Welcome to Sounding the Site, an event devised by the Centre for Continuing Education, and created by members of the university in partnership with local artists and performers, including children from Carlton Hill Primary School in Brighton.
The unusual sights and sounds on campus today are based on the Odyssey, the epic tale recounting the adventures of Odysseus as he island-hops his way home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. This takes him years to accomplish. On the way, he loses his men and his ships, and more than once comes close to losing his life.
Sounding the Site can be experienced in full on the ‘Island Tours’ or in part by visiting individual ‘Islands’, some of which will be accessible throughout the day.We hope many of you will also enjoy novel experiences today as you pass the Islands or the Tours pass you on your way about campus.
The initial impulse for the project was to use parts of the University that are not normally used for arts events, or not used in this way. Corridors, bridges and walkways are reinvented both as resonating spaces and as backdrops to movement and image: site and sight participate in sound.
Each Island is the creation of a different group, and each presents the audience with an experience (lasting around five minutes) in which word, image and music/sound are creatively combined. The whole journey will take just over one hour to complete, and is accompanied by the chorus of children, providing a narrative thread to link the Islands together.
The narrative theme allows the audience to experience the programme as more than a string of installations, and as a kind of journey in itself. The hope is that the event will not only make sense as an artistic whole, but will also link together some of the ‘islands’ within our local communities, and make a stronger connection between the University and its neighbours in Brighton and beyond.
Julian Broughton March 2009
Welcome!
Begin your Island Tour outside the Gardner Centre at 10.30am 1pm , or 2.30pm (tours last a little over one hour) or see the Tour Guide overleaf for information about each of the Islands and when they can be visited.
Island Tour Guide
Labyrinth, devised by River Jones and Luska Mengham, designed with help from Adam Verden, and created by Alex Hart (estates design contractor) and his team, the grass labyrinth can be found on the meadow area at the front of campus, to the right when heading out of the subway towards campus. Children form Carlton Hill Primary School will sing a sea shanty (their own lyrics) as they lead visitors to the next island.
Labyrinth can be viewed and walked throughout the day.
Beach-Cave-Raft can be found in the moat and under the arches outside the Union Shop in Falmer House. This Island reflects Odysseus' sojourn in the cave of the goddess Calypso, and combines a sound piece by Roger Harmar with a sculpture of a raft/still life by Terry Howe.
Beach-Cave-Raft can be seen throughout the day, and heard at the following times: 10.45-11am, 12 -12.15pm, 1.15-1.30pm, 2.45-3pm, 3.45 - 4pm.
Sirens can be found in InQbate’s ‘Creativity Zone’ (Pevensey 3C7, entry via front of Pevensey 2). This multi-layered installation conceived by Anna Dumitriu and Tom Hamilton will feature live song by Kassia Zermon, video projections and performance by Petrusco, to give voice to a contemporary ‘siren’ – technology . With creative involvement of the faculty of the Department of Informatics.
Sirens can be experienced throughout the day with occasional live vocal performances.
Heading Down can be found in Essex House, in the corridor next to the ‘SI Café’. Three poems by Abi Curtis reflect magic and mishap on Circe’s island, and evoke the gateway to the Underworld. Julian Broughton’s music for solo viola frames and punctuates the poems, with a visual element specially created by artist Christopher McHugh.
Though the visual element will be in place throughout the day, performances can be experienced only as part of the Tours.
Bag of Winds A soundscape composed by Ric Graebner represents the story of Aeolus and the bag of winds, rashly opened by Odysseus’s men. All will be revealed in the tunnel under Arts Road, on the footpath heading for Bramber House.
Bag of Winds can be seen throughout the day, and heard at the following times: 10.25-10.40am, 11.25 -11.40am, 12.25 -12.40pm, 1.55 -2.10pm, 3.25- 3.40pm
Destination Point is concerned with journeys, and can be found in the grass area in front of Fulton Court, next to Arts A. Once you enter this structure, you will be offered a number of ‘channels’ to follow. But there is no direct route to anywhere, and no actual point of destination… Adam Verden is responsible for concept and design, Micheal McLinn, Alex Hart and others have helped to realize it, with additional work on the soundscape by Roger Harmar.
Destination Point can be seen and entered throughout the day, and heard at the following times: 10.40-10.55am, 11.40-11.55am, 12.40 -12.55pm, 2.20- 2.45pm, and 3.50- 4.05pm
Free entry (some of the events of the day will be filmed and put somewhere on the net tba)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment