Workshop 6

In workshop 6, we explored the acoustics of the foot tunnel that passes under Brighton Racecourse, improvising with percussion instruments and simple electronic synthesizers to sound and activate the underground structure. The artists devised simple improvisational rules and experimented with timing, movement, patterns, timbre and the materials of the tunnel. In one performance each participant used a single hand bell and took different positions along the tunnel, sounding their instrument only when the previous bell ring had died away. Later, wild electronic tones bounced off the narrow, damp walls, echoing and swirling along the connecting pathway in and out of Whitehawk.

Leaving the dim, cool underground, we emerged into thick mist and headed to Whitehawk Hill, where the artists roamed with portable audio recorders foraging for air and structure-borne sounds on the site of the Neolithic Camp. 

The launch of the Neolithic Cannibals exhibition is approaching and we are excited to share the recordings and performances the young artists have created during this and earlier workshop sessions. Those sounds are collected in a multi speaker collage that will loop in the gallery -  a contemporary artefact that sits alongside finds, illustrations, plans and reports from the archaeological excavations and history of the hidden and unheard.

Film by Curtis James