New project coming soon: Sound Transposed

When we first began our practice as Sidelong, we agreed three things:
1. it would be about walking;
2. it would be about curating;
3. we would curate 3 walks.

The first walk was to be a self-led walk where people followed a map. This was Dream Walking (2012).

The second walk was to be a group walk led by us as tour guides. This was A Walk Through the Underworld (2013).

The third walk was to be a walk that happened in different places but would be shared by and with participants online. This will be Transpose (2014).

We will be launching this new project on April 10th at an event at New Art Exchange, 6.30pm, as well as online on this blog.

In devising Transpose we had set ourselves a dilemma. Transpose was to be an online project, something that happened virtually. However, our first two walks had made it clear to us that we were interested in the physical and sensory nature of walks, be it walking at night and being dazzled by lights in dark spaces (Dream Walking), or exploring the sense of being underground in the caves with the smells, the sounds, the dampness, the feeling of remoteness, sometimes pitch black with just the sound of a voice reading or other times entering a chamber infused with the heady smell of herbs (A Walk Through the Underworld). So here we are, trying to devise a project that will continue the sensory nature of walking which is important to us, but also makes use of the virtual world. The two aims seem to contradict each other; can we do both?

Transpose aims to. Transpose is about sound. It is about transposing sound from one place to another. It embraces elements of chance, yet works within a devised system. Participants will be asked to follow particular instructions but also to play with creative inventiveness within those parameters. Transpose is also about notation, finding new ways of recording, sharing and describing spaces.
We are looking for people to take part in this project. Each month participants will be set a challenge, to go on a walk and create something in response to our instructions which they then contribute to the project. Contributions will be collected over a year on a curated blog. The project will evolve over that time, and conclude with an event that we will devise which shares some of the ideas and the evolving work. We hope that participants will explore with us the nature of sound and spaces and, through taking part, begin to connect with their own place in a new way.

If you are interested and think you might want to take part in this project, please sign up to our mailing list here and we will keep you informed of progress. You can also follow our progress on Facebook and on the new curated blog soundtransposed.com