I’ll be presenting a new architectural sound piece at Assemblage: The Lesser Senses, held at Walmer Yard on Saturday 26th October.
Named an assemblage to reflect the gathering of many different speakers, participants and formats taking place during the day, this event will launch the new season at Walmer Yard and will take the form of a series of encounters and events held across the homes and centred around the theme of the Lesser Senses.
Photography Héléne Binet
As well as presenting my own work exploring sound, space and architecture, I’m looking forward to immersing myself in deep exploration of the senses.
Following a key note presentation in Walmer Yard’s ‘coats-on lecture theatre’ by neuroscientist Danny Ball, a series of workshops, smaller talks, performances and film screenings will take place across the four houses, exploring how our senses affect our perception of architecture.
Guests will be encouraged to explore the homes throughout the afternoon while the interventions happen in tandem across the spaces. These include screenings of a new short film by Jim Stephenson on the sensory experience of Walmer Yard, a sound piece by Simon James, and spatial listening workshops led by Alex de Little.
Photography Héléne Binet
My sound piece, created using the sounds I gathered over two days at Walmer Yard, has become quite an intense work, mixing contact microphone recordings of the various materials and bowed light fixtures transformed via granular sampling. I often find myself in this headspace where I strive to stay true to the natural sounds as recorded, whilst inserting something of myself and my experience in a space. Often going back and forth over how much treatment should be used. It is a difficult balancing act but In this instance I think my time alone at Walmer Yard has left me with a feeling of the sparseness and the futuristic nature of the structures, which has definitely informed my creative decisions.
For what it’s worth these are my notes on the work so far, which might change before the weekend.
This sound collage of Walmer Yard House 2 begins with the sound of a wooden door scraping against the rough concrete floor, the two materials crackling and scratching against each other in ear-pleasing sonic friction.
It was the first sound I recorded during my two days exploring the building, literally stopping me in my tracks when I first heard it, my brain taking a moment to calculate where it was emanating from. The only door in Walmer Yard to make a sound as it opens and closes (rather than gliding smoothly), in some buildings this would be considered a flaw. Knowing some of the philosophy behind Walmer Yard, I like to think it was a design choice, another sonic reminder, more subtle than the huge metal staircases that boom and oscillate with every footstep, of the materials that make up this fascinating, mysterious, sometimes disorientating collection of houses.
Those materials are explored further in this piece using traditional, miniature and contact microphones, the latter uncovering hidden resonances in physical objects, and a selection of activators (cello bow, beaters and brushes).
Use discount code - Assemblagespeakers for 25% off ticket prices. Get them here.
Photography Héléne Binet