Dawn, Friday 5 September 2008
As the sun rises I will clamber onto one of the low, flat granite blocks of Bellever Tor. The walk from Bellever Youth Hostel will take an hour, a gentle steady climb through coniferous plantation and heather moor. It may be misty with drizzle. Or the sky may be clear; the air cool, moist and still. I will sit. I will listen, in my head, to the sound of a choir consisting of precisely 17 people. I will remain seated, quietly listening, for one hour, and note what
happens. I will then have a cup of tea.
This will be my requested response to this score.
Details of a performance at Kings Place, London on Sunday 5 October here. Commissioned by SPNM.
Led a couple of soundwalks for LiveArt Falmouth yesterday. A huge programme of activity from artists, video, performance and so on, taking place around town. Particularly interesting, along the main street sound artist Tim Crowley had placed speakers high up in rooms above shops playing sounds recorded on the Seregheti. Some were obviously alien to the high street, but many blended in so much so that they didn’t turn heads of the shoppers and tourists. Indeed, even the sounds of elephants didn’t turn some heads!
Richard Povall from Aune Head Arts and myself last weekend ran our first Dartmoor `Listening Retreat’. We had nine enthusiastic participants from across the UK who braved the rain, mist and drizzle to spend time listening to, recording and composing from environmental sounds. The conversation was excellent throughout and I got the feeling that everyone went away having gained from the experience – I know I certainly did. We were also able to swap a wide range of experience, from how to put a podcast together to the basics of printing presses! For the weekend we set up a ning social network group which can be found here.
I will be running a couple of town centre sound walks on 7 June 2008 at Live Art Falmouth this year. Live Art Falmouth is an annual, two-day festival of live art. It developed in direct response to a growing need from students and artists within the region for an open, experimental platform and critical dialogue for live and performative work.
… did a show with Richard Povall from Aune Head Arts on Dartington’s Soundart Radio. Find the podcast here. Details of Soundart Radio here.
I’ll be running my next creative use of sound course at `The Centre of the Earth’ in Birmingham on 15 July 2008. The course is aimed at countryside/environment staff with little or no knowledge of working with environmental sound and audio.
Details here
Aune Head Arts are now taking bookings for our listening retreat to be held in and around Bellever on Dartmoor 15-18 May. More details to follow, but here’s a neat summary from the Aune Head website…
Join artists Richard Povall and Tony Whitehead for a four-day listening retreat on high Dartmoor at one of the most sonically breathtaking times of the year. Designed for artists wanting to build an appreciation of the sonic environment into their work, we will spend time out on the moor at all times of day and night learning to listen to this special place and it’s unique soundscape. Spend time in our digital studios, and produce your own sound compositions based on your creative responses.
In partnership with Richard Povall at Aune Head Arts I am planning a four day ‘listening retreat’ on Dartmoor, provisionally fron 15-18 May 2008. The aim of the course will be to allow participants to explore in depth the soundscape of Dartmoor. More details to follow. If you’d like to register interest please let me know.
Thanks to all who attended this course at Islington Ecology Centre, and for the positive feedback. As always it was good to meet people working in environmental education who want to explore the use of sound in their work. Thanks also to Becca Laurence from Sonic Arts Network for providing introduction and context from an arts perspective.
The next Environment Trainers Network hosted training day will be at the Create Centre in Bristol on 18 April 2008.
