Neolithic Cannibals - Workshop 1 journal and video clip

The first Neolithic Cannibals workshop took place this week. We enjoyed some simple field recording, exploring the corridor outside our workshop space. I guided the group in listening to and recording the resonances and timbre of various objects and materials such as a hollow plastic bin (which they dropped the microphone in to and then hit with percussion beaters), coathangers sliding and scratching on a metal rail, radiators clanging, squeaky tables and discovering that every door has its own unique sound signature if you listen closely. They mixed these everyday, found sounds with electronics, improvising their first soundscape, each artist engaging with the inquisitive, playful nature that lies at the heart of this project.  

Young sound artists take part in listening exercises and experiment with synthesizers and found sounds. Film by Curtis James

“A vibrational movement - through the hill to the city. Vibrating the earth and chalk that sit as a symbolic barrier.”

Often these tools - microphones, synthesisers and effects are more powerful in the hands of young people, with no preconceptions of what they should do with them or what they should sound like. That’s really exciting. 

I’m listening back to their work now and there are some lovely moments. After just one session I’ve no doubt we will fill the gallery space with wonderfully imaginative sounds. 

The Architect has Left the Building review in Apollo Magazine

This building-as-camera projection is amplified by the sounds layered over the footage: vibrations to the fabric of the building in the form of footsteps, bangs and knocks, rain and wind, captured by sound artist Simon James using contact mics, like sound through a stethoscope.

A lovely review of The Architect has Left the Building film/exhibition with Jim Stephenson and Sofia Smith at RIBA. Read it here.

The exhibition runs until August 12th. Find out more here.

The buildings start to seem alive, just on a life cycle far slower than that of the people that crawl in and around them. Like the mountains that folklore claims to be sleeping giants, the buildings patiently await the transfiguration that comes with time.

Class Divide podcast

My twin brother Curtis (find him here) is making a podcast series called Class Divide that explores the complex and damaging issues of education inequality. It is based in the area where we grew up - Whitehawk in Brighton, and has been years in the making with deep research and interviews with many experts and the people who have suffered at the hands of the cruel, unfair system that both of us experienced first hand.

As part of that series Curtis has invited me to help young people in the area create some sound art that will form the 10th episode of the series. The aim is to give these young people an opportunity to make their own work and share something of their creation; stories, sound art, field recordings, live performance.

Through a series of workshops held at the brilliant Crew Club, I want to help them explore the rich and fulfilling world of sound and listening.

There is a beautiful cyclic nature to this project as both Curtis and myself were inspired by a group of visiting musicians when we were at school, and although I never got to study music as there weren’t enough places, this intervention changed and shaped the course of my life.

Photo by Jack Nielsen @ The Crew Club

Session 0

Last week I went and shared my ideas with a handful of young people that attend The Crew Club. I wanted to ask them if they would like to work with me on this collaborative sound art project, as too often young people aren’t given a choice. I was nervous about this session - what if they didn’t like it? What if they thought it was too weird? I shouldn’t have worried. Young people are more open minded than we give them credit for.

We discussed listening, sound art, field recording, John Cage’s 4’33” and then explored the Crew Club with contact microphones and electromagnetic microphones. The latter was a big hit, the young people amazed at the hidden sound world all around them. Finally we ended the evening playing electronic sound sources and mixing them with recordings we’d made around the space. This was my favourite part of the evening and we even attracted people from nearby who were interested in what we were up to. I’m looking forward to helping share some hidden, (neglected) sounds and voices from Whitehawk.

I’m excited about this project, it feels important in ways that are obvious but others that aren’t (yet) and I have ambitious hopes for what it could be. It coincides with a period of intense creative expansion and learning for me and it feels right that these two things should be happening at the same time. I’m excited to share it with young people in Whitehawk, I bet I’ll learn a lot from my young collaborators. Here are some more pictures from that first session, all taken by Jack Nielsen at The Crew Club.

Finally thanks to The Crew Club for their support and all the work they do in Whitehawk.