Brasilia of the North (revisited)
Brasilia of the North (2020) was a creative insurrection that became an album. It was performed and recored during lockdown in various adjacent locations around Newcastle city centre such as walkways, pedestrian tunnels and multi-storey car parks. The idea was to break out of the routine of the studio and situate the sounds I’d been making within the chaos of public space. The whole experience opened up a new pathway for me to begin interacting with public space using sound which now forms the backbone of my current PhD research at SARC. I’m looking to come back and revisit Brasilia of the North 5 years on, revisit old recording sites, this time with new friends, new sounds and new approaches. As part of my PhD I’ve been developing a DIY portable spatial sound system designed for aleatoric compositions. The music is a concoction of drone, spoken whisper and sporadic rhythm, forming a mosaic of embedded phrases alongside the sounds of the city.
Brasilia of the North was a lockdown album made using field recordings of improvised noise jams around urban areas in Newcastle. I'm returning to one of the original recording locations this time using a DIY spatial sound system to temporarily interrupt the sonic fabric of the Newcastle Walkways. The installation uses 'Critters' multiple tiny sound modules programmed to randomly repeat melodic loops forming a textual space the audience can wander through.
My current research looks at how vacant and neglected spaces in cities can become sites of creative sanctuary, their lack of control by commercial or official forces enabling a space where creative experimentation can flourish. In the original Brasilia of the North the town was dead with virtually no traffic apart from the odd empty train and distant motorbike. It will be interesting to see how town has changed, will the gentrification of the past five years make finding spots of creative sanctuary more difficult and will it be harder to make creative sound work in a louder city?
My approach to making came from trying to challenge the unseen power structures and conventions of public space, specifically how can spaces designed for a specific purpose be subverted to produce new possibilities. Property developers and those with capital interests seem to have unlimited power in shaping the look, feel and use of our cities, Brasilia of the North was a way to try and regain some agency over the urban landscape. I think this piece would fit in well with Wild Pop, through bringing people together to experience new possibilities for neglected spaces we can experience, if briefly glimpses of
an alternative way of being. The intended output from this project will be a series of field recordings of the installation along with a reflective piece of writing. I am open to presenting a talk also if this would be of interest to the panel.
Cameron Clarke is a sound and multimedia artist from Belfast. His work is primarily focuses on creative interaction with urban spaces and developing installations for public space. He works in the medium of field recording, A/V installation, sound walks, film and interventionist performance. His work has been commissioned by the Belfast Imagine Festival, Middlesbrough Sonic Arts Week, Golden Thread Gallery and Sonorities Festival. He has worked closely with organisations such as the Irish Sound Science and Technology Association and Digital Arts Studios Belfast. Cameron is a PhD researcher at the Sonic Arts Research Centre Belfast as well as a resident artist at Vault Artist Studios.
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