Archive Collection

Our crack team of VEARO’s are out gathering samples of the voice of the Black Country, during Wolverhampton Literature Festival. –Phase I of the Voice Park project where we gather as many different voices as we can from far & wide across a city, capturing both sound & that intangible other essence of a place in Sticky Vocal Vapour. -Going from community centres to markets, parks to pubs, schools to care homes, shopping malls to temples, car boots to high streets to e.g. AllSeasons community allotments captured above.. see Project VEAR

Nite Club. July & Sep-Dec 2019. A Touring Interactive Installation for Night Shift Workers, touring UK distribution depo’s with Co-Op, John Lewis Grp and Thames Water. A Multi-partner project with leading sleep researchers from University of Oxford together with Co-op Third in a series of ongoing Collaborations with The Liminal Spaces & Welcome Trus

Fair Winds & Following Sea’s, summer 2019. River Audio-Walk, Hull, Freedom Festival.
Mentor to this Hull project supporting the Broken Orchestra & Poet Vicky Foster, new Freedom fest Commission.

L’lop’n Behind the Scenes. A Residency Project with Co-Op 2019/20. Touring their Distribution Centres, exploring the hidden out-of-town night-shift side of the 24/7 economy. 2020-21. (more to follow)

The Departure Lounge. May-June 2019 – A temp shop transformation in Lewisham Shopping Mall. Second in a series of ongoing collaborations with The Liminal Space & Welcome Trust, and here The Academy of Medical Sciences. – Exploring the story’s, issues, support available, research, facts and feelings around death & die’ing.

Spring Lounge: Installation of talking gourds & standing horns: mix poetry, stories and revolutionary spring risings. An interactive outdoor lounge for several events thru the year.
incl: Elephant Park Opening (above). Commissioned by Emergency Exit Arts.

Unclaimed @ Barbican, London, Feb-March 2019. – First in a series of ongoing collaborative commissions with The Liminal Spaces & Welcome Trust & here the Barbican & Medical Research Council – Creating a whole host of inter-active sound exhibits within their fantastical lost property office, built into the Foyé of the Barbican
Unclaimed offers a really innovative way of presenting the research (from data to human voices) of a UCL gerontology research team study into the nature of Ageing in the UK today, turning data into tangible forms & human stories into things to hold and explore.

Flight Paths. Touring Feb-March 2019: Harlow Playhouse Theatre, Stratford Circus, Theatre Clwyd, Curve Theatre, The Albany, Arena Theatre. Sound Design for this innovative new production with UK’s Leading Visually Impaired theatre company Extant in collaboration with Japanese/Uk Yellow Earth, Upswing (Aerial Dance) & writer Glen Neath. Creating a fully immersive 12 channel surround soundtrack, that incorporated remote mobile speakers, integrating audio description and video projection.

VOICE PARK 2.0. Oct-Nov 2018. An immersive interactive installation designed to inhabit public spaces, which offers people a system to contribute into, explore, play and even ‘speak’ with the collective voice of their city (Project VEAR). This newly redeveloped more tourable version, commissioned by Oxford Contemporary Music (OCM), Oxford City Council and 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Space, stems from the epic Hull City of Culture 2017 commission EVENT INFO here NEW VIDEO HERE
This is the magic moment when a citizen gets to hold their own voice!
-Captured in Vocal Vapour, distilled into a Vocal Vessel, ready to be fed into the Voice Park.

Can You Hear Me? Residency on Flatholm Island, off coast of Cardiff, over 2018/19, culminating in a major Public Art Commission in 2021. Cardiff RSBP + Cardiff Harbour Authority + SoundLands & HLF Wales. Focused on historic island of Flatholm, 5 miles offshore, in the Bristol Channel, bringing it closer to the people of Cardiff through a new commission to be installed on Cardiff Barrier in 2021 in the single largest commission of HLF wales.

What if this muted Foghorn has been quietly listening all this time..
What would he/she have heard? Can You Hear Me? Residency on Flatholm Island

Garden of Lost Voices – Enchanted Parks, Newcastle Gateshead 4-9th Dec 2018.
-Developing a new version of our site-responsive touring installation The Speakers, here we’re gathering local voices who speak of moments when they lost and then found their voice, mixed in with the an arrangement from the projects international archive of people describing finding their voice, from micro/personal to macro/movements, online and in the street in the act of Revolution.

