Ear of the StormSound Installation and Radio Intervention
2009 Whitstable Biennale, CRS Radio & Celestial Radio ‘What is the relationship between man and the sounds of his environment, and what happens when those sounds change?’ - R.Murray Schafer
ear-of-the-storm was an explorative step into ideas of the local and assumed soundscapes, thinking of the social and psychological implications sound and the potential for interrupting and altering these within the everyday context. Five months of weather storms from numerous locations across East Kent were woven together with radio fuzz and snippets of music from local station to make a 30 minute composition. From raging wind, pouring rain, thunder and lighting to banging signs, rolling cans and shouts from passersby - these sounds brought together the extremes of nature and its affects on us and our space. The sound sound work was broadcast on radio frequencies, allowing this alternative soundcape to be tuned in to and found or lost as it appears to interrupt the radio waves from which it is broadcast. Installed as a collection of small wind up radios and in ear headphones, clustered together in different locations, visitors were invited to pluck a radio form the collection, place the headphones on, sit back and take in the storm. Each interaction changed the shape of the storm and allowed it to move gradually around a venue. The soundscape also leaked from radios across the borough, infiltrating homes and workplaces as nature was brought unexpectedly back inside. Played on CSR radio, a Canterbury radio station and on Celestial FM an artist radio station by Neil Walker and Zoe Bromwich at Whitstable Biennale, it could be found in various locations blowing from place to place around the Kentish towns. Funded by Canterbury City Council |
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Whitstable Biennale - Fringe Festival
2009, Whitstable, Kent As a part of the Festival Fringe, Ear of the Storm took residence in a grassy courtyard located on a quite side street in the seaside town. Radios and headphones scattered across the concrete platform gave listening posts for the visitors who as they explored discovered that the sound disappeared into static fuzz if they ventured too far - revealing an invisible perimeter.
www.whitstablebiennale.com |
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Celestial Radio at Whitstable Biennale - Neil Walker and Zoe Bromwich
2009, Whitstable, Kent ear of the storm broadcast by Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich’s Celestial Radio 87.7FM from their mirrored boat at sea- The storm sounds echoed the final broadcast of the original pirate radio station which Celestial Radio references - Radio Caroline. During the final mysterious radio broadcast from Radio Caroline in the 1970’s a violent weather storm could be heard beating in the background at their ship, the storm sounds could be heard creeping into the airwaves. |
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CSR Radio
2009, Canterbury, Kent Local Canterbury station CSR invited ear of the storm to play in full on World Environment Day. Broadcasting across the town the storm replaced music and conventional radio bringing the outside in for its listeners.
www.csrfm.com/ |
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World Environment Day
2009, Canterbury, Kent A one day event of artistic interventions, ideas, and performances to celebrate World Environment Day. |