LINKED is a radio installation/sound walk, a response to the creation of the M11 Link Road in East London in the 1990s which involved the demolition of over 400 homes following a 10 year protest.

LINKED is installed on radio transmitters which play from lampposts across 3 miles of the city. Since it was launched as a Museum of London commission in 2003, these transmitters have broadcast over a million times the voices and stories of 100+ people who lived or worked in the buildings erased by the road; it is playing whether anyone is listening or not and has in effect become a secret, ghostlike layer of the city.

To experience this sound work in person, you can borrow a small radio receiver, headphones and map on one of our regular open days hosted in libraries along the route. You are also very welcome to get in touch if you would like to borrow this kit and organise your own group to go on the sound walk.

We can offer guidance on shorter routes, and you are welcome to do one section, have a rest in one of the many cafes en route, and come and go as you wish. The full route takes several hours to complete on foot, by wheelchair or by bike.

FURTHER INFO

LINKED has endured as perhaps the largest sonic installation and sculptural entity in London for 20 years, broadcasting over a million times the voices and stories of people who lived or worked in the area impacted by the road.

Along a route between Hackney Marshes and Redbridge Roundabout (adjacent to the Link Rd) analogue radio transmitters reveal the voices and stories of 60 people who once lived and worked in the area – families, road protestors, railway-workers, a lollipop lady, teachers, disco-goers, and artists from the substantial community living in houses destroyed by the road – among them Cornelia Parker, John Smith, Christine Binnie and Ian Bourn. Together the assembly of voices evokes a fascinating and moving cross-section of East London life.

LINKED was intended to remain unseen, an almost secret layer of the geography of the communities where it transmits. It is in perpetual dialogue with the walker/listener who animates the work with their attention, finding their own narratives and in this sense, it is a social sculpture intended for a dynamic and changing area.

The transmitters broadcast on a single frequency and with a receiver the walker is able to navigate the neighbourhoods adjacent to the motorway, finding pools of sound that relate to the specific locations.

Over the passage of time this work about the politics and poetry of place has come to reflect issues relating to community, environment and protest and the impact of sudden, top-down developments on people and place.

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As published on Graeme Miller’s website.