Notes on Iklectik 2021 Event: “Brutalism in Sound: Concrete Paris and The Gathering Grounds”
- Venue: Iklectik, Lambeth (independent performance space and research arts laboratory)
- Collaboration with sound artist and composer Iain Chambers
- Focus on Chambers’s 15-minute sonic score, “Concrete Paris”
- Developed a new image and text projection sequence to accompany the performance
- Sequence followed the rhythmic changes of Chambers’s piece
- Explored a journey across Paris, combining imagery of Brutalist architecture with found objects and surfaces of the inner city at night
- The event also featured the premiere of “The Gathering Grounds” (11 minutes)
- Generated from fieldwork in the landscapes of Darwell and Powdermill reservoirs, East Sussex
- Blend of black-and-white photography with a sonic composition made entirely from field recordings
- Included a spoken narrative for three voices, constructed from fieldnotes
- Montage of archival and social media texts from occupants and users of the land over time
- Represented various perspectives, from engineers and archaeologists to ramblers and fishing clubs
- Allowed different cultures of language to intersect, revealing different itineraries and modes of attention
- Journey unveiled an increasingly contested landscape of diverse land use, ownership, and agency