Simulation of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER now available on YouTube

https://youtu.be/-9B2cY3hZ7k



A simulation of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER, an audiovisual installation in which a series of animations and audio are projected on 4 walls of the StoryWorld gallery space at The Word, South Shields

Documentation of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER audiovisual installation at The Word, South Shields

Documentation of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER, an audiovisual installation by Helen Shaddock exhibited at The Word, South Shields is now available to watch on YouTube.



https://youtu.be/CSQHdq0ool0


THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER is the culmination of a project funded by the Arts Council England Grants for the Arts. Helen Shaddock worked with artists, researchers, academics, Mental Health organisations and a range of individuals to investigate visual and auditory hallucinations.

Following an intense period of research and reflection, Shaddock gathered a collection of words from which a soundtrack was created through a collaboration with artist/musician Sarah Grundy. Using a loop pedal, Grundy formed a range of rhythmic patterns from the words. Shaddock edited these further to create the soundtrack for the audio-visual installation, integrating field recordings and sounds produced by Drone Ensemble. Drone Ensemble is an experimental sound group in which Shaddock is a member, that uses handmade acoustic instruments to emit vast, deep, sonorous drones.        
For the preview of the exhibition, Sarah Grundy performed a re-working of the installation soundtrack (see separate video documentation available on YouTube).

Q & A with Helen Shaddock in relation to THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER at The Word

To coincide with my exhibition, THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER, I was interviewed by Emma Ormiston at The Word about the audiovisual installation.

Read the Q and A here:

http://theworduk.org/q-a-with-helen-shaddock/

Documentation of performance at THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER preview

As part of my exhibition, THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER, at The Word in South Shields, I collaborated with Sarah Grundy on a performance.

This video documents the durational performance.



https://youtu.be/bcwua_Qvzkk

Recovering the Voice event at The Word

Together with Jenny Richards and Violetta Hionidou, I have been involved in the organisation of 'Recovering the Voice', an event that took place today at The Word. The broad aim was to make connections between research on physical voice that is happening across Newcastle University. We want to bring to fore an area we think is a unique strength at Newcastle University, and to add to the orality network a distinct focus that may help us to think about future cross-disciplinary bids to UKRI.


1. How do we recover the voice?

This is a question that is relevant both to arts and humanities scholars/practitioners who work historically, whose sources are textual only, and to clinicians who work with patients who have had major surgery on their vocal cords. In both cases the voice is 'lost'.

2. How do we work together to understand the cultural value and the semiotics of the voice?


It was a truly fascinating event and I am very stimulated and want to learn more. Before I reflect on the events of the day in another post, here is an outline of the event




10.00-10.30 welcome: introductions, what we hope to get out of today? Tea and coffee on arrival.

10.30-12-00 session 1

Provocateurs: Richard Wistreich (Royal College of Music, London), Jo Nockels (Opera North, Leeds), Peter Adegbie (poet and preacher), Vinidh Paleri (ENT surgeon, Royal Marsden, London)

12-1.00 Lunch

1.00-2.30 session 2

Provocateurs: Sue Bradley (oral historian, Newcastle University), Felicity Laurence (independent scholar; music education), Christos Salis (neurolinguistics, Newcastle University); Christos Kakalis (architect, Newcastle University)

2.30-3.00 tea and coffee

3-4.00 Final roundtable and next steps

4pm Please feel free to view Helen Shaddock's exhibition at the library.



Questions to think about


Morning (Jenny introducing)


Part 1 Recovering Physical Voice

- what does the voice mean to you?

- why is voice important to your work?

- how do you understand and analyse the physical voice?

- in what way does the voice carry meaning?

- what do we *not* know about the voice but need to know?

- how do we recover the voice, whether in actuality (i.e. rebuilding a voice) or historically?



Afternoon (Violetta introducing)

Part II: Recovering the voice and orality

- Orality versus voice/vocality: how do you define each? which focus works best for you and why?

- What are the social aspects of work on voice/orality?

- How important are hearing and seeing to orality/voice?

- What are we excluding through a focus on voice/orality?

- Do we need an international perspective on voice/orality?

- How can the digital help us to recover the voice/orality?

- How do we best translate the voice/orality into a written text?



