Ken’s approach to building his instruments is driven primarily by the visual and practical properties of materials he finds, and acoustics is most often an afterthought, believe it or not. Anything can be”played” to some degree with microphones. This multi-purpose quality is what he refers to as “hyper-utility”. But his use of bizarre and sometimes quirky objects leads me to think there’s a hidden agenda, a statement that he’s trying to make. Hanging on his walls were some interesting examples of stringed instruments including a chess board, a leather boot, an old phone and a gun (not a real one).

After telling me that his work is read on many levels, all of which he’s comfortable with, he is quick to point out the practicality of a “hockey stick”. It has the ability to be held upright, or handled like a guitar, and the design enables him to sit the “foot” of it in his pocket as he’s playing which adds stability. He also explains the numerous ways of using some of his stringed instruments which can be bowed, strummed or picked, and have surfaces that can be struck or tapped. Nevertheless Ken’s work would make interesting dinner topic hanging on anyone’s walls, and he has exhibited his instruments widely for their aesthetic qualities alone.

As my chat with Ken draws to a close he tells me that a short video displaying some of his work might be of use to me and offers to play it. On it there’s examples of elaborate installation work such as keyboards which trigger additional audio and visual layers as the keys are struck. A huge mixture of lights, video, still photography and sound is what results and in the middle of it all is Ken. By contrast, another sequence shows Ken inserting a small microphone into his mouth as he starts a rhythmic virtuoso by “finger tapping” himself on various parts of his head which the microphone pics up and outputs via a small amplifier. As Ken points out “Everything you touch makes a sound”.