A site specific binaural audio soundtrack has been produced for visitors to download. Please click here here to listen to the soundscape.
Listen to the soundtrack when you get to Lincoln Cathedral and wonder around, whilst listening to the crowds of people who attended the Festivals of Readings and Carols on Christmas eve, accompanied by the organists, Benjamin Chewter and Charles Harrison, also Assistant Director of Music and The Boys Choir Lincoln Cathedral Choir Association and St Hugh's Choir. Prayers and readings by The Very Reverend Phillip Buckler, Dean of Lincoln, the High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, Mr John Lockwood and the Mayor of Lincoln, Councillor Ron Hills, the Chairman of the Music Appeal, Mr Nigel Brown, the Subdean of Lincoln, Canon Alan Nugent, The Reverend Canon Gavin Kirk and Mrs Margaret Campion.
*Please note that the entire Christmas eve service is not included in the recording below and therefore will not include all of the above contributors.
A site specific binaural audio soundtrack has been produced for visitors to download. Please click here to listen to the soundscape.
Listen to the soundtrack when you get to Lincoln Castle and wonder around, whilst listening to the Christmas market with crowds of visitors, announcements on tannoys, Christmas carols, stall sellers shouting and traditional fairground and Christmas music.
Annual is a binaural audio installation that can be accessed via the artist in residence studio provided by The Collection during February 2009 (Please ask the reception staff for access dates and times). The studio space is available to support emerging artists and enable them to have the opportunity to experiment and produce new artwork.
Visitors are invited to enter the studio space to sit and listen to the soundtrack, whilst exploring the studio space and peering through the gap left on the studio window, marked out by blue masking tape- the space where the artist sat, listened and recorded binaural audio to add to the final soundtrack.
The binaural audio installation has been created during December 2008 and all of the audio has been captured using in- ear microphones from around the city centre of Lincoln, including The Collection (and studio space), the Christmas market, Lincoln Castle and Lincoln Cathedral.
Using a polystyrene head, with binaural audio microphones attached, I spent the day producing familiar sounds by moving and using the objects and furniture within the studio space. For example: boiling the kettle, washing my hands in the sink, opening and closing a metal cupboard, etc.
For the listener to link the physical surroundings of the studio space, and the area framed by the blue masking tape on the studio window to the binaural audio installation, I have included recordings taken inside and outside of the studio and also the Christmas market, Lincoln Castle and Lincoln Cathedral.
The binaural audio installation will be available for visitors to listen to from Monday 5 January 2009. Please enquire at The Collection studio reception desk for access to the studio space.
After reviewing the initial proposal for The Collection studio residency I decided to focus on creating a binaural audio installation for the studio space. The 'Speaker installation' in the window of the studio was impractical and was used purely for aesthetic reasons only (as none of the speakers or headphones were being used).
Many attempts to create a frame or focus point using 13 pairs of disposable headphones taped to the studio window, for the listener to look out of while listening to the binaural audio didnt quite work out as expected. In the end I used blue masking to add horizontal stripes that acted as a blind to block out part of the view from the window. An open space was left for the listener to sit and look through a small area of the window, while listening to a narrative that relates to what can be seen and heard through the window and inside the studio.
The purpose of dismantling some very old stereos was an attempt to retrieve the speakers, which could then be added to the temporary 'Speaker installation' (for The Collection studio window) and potentially used to produce an audio installation, with many recordings playing at once through different speakers, including the hanging headphones.
Unfortunately I wasnt able to use the speakers to there full potential, however experimenting with disused speakers and disposable headphones to produce an installation will be a consideration for future initiatives.
Rather than create just a temporary installation that can be accessed during the short time of my residency, I felt it was appropriate to produce a binaural audio walk that could be accessed during and after my residency.
By gathering binaural audio from around the city I plan to produce a binaural audio walk that is readily available to download from my blog and listened to via stereo headphones.
