David Cunningham (musician)

David Cunningham (born 1954, Ireland^[1]) is a musician and producer who lives and works in London. Cunningham's work has ranged from pop music to gallery installations, including work for television, film, contemporary dance, and a number of collaborations with visual artists. His first significant success came with The Flying Lizards' single 'Money', an international hit in 1979.

Since 1993 he has created a continuing series of installation works based on real time exploration of acoustics. 'The Listening Room', Biennale of Sydney (1998) was followed by two installation works in "Days Like These", The Tate Triennial of Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain 2003 and subsequent installations at ICC Tokyo, Ikon Birmingham and Camden Arts Centre London.

David Cunningham studied at Maidstone College of Art, one of the first students to join David Hall's pioneering Time-Based course within the Fine Art department. His degree exhibition consisted entirely of work in sound, a happy way to graduate from a visual arts college.^[2] Cunningham's involvement in art education has continued over subsequent years, lecturing in many Fine Art departments and holding the positions of Research Fellow at both University of Newcastle and London College of Communication and Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Art.

Following his first album release 'Grey Scale' in 1977 he has worked as a composer and record producer; engaging with a range of people and music, from rock groups (This Heat, Martin Creed) to improvisors (David Toop, and Steve Beresford), to Michael Nyman's music for Peter Greenaway's films, plus work with Ute Lemper and others. More recently he has produced Joanne Robertson's 'The Lighter', released 'One Hundred' (Staubgold 2009), a collaboration with saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu and curated 'A lot of pianos...', a performance of seven new compositions for up to 20 pianos.

Live performance has involved collaboration and performances with John Cage, Kathy Acker, Michael Nyman, Peter Gordon, Pan Sonic, Michael Giles, Scanner and others.

Music for contemporary dance has included 'Canta' for Ian Spink Group/Second Stride, 'Freedom of Information' for Bill_T._Jones/Arnie_Zane_Dance_Company, 'Kioku no Gekijyo' for Goro Namerikawa, and 'Charlotte Kello Viisi Aamulla' for choreographer Tiina Huczkowski.

Music for film and television has included Ken McMullen's films Zina and (in collaboration with Michael Giles and Jamie Muir) Ghost Dance, and a series of television collaborations with visual artists which has included John Latham, David Hall, Stephen Partridge, Bruce McLean.

Related work includes the production and treatment of sound for installation and broadcast artworks by Martin Creed, Brad Butler and Karen Mirza, Sam Taylor-Wood, Susan Hiller, João Penalva, Ian Breakwell, Gillian Wearing and many others.

Link

• David Cunningham CV
• Complete discography
• David Cunningham website
• Work archived on University of the Arts London research website

References