I am Ralph Hoyte, a Bristol-based sound artist. Together with Prof’ Steve Poole (UWE Regional History Centre) I will be conducting an artist-led walk thru’ of my Arts Council England/Bristol Ideas/University of the West of England Regional History Centre-supported work of located soundart, Colston’s Last Journey, as part of the Being Human Festival of the Humanities.

Colston’s Last Journey is a work of sound art layered over the whole of Bristol city centre (and down to Pero’s Bridge) accessed thru’ the smartphone (the walk thru’ will, however, for this occasion be a communal experience thru’ the wonders of Bluetooth!). The work’s subject is Bristol and the Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Africans. On joining the walk you will immediately be set afloat on a sea of spatialised audio. We will then ‘board’ a selection of the ghosts of 9 actual slave ships which sailed from this very quay from the 7th – early 19th centuries – each slave ship representing one aspect of the trade in enslaved Africans. You are then invited back to MShed/Bristol for a chat!