Photos from a sound-walk, Whitechapel, London

The day I was in London exploring various galleries showing John Latham’s work, I stumbled across a wonderful sound-walk. Janet Cardiff’s (1999) The missing voice (case study B) was something I was aware of, both because of an exhibition of her work (with partner George Bures Miller) at Modern Art Oxford (The House Of Books Has No Windows), and a paper by the geographer David Pinder, ‘Ghostly Footsteps: Voices, Memories and Walks in the City‘:

This paper is concerned with urban walking and the work of contemporary artists and writers who take to the streets in order to explore, excavate and map hidden spaces and paths in the city. The focus is on an audio-walk by the Canadian artist Janet Cardiff entitled The missing voice (case study B), which is set in east London. Connections are also drawn with other recent projects in the same area by Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair. The paper discusses how these artists raise important issues about the cultural geographies of the city relating to subjectivity, representation and memory. Cardiff’s audio-walk in particular works with connections between the self and the city, between the conscious and unconscious, and between multiple selves and urban footsteps. In so doing, she directs attention to the significance of dreams and ghostly matters for thinking about the real and imagined spaces of the city.

It was just a sign on the wall, and so I went to the reception to enquire. I was asked to fill in some paperwork and required to leave my credit card at the desk. In return, I was handed an iPod Nano with a set of audio files pre-loaded on it, pointed in the right direction and politely told that the first seven minutes or so would not make sense as they were recorded before Whitechapel Gallery was renovated. With this in mind, I stood to one side and got my notebook and camera out. I am not entirely sure how to write about the walk, but I would encourage anyone to do it if they can. The sign said it would take 50 minutes, a fairly decent approximation, and is well worth your time. I took photos as I walked, and jotted down notes and thoughts in my notebook. The binauraul recording is disorienting at first but leads you through the city as if it were holding you by the hand (perhaps it’s by the ear instead). For more information on the piece, see Cardiff’s own site, or Artangel’s, who funded the work (and also host the audio files, if you wish to take your own MP3 and headphones).

Rather than write about the walk, I’ve instead included a collage of snapshots of my journeying (above) and transcribed my (at times nonsensical) notes for posterity.

Shop, KFC | ambulance? Siren | Dogs barking | rhythm of steps | [unreadable] | uncanny timing | Brick Lane – sound and smell | unexpected details – “I ate here” | pause at crossing | find myself turning my head, taking headphones off, wondering if people like me… | mapping different paths – details | no average sign (Eat + Drink) | go past station | fancy men’s clothes – smart suit (uncanny) | church shut – sit on benches at the site | I ready myself, but she comes over, sits down | no tulips or smell… | story is composed of little snippets | took a wrong turn – Bathhouse | McD, weird lights | watching people from railings

Walking-planting the city, London

The Sense Lab, a laboratory for thought in motion, is composed of artists, academics, researchers, dancers and writers who work together to explore the active passage between research and creation.

As a member by proxy (one of my supervisors has attended various Sense Lab events), I’ve been involved in this year’s project, titled ‘Society of Molecules‘. Each molecule is challenged to set up an aesthetico-political action of some kind; the molecule that I was part of was interested in ‘Diagramming Movements between the cartographic and the choreographic’ and was co-located at Oxford, Chichester and London.

Movement profile
We want to facilitate a distributed field of movement and experiment between two techniques of thinking-space, two technologies of lived abstraction – geography and dance.

As part of this distributed event, the molecule gathered in London on 04.04.09 to meet one another, to talk about what we’d been reading (mainly Chaosmosis, by Guattari) and to be involved in some sort of ethico-aesthetic action. A walk was planned as part of an attempt to link two gallery spaces which were both part of the same exhibition (The Collection). Movement artist Simon Whitehead created a postcard ‘score’ to guide people along a pre-determined route. But walking was only part of it: all those involved were also encouraged to make seed balls and take them on the walk, with the view to introducing them to ‘latent spaces’. Guerilla gardening! SCATTER.

Score of the walk

The collage shows some of the encounters, trails and seeds planted on the walk. Please get in touch with me if you’d like a copy of the collage at full-size (4.4 MB).