Assemblage

In November I'm participating in an art event in Yarner Wood on Dartmoor. The event is a series of interventions, installations and responses to the managed landscape by a group of artists whose current work investigates the landscape and environment and the relationship humans have with them. My contribution will be a quiet space, and quiet sit. More to follow.

The wood between the worlds

On the evening of 11 July a small group of wanderers wandered along lanes, through forest and over heath. Stories were told of alien cats and winged horrors and Honda civics. Of laurel and cyanide. Of sheep rolling and foxes in vans. Rush lights were stripped. Mole hills were excavated and flints sparked. Goatsuckers sang their crepuscular songs while white tissues were waved. Chocolate was eaten. Constellations were traced near the 23rd post. Dark mirrors were gazed at and revealed subtle lights and gentle ripples. And phosphenes danced. And owls called. And the air moved gently. Then it was midnight and the wanderers went home.

This walk was part of Spacex Gallery's Topophobia

Quiet

On the night of 19/20 June 2012 a small group of people sat listening, quietly, overnight by the River Dart at Dartington in Devon, UK. The group were participating in a conference concerned with arts and ecology called The Home and the World (see previous posts). These three recordings are taken before, during and after first light.

Quiet

On the evening of Tuesday 19 June, the first day of the the Home and the World Conference at Dartington, Devon, I’m inviting people to sit quietly on the banks of the River Dart with me any time between 9pm and 8am.

People can sit at dusk, or wander down to greet the dawn. Or join me at midnight. For a minute, and hour or 11 hours. Sunset is 9:21pm, it’ll be dark about an hour after that. First light will be about 3:45am, with sunrise about an hour later. Its a new moon on the 19th.

I’d like people to be quiet. I’d to simply listen to whatever the night brings, otters or bats, rain or cows.

I’d like to sit in the dark.

April Update

Lots of interesting projects and listenings coming up over the next few months.

On 26-27 May I'll be helping people discover the rich and diverse voices of birds on a course for Wildlwise, details here. This year we'll be based at a woodland camp on the edge of Dartmoor.

On 19-20 June I'm participating in the Home and the World Conference at Dartington Hall in Devon. Billed as a creative summit on arts and ecology it "explores existential questions such as: what does it mean to be at home in the world? what does home mean to us? how can we be more aware of our ‘inhabited place’ in the world? why do we all too often fail to understand the impact we have on the world around us?". My contribution is an overnight sit and listen by the River Dart.

Then on Thursday 14 June I'm leading a walk called "The Wood between the Worlds" as part of the forthcoming Topophobia show at Spacex Gallery in Exeter. This will be a mix of story and listening related to the idea of "fear of place" on a night time exploration of Haldon Forest in Devon.

The poetry of the earth is never dead

Due to poor weather we resheduled our walk in search of crickets and grasshoppers and other small sounds to the week following the advertised date. Fortunately it was second time lucky as six of us enjoyed a warm still evening's wander around Orley Common.

We were rewarded with the quiet sounds of dark bush crickets and the considerably louder reeling of the UK's largest insect, the great green bush cricket. Alongside these we also recorded the echo-location of bats transposed through a bat detector and numerous calls of birds, including some very active jays and the pre roost calls of blackbirds.

Finally, in darkness, we picked our way back to the car park, our path faintly illuminated by the natural limestone paving.

The following week we gathered again, this time at Aune Head Arts studios at Dartington. There, using laptops and the studio's very wizzy Macs we started to edit our collected audio in what will be a series of short podcasts for Aune Head's website. More on this in October.

Efford Walks

Thanks to everyone who gave their time we ran a series of fascinating and enjoyable walks around Efford as part of celebrations of two years of community arts locally. Highlights included a trip to the Elephants Graveyard, stories of Effords last pub and Efford Fort.

View the day's programme here (pdf 198Kb)

Efford Take-a-Party

On 25 June I'll be helping out with celebrations of Efford Take a Part community arts project by supporting a series of creative walks to reveal the hidden aspects of this wonderful Plymouth community perched high up above the River Plym.

More details, including about our walk up from Plymouth Arts here.

Dusk to Dawn Chorus

All in all this overnight walk proved quite an experience, one which still resonates. At face value the notion of walking through the night is a simple one. But, as we moved from the dusk gloom through into the dark proper and out into the morning glow we also moved from our pasts and futures into the present. In part this was due to growing fatigue. In part it was due to the necessity for focus and concentration as we felt our way through the dark without the aid of torches. But from busy solar worlds we slipped gradually into the night, and to a quiet appreciation of both each others companty and the place through which we passed.

Dusk to Dawn Chorus

Saturday 28 May to Sunday 29 May 2011, Dartington Estate, Devon

For this Aune Head Arts event I'll be working with artist Elly Stevens to take people on an overnight journey to discover the sounds and voices of the night. The event will start with a sit to listen to the dusk chorus of bird song, identifying the many and varied voices that amplify the landscape with the setting sun. With the final song we will then embark on a slow walk round the estate; a combination of playful exploration, shared stories, and times for still quiet listening at different places. We will return to our starting point before dawn to celebrate the birds as they awaken and greet the day. As the sun rises, we’ll share a lovely breakfast!

This is part of a series of events called Flittermice and Hoots that focus on the natural world at dusk and dawn

More details and booking information here

Plymouth Tracks II

Yesterday evening Simon Persighetti and myself took 21 keen sound adventurers on a tour of Plymouth's real and imagined musical history. This was our contribution to the Second International Research Forum on Guided Tours and was a repeat of the walk we did for the Ambulation show last autumn.

