I've designed a new sound sculpture for a large public square in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This time the sound comes out of audio flowers planted in a semi-sphere - which contains the speaker. The audio cables run from the semi-spheres to resemble plant stems. Playback equipment is housed in the nearby theatre. Will Turner-Duffin is working on the audio engineering.
Residents have been asking the council to give them a garden for some time, so I thought I would create a sonic garden. The flowers are like organ pipes and a species of insect-eating plant called Saracenia.
On 22nd June, 20 members of the general public will go on an audio walk and collect sounds using FlashMics. We will also work with residents groups to collect clips. The residents will be living with this sculpture for a month, so as much involvement as possible in its creation will create a sense of ownership and less of an intrusion.
In addition I am also working with Bishwo Shahi and Steven Brown to create a bed of high quality sound, inspired by gardens, both English and exotic. All of these sounds will be knitted together into a soundscape created by Will Turner-Duffin. Will uses randomised selection of sounds in the creation of intricate and beautiful compositions - also a very efficient way of including a large number of sound objects.
If anyone would like to contribute a recording to this project, please let me know.
The Sonic Garden is commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is part of the
InTransit Festival (artist led walks and installations). It is also part of the
London Festival of Architecture and the
Chelsea Festival. The venue is World's End Place on the King's Road, and the installation runs from 22nd June (live art launch 6.30pm) to 16th July.
My thanks to Martin A Smith and my project manager Miriam Nelken for enabling this project to happen.