From there to here — Arcs of experience and the listening of elsewhere

Duncan Speakman

‘It Must Have Been Dark by Then’ is the first of three projects commissioned by the Ambient Literature research project.  It is an audio walk and book that attempts to connect sounds and stories from remote locations to the audiences immediate location.  Somewhere between a travel journal and a poetically reflective experience, the piece uses the method of loci as its fundamental narrative structure, creating intersects between the journey of the author and that of the listener/reader.

This presentation explores the challenges of creating works that exist between the page and the ear, asking how the temporal structure of sound can be reconciled with uncontrolled environments and unpredictable audiences.  Is it possible to combine different modes of experience into a fluid structure? What changes when we raise and lower our eyes from the pages of a book, what happens when the sound in our ears is disconnected from the ground under our feet.

Duncan Speakman (UK 1976) is a composer and director of the artists collective “Circumstance.” Originally trained as a sound engineer at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, he moved to Bristol in 1999 where he began developing interactive documentary projects and installations. Since 2005 he has focused on audio and locative media, developing pieces where the line between audience and performer becomes continually blurred in uncontrolled environments. His work continues to explore the narrative of experience, mobile audio technology, and the politics of public space. He wraps his questions in melancholy and romance. http://duncanspeakman.net/

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