Recreational (2018)

 

I designed a semi-interactive sound installation whereby I aimed to produce an otherworldly ambience loop to fill the exhibit room and compliment the other pieces on display. SFX could be triggered and also panned left and right with an Xbox controller through the use of Logic and Max 7.

 

'Everything should remain possible; everything should be able to happen. The environment will be shaped by the activities of life, not vice versa”. This urban utopian ideal is part of Constant Nieuwenhuys‘ New Babylon Project, falling into a long line of dreams of a future not dictated by a 9-5, sandwiched between hours of commuting. These visions of a city whose society is constantly at play hasn’t yet come into fruition. We are a long way off any 20th century futuristic dreams of a post work society. Particularly in London, it seems that most work longer hours, prioritised above “activities of life” outside of this work, in order to cope with the pressures of the “high rental price-tag.” However, beneath the bridges weighing heavy with the ritual of the cross city commute, in the fields of canal- sides, and in the riverside glass ghost-towns there are places where the environment is shaped by people at play. Unregulated and unrecorded, where no permission needs to be sought, there are interventions into environments- some lasting moments and some lasting for years. From small scale skate parks, to stone circles in city farms, people continue to make what they need and want, despite the high risks and higher price tags associated with space and land. Spiritual, celebratory, creative and destructive these self organised acts are visible through the negative spaces, between and (so far) untouched by London’s rampant urban development.'