Hull Soundwalks (2004-7) was a large scale oral history project encompassing an audio guided walk through the city centre,  an exhibition, Overheard and a publication, Walking Past.  It was created by Resound Community Partnership, a group set up by artists including Ruth Levene, Rick Welton and myself.  Resound developed the Hull Soundwalks project in response to the regeneration and development taking place in the city of Hull and the need to involve local people and their experiences of their city.  The heart of the project was a route which went from Paragon railway station through the historic centre of the city to Victoria Pier.  Myself, Ruth Levene, Audrey Okyere-Fosu and others, recorded the memories of over forty people and made an audio guide. Audiences wore headphones to listen to the words of the people who lived and worked in the city as they were guided along the route.

 

 

 

 

 

Overheard was an exhibition at ARC (the regional architecture centre) in 2006.  It was an opportunity to allow people to listen to more of the memories in depth as well as a display of photographs, some personal to those who we recorded.  Also included was archive film from the Yorkshire Film Archive.  The exhibition responded to the building itself, with photographs printed on large acrylic sheets and placed in the sloping roof of the building, turning the place into a lightbox.  The exhibition also worked with FeONIC, to use their audio technology which turned flat surface such as windows into speakers.  A number of the acrylic panels which had photographs printed on them were used in this way hanging in the space, with the audience ‘listening’ to the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking Past: Soundwalks in Hull, is a 45 page illustrated book with audio CD.