Punk 1976-78: Art | Style | Revolt, curated conference. Chair and Interviewer, two-part conference exploring the creative revolution of Punk as part of Punk 1976-1978, Liverpool City Library. Part of the Punk 1976-1978 exhibition programme. In collaboration with the British Library. 21/02/19 & 01/03/19. 2019

Signifying Nothing? The Creative Revolution of Punk, Fallows, C. (2016) with Fawcett, J., Signifying Nothing? The Creative Revolution of Punk, curated conference. Conference Chair and Interviewer, as part of Punk 1976-1978, the British Library, London. Part of the Punk 1976-1978 exhibition programme. In collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive. 28/05/16.. 2016

Creative Dates III: A Conference of the North West Art and Design Research Group., Director and Chair. In partnership with Government Office North West, 8 North West HEI’s and Tate Liverpool as part of Liverpool Biennial.. 2008

External PGR examinations performed:

Northumbria University, PhD, Your Trash, My Treasure: A Re-Assessment of the Value of Souvenirs. 2014

Goldsmiths, University of London, PhD, Hear One Near and Think of the Other: An Artist's Investigation into the Dialectic of Sound and Nonsound. 2014

Goldsmiths, University of London, PhD, I Thought I Grew An Ear In My Stomach: The Phenomenological Experience of the Art Event as Sublime Encounter. 2013

Royal College of Art, MPhil, Rivival: The Aesthetics of Revival Subcultures and Re-enactment Groups Explored through Fashion Image-Making. 2011

Membership of professional bodies:

Fellow, Royal Society of Arts. 2014

Member of Board of Directors`of FutureEverything, FutureEverything, http://futureeverything.org/. 2005

External collaboration:

Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome., Director. 2010

Editorial boards:

FutureEverything Awards, Chair of FutureEverything Awards Panel, http://futureeverything.org/. 2010

External committees:

Audio Users' Group, The British Library, National Sound Archive, London, Invited Member, http://www.bl.uk/nsa. 2008

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