Ambulation, August to October 2010

Our group exhibition at Plymouth Arts was launched yesterday. Write up in the Guardian here.

Ambulation

Simon Persighetti and myself will be taking part in a new exhibition at Plymouth Arts Centre between August and October this year.

Ambulation brings together specially commissioned and past works by artists and architects who use walking as an artistic practice. These artists all use the idea to explore walking as a practice, from looking at the historical contexts of the city, to the symbolic potentials that are held within an everyday object, and the idea that walking should be an aimless affair.

More details here

Walk the Walls

Big thanks to everyone who took part in the walk last night/this morning. To see what happened visit the live photo blog of the walk here.

We started of with ten people, with two others joining later. Numbers fell off understandably as the night progressed but we had two hardy walkers, Mark and Ashley, who stayed for the whole walk, all twelve hours! The wallk was at times playful, at times quiet, at times challenging, but engaging and in its own way, I suggest immersive. Obviously everyone will take away their own impressions and experiences. Both Simon and myself would love to hear these impressions and experiences. We’d also love to be able to add some of your images to the website .. To get in contact , mail Tony at tony dot whitehead2332 at gmail dot com Thanks again for coming along and making it special.

Walk the Walls, January 2010

MIDNIGHT Friday 22 January til NOON Saturday 23 January

A special walk in support of The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow curated by Marina Abramovic and organised by Plymouth Arts Centre.

In 1988 Abramovic and Ulay walked the 6,000 Km Great Wall of China from opposite ends meeting in the middle.

Simon Persighetti (Wrights& Sites) and Tony Whitehead (Soundings) invite you on a 6km slow walk through the City of Plymouth from midnight on Friday 22 January til noon on Saturday 23 January following the zigzag route of a scaled-down georectification of the Great Wall. Along the way we will take note of visible and invisible barriers, edges, liminal spaces, boundaries, fences and the ecologies of walls.

You can join us for the whole walk starting at the junction of Elburton Road and Southernway, north of Elburton and Plymstock (type 50.36496,-4.079107 into Google Maps).

If you are at evening performances at the Slaughterhouse, Royal William Yard, it will be possible for particpants to share cabs out to the start point with the walk leaders. We'll be leaving c11:15pm.

Or you can join us for part of our journey - we will signal our position live on this Walk the Walls blog (scroll down) so that you know where we are.

Or you can meet us at our finishing point at the Slaughterhouse at 12 noon on Saturday 23 January where we will present our findings and have delirious conversations perhaps before parting our ways forever.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
If you are joining us, please remember to wrap up very warm and bring waterproofs. Parts of the walk will be on rough ground, so sturdy boots/walking shoes should be worn. For the night walking please bring a torch. Feel free as well to bring recording devices (camera/chalk), and energy food.

We hope you enjoy taking part in Walk the Walls, but please remember that everyone takes part at their own risk and that the organisers and leaders are not responsible for any injuries, loss or damage that occur during the event.

For more information, and to register your interest in taking part contact Plymouth Arts Centre on 01752 206114 or email info at plymouthartscentre dot org

Plymouth Soundings, Sunday 12 July 2009, 10:30am

With walking artist Simon Persighetti (Wrights & Sites) and sound artist Tony Whitehead explore the edges of Plymouth Sound following signals, echoes, calls and songs blowing in the wind. Help collect an archive of sounds to shape into a programme for Plymouth Arts Centre radio station Freesound which will be broadcasting on line from 7 August to 6 September 09.

Notes on Animal Gaze

Simon Persighetti and myself shared our city/forest explorations with fourteen keen adventurers yesterday. Personal highlights of a really fun day include: fourteen people buying one eccles cake in the bus station cafe to feed a pigeon; fourteen people standing in Coral bookies watching a horse race; planting wild flower seeds in a patch of grassy `non-space' outside the police station; running on the spot and succesfully getting worms to come up to the surface; making origami cranes and decorating a forest tree with them; the whole group walking with eyes closed along a forest track; trying to find north while standing amongst the trees; standing in silence in the forest surrounded by birds.

A few notes written in advance of the Animal Gaze walk here.

Animal Gaze

The Animal Gaze walk is now fully booked.

Animal Gaze

On 31 January 2009 artist Simon Persighetti and myself will be leading a couple of walks that explore the themes of the Animal Gaze exhibition. This large show considers the often paradoxical relationship between animals and humans. Full details of the walk here.

Review of Kings Place Performance

Nice review of our Kings Place performance here

" ‘Sound Walk’ was a collaboration between sound artists Tony Whitehead and Matthew Sansom, presented by the Society for the Promotion of New Music. Tony Whitehead had spent a day in and around Kings Cross, keeping a sound diary in which he wrote descriptions of the noises he heard, then honing these descriptions into a poem. Whitehead’s words were projected, verse by verse, onto a screen while we listened to Matthew Sansom’s composition – a soundscape constructed from recordings he had made of the ambient sounds of Kings Cross. This was serious, contemplative work which benefited from being presented in a concert hall: had I encountered it in a gallery or on a CD my attention span might not have been long enough to appreciate it, but sitting in a darkened room, concentrating on the patterns of sounds and words, it was fascinating how things were gradually revealed."