Scanner: Rev It Up.

Scanner will appear at the Rev Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse on April 5 and 6.

Sometimes in life, it’s difficult to avoid being pigeonholed.  Take the art world for example; there are very few stereotypes that the artiste can adopt, and when you expand this theory to the faux serious world of abstract, electronic or experimental art, it’s easy to assume most of those who work in that world are equally serious and joy less. Take Scanner, real name Robin Rimbaud, for example. This UK born, globally based electronic composer, soundsmith and technical avatar is often likened to this generations Phillip Glass, a highly respected distorter of sound and shape whose treatises on public and private space can take the shape of aural soundscapes of ‘borrowed’ city sounds or ‘liberated’ mobile phone conversations from thin air. Rimbaud has worked for a variety of high calibre art spaces including Tate Modern in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

With baggage like that, it’s easy to assume Rimbaud could be tres serious and ‘difficult’ to talk to. Obviously enough, assumptions are generally incorrect and it’s a very cheerful sounding English chap on the other end of the phone, agreeing that, yes, many people, the media included, presume he is a moody type.

“I always think it’s funny, ‘cause they say ‘You’re quite funny, aren’t you? You’re not as miserable as I thought you would be’,” He laughs,  “I think that’s a very valid point, I really don’t know how to present myself. My friend who’s coming out with me, David Toop is a very respected English artist, writer and musician, people always says he is quite serious, but he’s a comedian! He’ll be Brisbane at the same time as me, and it’s funny cause he spoke to the publicity people and they asked him ‘What should we call the event?’ And he said DJ Toopy versus Rock Master Scanner. He was joking, but whoever he spoke to took it seriously and they were going to call the event that and he was really embarrassed.”

Rock Master Scanner aside, Rimbaud is also highly regarded for the sheer volume of his work. Rimbaud admits he does have a  “Tendency to push myself really hard,” and the prolific nature of Scanner’s art and installations is often overshadowed by the public notoriety of some of his earlier works. In some mediums, he is often reduced to ‘that mobile phone scanning guy’, an academic pondering public and private space ad naueseum. Even Scanner admits, in his gallant way, that it can be come tiresome on the lecture circuit debating the same concepts daily.

“It’s difficult isn’t it? When you make work, you take responsibility for as much of it as you can, but at a certain point it almost goes beyond you. Sometimes I feel like I’ve talked myself out, I answer so many questions about what is private and what is public that I even lost the ability to answer that myself. I think the more you answer these questions in a public space; you begin to ask yourself those questions ‘where do I draw the line?’ I think it is inevitable,” he say’s thoughtfully, but concedes “You could be a British artist like Damien Hirst and you sliced an animal into pieces years ago and put it in a sculpture, even though ten years later you’ve done heaps of other work people will still say ‘why did you cut that animal up?’ it’s the way media works and you can’t deny it.”

In Brisbane to participate in the Rev festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse, Scanner is a regular visitor to BrizVegas after an association with I/O led to many collaborations between Rimbaud and the local, electronic collective. Rimbaud, a citizen of the world, agrees that many of our Southern ‘friends’ often snub their noses at our quaint capital.

“I’ve noticed that! I was working on a piece for the Adelaide Festival…people almost giggle and say ‘Why are you going to Brisbane?’ It’s actually one of my favourite cities, I think it’s really beautiful, I like the size of it. It’s a city you can deal with. There is a lot of work happening there, which people don’t even realise happens. The fact that the Powerhouse is offering such incredible projects, more so then you can get in some of the bigger cities, is wonderful. And also the weather is really nice.”