Final Roundtable

Next steps: a final provocation, to be led by Liz Kemp:

It has been said we lack a 'science of the voice' (Adriana Cavarera). If we were to build a field to address this, what would it look like?

Pre-performance photos

It's hard to believe that it is nearly a week since the preview of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER, my current exhibition at The Word in South Shields. As part of the exhibition I worked in collaboration with Sarah Grundy, and they performed at the preview. Here are some photos of us prior to the amazing performance.

Mock up of audio-visual installation

When I was editing the footage for THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER, I made a mock up of the 5 screens (one of the walls is so wide that it has 2 projections) to visualise how the footage would work together as a whole. I wanted to create links between the visuals and manipulate the way the audience interacts with the space.  Here are some of the images of the mock up that I created to help me visualise the installation.

Mock up of audio-visual installation

When I was editing the footage for THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER, I made a mock up of the 5 screens (one of the walls is so wide that it has 2 projections) to visualise how the footage would work together as a whole. I wanted to create links between the visuals and manipulate the way the audience interacts with the space. Over the next few posts I will be showing some of the images of the mock up that I created to help me visualise the installation.

Mock up of audio-visual installation

When I was editing the footage for THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER, I made a mock up of the 5 screens (one of the walls is so wide that it has 2 projections) to visualise how the footage would work together as a whole. I wanted to create links between the visuals and manipulate the way the audience interacts with the space. Over the next few posts I will be showing some of the images of the mock up that I created to help me visualise the installation.

Mock up of audio visual installation

When I was editing the footage for THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER, I made a mock up of the 5 screens (one of the walls is so wide that it has 2 projections) to visualise how the footage would work together as a whole. I wanted to create links between the visuals and manipulate the way the audience interacts with the space. Over the next few posts I will be showing some of the images of the mock up that I created to help me visualise the installation.

 

Thanks to those who helped with THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER

I'm still buzzing from last night's preview of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER. The whole exhibition and preview would not have been such a success without the assistance of a number of special people and the amazing staff at The Word.

I could easily spend hours thanking all those involved in the develop of the work, but there are a few specific people who deserve an extra-special mention.

Firstly, Sarah Grundy for being an excellent person to collaborate with. The process has been wholly positive and enriching. Lets do more work together!

Edwin Li has been a huge support. He provided us with access to a range of his equipment, including his loop pedal, helped transport kit to and from The Word, manned the merchandise table as well as documenting the performance - talk about multi-tasking!



Drone Ensemble for producing such wonderful sonorous sounds and allowing me to edit them to be part of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER.

Leah Millar at Hands On Film Lab for introducing me to the joys of 16mm cameraless film animation. This was the technique I used to create the visuals for the installation, and although it is incredibly time consuming and fiddly, I have grown very fond of what this way of working enables me to create.

Mark Rowden at The Word for being the technical whizz behind the StoryWorld. Despite the numerous technological problems we faced throughout the install, Mark remained calm and continued to find ways to reach a solution.

Richard Barber for his continued support and assistance from the first day that I submitted my exhibition proposal to The Word.

Emma and Gemma at The Word who have helped with the marketing and promotion of the exhibition. 

Suzanne, a member of library staff at The Word who came to the rescue last night during the preview when she was able to get the audio to start playing again after it had mysteriously stopped. We still don't know what she did to solve the problem, but her magical finger did the trick and the show went on!

Matthew Pickering for his assistance with AfterEffects, the new software that I had to learn in order to map the videos to the walls so that the projections did not spill onto the floor and ceiling.

Arts Council England, for providing funding to enable me to realise the whole project.

Apologies to anyone I have forgotten to give a specific mention to.

Thanks to all who attended the preview of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER at The Word

I would like to extend my thanks to all who attended the preview of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER at The Word last night. It was really great to see such a range of people appreciating the installation and the amazing performance by Sarah Grundy. 

Please do get in touch to let me know your thoughts. Feedback is always welcome. 

You can contact me via my website http://www.helenshaddock.co.uk/

Alternatively, send me an email helen.shaddock(at)yahoo.co.uk

Performance by Sarah Grundy during THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER preview

Sarah Grundy will be performing throughout the preview of THEMSELVES HERE TOGETHER. The performance will take place on the ground floor near the building entrance and the cafe and the multiscreen audio-visual installation is on level 2 in StoryWorld.