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SWS20 2020

The Texture of Air

330 Grays Inn Road, London, UK

architecture

1 sub-collections · 75 items

Curation

Collection · 8 items

hospital

Collection · 6 items

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Reflecting on the texture of air

Laura Mitchison captured the history of two hospitals closing down through the soundscapes they carried throughout their histories.

Laura Khan Mitchison

architecture

1 sub-collections · 75 items

Curation

Collection · 8 items

hospital

Collection · 6 items

Related

Curated news

How seeing 1960s avant garde project The Walking City taught Hong Kong architect Benny Lee that nothing is impossible | South China Morning Post

Architect Benny Lee saw an original drawing from the 1960s pop art design project Archigram as a student and was reminded how architecture can improve people’s lives. Source: How seeing 1960s avant garde project The Walking City taught Hong Kong architect Benny Lee that nothing is impossible | South China Morning Post

Sound walk

Monuments

Monuments, part of ThickSkin’s Walk This Play® series commissioned by Step Up MCR, highlights the history and communities of Ancoats, Clayton, Beswick, and Openshaw through a guided walk focused on local architecture and heritage. The walk is accessed via the free Walk This Play® app by searching for "Monuments" and downloading it before setting off.

ThickSkinTheatre Jonnie Riordan
post

Get on our curated mailing list

Join our weekly curated mailing. We look back on the previous week, and ahead to the next.

Babak Fakhamzadeh
Walking piece

Manor Farm Heritage Site Audio Tour

Free downloadable audio tour of the Manor Farm Heritage Site, including an exploration of the grounds with historic structures. Includes period voice dramatisations and evocative sound effects

Pamela Glintenkamp
post

The winners of SWS24

This is the second year that the winner and honourable mention for the Sound Walk September Awards walk away with cash. Compared to last year, we were able to double the prize money, to 500 euros for the winner, and 200 euros for the honourable mention. Who walks away with the prizes?

Babak Fakhamzadeh Andrew Stuck +8
post

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We asked the creators of the pieces that won, and received an honourable mention for, the SWS20 Awards, for their reaction.

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post

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post

Reflecting on the texture of air

Laura Mitchison captured the history of two hospitals closing down through the soundscapes they carried throughout their histories.

Laura Khan Mitchison
Sound walk
THE TEXTURE OF AIR explores the sensory and aural histories of the recently closed Eastman Dental Hospital and Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital through staff and patient walks, original music, and 16mm film. The project combines archival artifacts, sound design, and 3D-scan animation to reveal the architectural and cultural heritage of these historic NHS sites.

THE TEXTURE OF AIR documents the extraordinary perceptual worlds ‘overheard’ in two recently closed NHS hospitals: Eastman Dental Hospital and Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital. Each vacated their historic sites on the Grays Inn Road at the end of 2019 / start of 2020.

The artists began by inviting staff and patients to walk and talk through the hospitals. We encountered many treasures in the old buildings -a relic of St. Blaise; a museum of ear trumpets, an ark-load of specimens ranging from a pygmy shrew to a giraffe, a Friday knitting club, a cherub fountain, door handles emblazoned with wise owls.
Aural histories with staff and patients have been “scored” with original music, composed in situ and inspired by the hospitals’ architecture. Their vivid descriptions unravel on literally out-of-date 16mm film discovered in a drawer – a nod to the quixotic Kodak billionaire who founded the Eastman Dental Hospital.
The film bleeds through repurposed microscope lenses into futuristic 3D-scan animation, leading us into a dreamy sensorium of each buildings’ forgotten pasts.

Additional credits:
Lead Artists: Laura Mitchison of On the Record & Olivia Bellas of ScreenDeep
Music: Nicole Robson
Sound Design: Adam Mendez
Author of LiDAR still images: Bernadette Devilat, in collaboration with the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Cinematography, Editing & 16mm film: Ben Evans James & Andrew Mark
Curator: Guy Noble
Funding: UCLH Arts & Heritage, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Med-el

APA style reference

Khan Mitchison, L. (2020). The Texture of Air. walk · listen · create. https://walklistencreate.org/walkingpiece/the-texture-of-air/

earl-footed, hurdle-footed, club-footed

As in “He’s got feet like an earl-footed turnip” (said of someone who walks with his feet turned out). from the Dictionary of Newfoundland English (University of Toronto Press, 1982).

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