"A scanner is a radio
receiver generally capable of picking up AM and FM (and
sometimes SSB) radio signals anywhere from 100 kHz to 3.3
GHz. Popular amongst hobbyists, reporters, bounty hunters,
prying neighbors, corporate spies, criminals and lawyers
alike, scanners allow chosen frequencies to be stored in
memory banks to allow them to be monitored later and will
only stop 'scanning' when there is a signal strong enough
to break the radio's squelch setting." (wikipedia)
I was one of four film makers asked to write and direct a
South Bank Show on subjects we were passionate about, and
electronica was my passion, so I narrowed it down to two
subjects - Warp records "band" Autechre and Robin Rimbaud
who records under the name Scanner. Autechre didn't want to
appear on camera and Robin was a seasoned pro in front of
the lens and he therefore made very good television.
Dubbed a "telephone terrorist," Robin is a techno-data
agitator whose scavenging of the electronic communications
highways provides the raw materials for his aural collages
of electronic music and "found" conversations. Musician,
writer, media critic, a minimalist anti-hero, and host of
the monthly digital club, the Electronic Lounge, at the ICA
in London since 1994. He has (not surprisingly) literary
connotations with a pen name like that was great to work
with. I even borrowed a scanner myself to see what I could
hear back home in Edinburgh. My neighbours on the phone for
one thing!
Film clip at end of page.