The recordings will hopefully give people the chance to take a different look at the city they live in, giving the opportunity to reflect on their surroundings, therefore becoming more aware of the city and its soundscape.
From my recordings at The Collection today I have discovered the many fascinating stories each told through Adinda van't Klooster's, 2005 Soundwall in the Orientation Hall. The stories- all related to Lincolnshire's history, including the origin of Issac Newton, local legends, myths and poems, all read by local residents of Lincoln.
A train journey from Leicester to Lincoln resulted in recordings of the train engine straining and brakes screeching as the train took its one and a half hour (sometimes two) to Lincoln, coupled with people chatting, children shouting and play fighting and mobile phones beeping with messages.
After installing the temporary 'Speaker installation' in the window of the studio at The Collection; I recorded binaural audio from inside the studio space, whilst I sat in the window looking out at the passing traffic and people.
Below is a series of images put together to form a short animation showing the view from The Collection studio window.
The studio space was looking empty and unused so I gathered up most of the equipment I was using to record and listen to audio with and arranged it in the window of The Collection studio. The selection of car speakers, dictaphone, CD player, speaker wire and disposable headphones, batteries, spirit level, microphone and other audio related bits and bobs arranged on the floor, stuck magnetically to the wall, wrapped around poles and taped from the ceiling caught the attention of passers by and visitors to The Collection.
Using my video camera to record the view looking out of the window and through the disposable headphones (as part of the installation). Sitting in the window of the studio, I recorded (in binaural audio) the quiet, sounds of people passing the window, muffled talking, traffic humming and beeping car alarms.
Recording binaural audio from inside and outside of The Collection studio space. I could hear the cathedral bell chiming in the distance as well as passing transport and visitors to The Collection and people walking past towards the city centre.
There were many speakers positioned throughout the city playing recordings of church choirs singing Christmas carols and giving information and instructions to get to the Christmas market.
I became obsessed, taking photographs of speakers positioned above shops, on walls and hidden up high on the Castle wall and entrance. Finding a wealth of interesting, unusual, loud and festive sounds to record, including a man with a tanoy outside the catherdral informing visitors of a Medieval Christmas Market, a spanish man shouting 'Pizza and pasta' 2 for 1 offers available at his restaurant and a man playing Christmas carols on a recorder.
Arriving in to Lincoln at 10.30am, after a two hour trip from Leicester on the train. I had overheard the excited conversation from groups of couples in their 50's regarding the Christmas market and decided to explore this event, not forgetting to take my recording equipment.
The starting point for all my soundscapes is based heavily on the location, from this I analyse the presence of the area or building together with its inhabitants, purpose, physical presence, ambience, character and history.
It is important that I gather a sense of the place through listening and recording binaural audio, and investigate the history of the location to produce a narrative for the work.This narrative acts as the basis for the soundscape, describing how the story and the environment become intertwined.
If I were selected to work in this particular studio environment for a month I would concentrate on exploring the opportunities available to develop binaural audio installations, through the use of descriptive language embedded within the audio to tell a story or describe an event.To engage the listener through successfully linking the physical surroundings with suggestions from the narrator that relate directly to the immediate environment.For example the narrator could comment on a blemish or imperfection to the wall (added by the artist) or the wind whistling through an open window or ticking clock.Thus using an object or detail to add a subtle but coincidental relationship between the soundscape and the surrounding environment.
The time spent within the studio would be very valuable to my practice because of the temporary nature to my work.So far all the binaural audio soundscapes have been created for the purpose of being site specific, for the production of one location only.I would like to explore ways in which I can produce a soundscape that isn’t limited to one venue.
Using the studio as a host, I will record the sounds of the studio, Terrace café and the general public, as well as outside the building and around the city.I will bring my own recording equipment and editing software, which I will use to layer the binaural audio with mono voice recordings and found audio from the Internet.
If I am selected I will document my experience and findings from the studio as part of my ongoing blog, including a downloadable podcast featuring several binaural audio soundscapes.