Mobile Voice Catching Apparatus – trailed at Enchanted Parks. – A roving performer gathers new recordings from punters around the event, which both captures and sends their voices up into the cloud. From heres its downloaded inserted into The Speakers Installation live! – So folks stumble across their own voice inserted in the mix further down the path..

Threads of the Unsaid.. Shakespeare’s BirthPlace Trust. New Summer Commission. – Developing a version of Romeo & Juliet without the script.. creating an immersive installation to explore how Shakespeare’s work resides in the public consciousness, recreating in sound and spoken word, Audio Description and stage direction, memory and reflection, – a crowd-scripted play to walk within.

Evolving over 6 wks of summer 2018, featuring the Recollecta Salon (An automated hacked hairdressers chair, which speaks to you and records your spoken contributions). Building a pathway of tags that walks your through the myraid of moments people recall from Romeo & Juliet in 5-Acts (path zones). This pathway play of the unconcious ends at the ancient pear tree reputed to be planted during the bards time here! The project culminates in a multi-channel sound installation giving voice to this crowd-scripted play ont eh last w/e of the summer (Sept 2018).

Ordinary Grief. –New collaborative work with Vertical Dancer Lindsey Butcher and company Gravity & Levity and Film maker Mark Munroe.The Point & Fabrica Gallery.

Project VEAR– A Major new Commission with Hull City of Culture 2017. ( *This project has its own PROJECT PAGE in Menu bar) – Creating a whole series of mini interventions accross Hull city over 2017, culminating in a Final Installation VOICE PARK. (* starting with some undercover pilot ventures in summer 2016 incl: Transforming a Bus Stop with ‘voices’ of Hull writers, poets and folk.

Don’t Panic Chair ROAM Wandsworth Fringe Festival Public Art Commission. – A Touring Panic Chair. -Creating an interactive exhibit based around panic attacks and mental health awareness. May 2016. The chair offers 2 panic buttons: 1 relays people talking about their experiences of Panic Attacks and anxiety, the 2nd relays peoples experience of how they get themselves out of or thru an episode.

The Speakers @ Audiograft .curated by the Sonic Art Research Unit (SARU) at Oxford Brookes University and co-promoted by OCM. On the anniversary of Russia’s 1917 ‘February Revolution’ we open in Oxford.

Clang! Boom! Bang! – Collaboration with UCL Speech Hearing & Phonetic Sciences prof Valerie Hazan (Head of Research Department )& Senior research prof Outi Tuomainen, for the Bloomsbury Festival Oct 2016. Interpreting current research into how people adapt their speech when speaking in situations in which communication is difficult or with hearing loss.

Shakespeare’s Birth Place 400th Anniversary – Site-specific commission for the newly re-opening Shakespeare’s Birth Place. Produced by BOSI Dec 2016.

Voices That Take You Places. Transforming a working public bus stop in Hull (as a covert commission to sew the seeds for Hull City of Culture 2017). Over 5 days people magically found a bus stop metamorphasis into a haven, with a wood burning stove, sofa, tea, & biscuits, soundtrack selector, turf, horns that appeared to burst up from the ground spouting poets from Hull and a Bus times digital display hacked with poetry and prose especially commissioned and selected for day dreaming at a bus stop.. (*more info below)
New Scientist Live – Festival of Ideas and symposium London’s Excel. Presenting within the symposium and developing commission for the event. Sept 2016

The Speakers – in the Mandela Gardens of Wilberforce Institute for Slavery & Emancipation (WISE) & William Wilberforce House, Freedom Festival 2016. – inc work with OpenDoors Refugee Centre, WISE, A Firm of Poets Word on the Street & Hull poets.

Hugbag – People United 10th anniversary Kindness Commission. Developing an installation & system to train in the art of embracing & making connections, whilst walking amidst a neural network of sonic squeezables. Newham Big Lottery Ramsgate. Collaboration with Chloe Osborne & Katie Frances. Apr-July. (*more info below).

Dr Blighty – Collaboration with Nutkhut & designer Tom Piper. Brighton Festival 1418Now commission. Installation performance Pavilion Gardens, Brighton. May 24-29th.

The Speakers Jardin de la Guirlande – New adaption themed around the notion of ‘Refuge’ in public space & the EU in partnership withLa Boutique D’Ecriture . Curated by Lieux Public, @ ZAT Festival, Montpelier, France. April 9-10th

The Chairs – Collaboration with UK’s leading Visually Impaired Theatre company Extant rethinking how Audio Description integrates into the action & script. Opens May 2nd

Pod 2.0 – Guest Artistic Direction. