Saturday 6 July 2019, 2pm, Off-site
Desire Lines: a sporadic series of wanderings, exploring sites of interest, curiosity or obscurity, to be found alongside, or deviant from, the well trodden path. All walks are led by Helen Frosi (Founder of SoundFjord / Visible Near Midnight Recordings), often in collaboration with artists, musicians and other enthusiasts. This series, commissioned by Cafe OTO, incites encounters with the more-than-human-world, foregrounding multiply modes of listening within the polyphony of our sounding world.
Location: Epping Forest
Start: Chingford Station | Forecourt
Date: Saturday 06 July 2019
Time: 2:00pm start
Duration: 1.5-2 hours
A hushed sound walk through a former royal forest cum sight of specific scientific interest.
From suburban sprawl to grasslands, through ivy-covered oak and hornbeam and beneath chlorophyll dosed light this sound walk focuses on a holistic sensory exploration of aspects of Epping Forest, aka. “The People’s Forest” as Queen Victoria named it in 1882.
Inspired by Victoria's wish "to dedicate this beautiful forest to the use and enjoyment of my people for all time" this walk, led by Helen Frosi (SoundFjord) and Stephan Barrett (Littoral Transmissions), will include a number of listening exercises to open and cleanse the ears and will include slow walking and sound mapping using materials found on location, encouraging a multi-faceted approach to, and connection with, this many-hued and sounding world.
This event is suitable for ages 14-years upwards.
All children under 16 should be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
NB. the route will feature uneven ground, which may be muddy.
Wear suitable shoes and clothing for the weather and location. Bring a bottle of water with you.
Helen Frosi is a holobiont whose art practice pivots around ecological thought, poetics, and the environmental, creative, social, and political enmeshment of sound, hearing and listening. Her practice embodies epistemic pluralism, is facilitatory, and necessitates collaborative, cross-disciplinary work, communal projects and collective activities.
Helen is co-ordinator and co-curator of auralpluralities, a project that troubles accepted norms in audio technology, sound culture and Western epistemologies, questioning the extent of human perception, our relation in and through the vibratory world, and whether hearing is ever an individual act, and is curator of EnCOUnTERs, an interdisciplinary project that encompasses art, ecology and the sonic imagination.
Other long-term projects include: SoundFjord, a nomadic curatorial platform focused on sound-related research and practice (2010-present); Visible Near Midnight Recordings, for works that fall between the genre gaps (2012-present); Longplayer Day (2017-22). She is a workshop facilitator at the British Library, and Honorary Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London (Dept of Music).
Stephan Barrett is a London-based pianist, field recordist, improviser and sound editor. Stephan performs as a duo with Helen Frosi under the moniker Postcards from the Volcano, and with Adam Kinsey as Littoral Transmissions. Both projects focus on the creation of site-sensitive works, the former working with materials gleaned walking London’s peri-urban landscapes, whilst the latter explores the sonic resonance of objects and the aquatic imaginary.
As an improviser, Stephan has performed at Arch 1, A.P.T, Iklectik, Full of Noises Festival, Harts Lane Gallery, Hundred Years Gallery, and New River Studios amongst other locations, and has created transmission works for amongst others: Radiophrenia, SonicaFM, Threads and Wandsworth radio. He has released albums with Colliding Lines, International Ephemera, Minimal Resource Manipulation, Steep Gloss, Visible Near Midnight Recordings, and currently produces Lee Navigations, a monthly radio show for Resonance Extra.
https://extra.resonance.fm/series/lea-navigations
