A series of acoustic encounters

In the gallery a collection of quizzical material objects act as thought provoking ‘clues’ and the audio content draws on  memories to make connections and encourage imaginative sense making…

Below you can listen to an introductory footsteps soundscape from the project, with a beautiful piano composition and playing by Pietro Bonanno, ‘Ferma la Danza’  ( Stop the Dance) from his album ‘Komorebi’.

There are 10 interrelated tracks including this one in the audio component of the exhibition, ranging from 1 to 3 minutes in duration, just over 20 minutes in total.  The audio content is pitched on the borderline between sound and music and includes documentary field recordings with more experimental collage. Each soundscape involves a different approach to conveying  traces of presence and identity in acoustic form. In this track footsteps are heard moving over wooden floors and the recordings were made in contemplative, public spaces:  museum, art gallery and including in a church. As I edited and mixed, I let the music guide me and tried to match the footfall cadence, tone colour and timbre to the piano’s.

You can hear the resonance of floorboards: the spring in the wood and voids beneath; the creak of leather;  the acoustics of space and place; sounds of intention, emotion, mood, gender, weight, velocity,  force, character;  in motion…

(use of headphones is recommended).

You can hear more of Pietro Bonanno’s compositions at http://www.pietrobonanno.it

Here are some images of visitors moving, listening and looking in the Northampton gallery on the first day of the exhibition. The lighting is designed to allow individuals’ shadows to play onto the gallery walls to add a further layer of ambiguity and motion to the atmospheric environment.