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