Colston’s Last Journey (Worldwide)

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Walking piece details

You can open this version of Ralph Hoyte’s Colston’s Last Journey work of soundart anywhere in the world you want to on an iPhone and in most of Europe on an Android phone (sorry if not in your country – we’re getting there, slowly!)’. Ffi and download instructions search colstonslastjourney.uk and follow the link to the ‘worldwide’ version.

Open the app and you are instantly afloat on a Sea of Sound. Lost voices, statistics, fragments of audio to do with Bristol and the Transatlantic Trafficking of Enslaved Africans arise out of the Sea of Sound and disappear again into its depths. Circling around you, you will see (on your screen) 9 Ghost Ships (as pulsating coloured blobs). These ghost slave ships actually set sail from Bristol in the late 17th century and in the 18th century bound for the coast of Africa. Once there, they loaded up with enslaved Africans and set sail for the West Indies. Each of these ships represents a different facet of this nefarious trade. The ships process slowly around you. You can ‘board’ each one and listen in to what it has to say or just wander around within the soundscape.

Credits

Ralph Hoyte: concept; scripts; direction; production
Phill Phelps: coding; production; audio-engineering; digital music
Saki Yamada: digital music
Voice artists: Jade Fearon; Alan Coveney; Kerry-Ann Waison; Aaron Iyiih
(further credits see website)
Made using public funding by Arts Council England; supported by Bristol Ideas and the University of the West of England Regional History Centre