Work from 2007 described here is grouped by project rather than in chronological order.
AWSoM: Ambient Weather Sound Machine
Site-specific sound work (collaboration with Stuart Bowditch)
AWSoM - The Ambient Weather Sound Machine uses foundsounds, triggered by the weather on recycled and found technologies to recreate environmental sound and feelscapes. For more information see the AWSoM Mediashed webpage.
April: Presentation at Enter_Unknown Territories: International Festival for New Technology Art, Cambridge
v 0-0-2 (Two Tree Mix)
May: AWSoM launch and live performance, Two Tree Island, Southend.
Samples of wildlife recorded on Two Tree Island nature reserve – including the rare avocet bird – in competition with trains, planes, automobiles, dogs and people, create ambient sound and music responding to changing environmental patterns. More details and recordings AWSoM @ Two Tree .
June: Exhibited at Bang & Olufsen, Leigh on Sea (Leigh Arts Trail) More images: AWSoM @ LAT
v 0-0-3 (Shopland Mix)
July: Live performance and exhibition with new sound mix, Sutton with Shopland Festival, Essex.
The original Two Tree Island mix made way for the sounds of Shopland. Samples of John Deere tractors, irrigation systems, people, cars and steam trains (yeah woo baby!) create ambient sound and music responding to changing environmental patterns. More details and recordings AWSoM @ Shopland .
v 0-0-4 (Banff Mix)
August: Live performance and exhibition with new sound mix, Banff New Media Institute, Canada, as part of Interactive Screen 0.7
A whole new version of AWSoM was prepared and recorded specially for the Interactive Screen 0.7 conference at the BNMI in Banff, Alberta. The sounds of flags (Canadian of course), prize giving at a Teachers fun run, a stairwell, a xylophone in a fashion shoot, German sight seers, Japanese tourists, French speaking hikers, freight train horns and squirrels all add up to make this new mix. More details and recordings AWSoM @ Banff .
‘Tales from the Boarders’
‘Tales from the Boarders’ Commission for Theatre Resource exhibition exploring stories of children sent away to receive “special” education.
This touring exhibition uncovers the stories of disadvantaged and disabled children sent to the Essex countryside from London. Developed by Theatre Resource in collaboration with Epping Forest District Museum, it tells the story of Great Stony School in Ongar, which originally opened as the residential Hackney Home in 1904. Anne Teahan, Jon Owen and Damien Robinson were commissioned to create works responding to the stories which form the heart of the exhibition.The exhibition captures the memories of past students and staff using visual art, photographs and artefacts, oral history and sound.
April-June ‘07 Theatre Resource, Great Stoney, Ongar
July-November ‘07 Epping Forest District Museum
Anne Teahan documents the artistic process of three artists making artwork from the memories of an institution in Disability Arts Online
Spy Kiting For the MediaShed
“Spy-Kites” are ordinary kites with wireless CCTV cameras attached. MediaShed members fly them over areas that are difficult to access or are restricted. The video footage is relayed to people on the ground to reveal a bizarre aerial “kites-eye-view”. MediaShed members Stuart Bowditch & Damien Robinson were invited to show Spy Kiting at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria 5-11 September 2007 and as a result it was featured in the documentary "Das Ende der Intimität" directed by Günter Kaindlstorfer and produced for the following TV stations: 3sat (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), ORF2 (Austria), Phoenix (Germany).
Stuart & I made a short film about Spy Kiting for the Ars Electronica stand.
and you can get find full instructions on how to make your own spy kite on the Gearbox website
Arboreality
An installation using coded digital animation and soundtracks. Commissioned for the Heart of the Forest Special School by Gloucestershire County Council. Arboreality draws on the school’s unique position in the heart of the forest to draw the outside in and interpret it through different sensory possibilities. It uses a custom-built software programme to mix sounds, visuals and animations coded round the school day, mimicking and manipulating natural timeframes, with random mixes of different elements. Sounds can be experienced tactilely as vibrations through the NXT speakers installed in the wall beneath the projection area; use of vector graphics means imagery stays sharp irrespective of scaling.
First shown at Chalkwell Hall Dec '07.
