Site-specific sound installation
Composer Helen Ottaway
Sound designer Alastair Goolden
Musicians Jo Plimmer (accordion), Suzanne Rosenfeld (violin & viola), Basira Ward (soprano)
Spoken voices Thierry Chessum, Eva Warman, Leena Hillman, Julie Adam Kiki Cendoya
Line dances, a sound environment which responds to the movement of people in the space, was commissioned by The National Review of Live Art for the 20th anniversary festival and was installed in a corridor in The Arches in Glasgow in February 2001. Passing through the brick arched passageway, visitors conjure distant memories and events participating in collective or individual ‘dances’. Fragments of sound and melody, tango and waltz, accordion and violin collide or interlock creating whole or partial images. The environment is punctuated by directions and instructions spoken in various European languages, the distant sound of hammering and the sound of rain. This is a soundtrack for travelling. Each individual journey through the space creates a unique pattern of sounds contributing to the whole, like lines and scenes in an imaginary film score. The interactive environment is achieved through the use of Soundbeams, a digital sampler and a computer programme.
Performance History
2001, The National Review of Live Art, The Arches, Glasgow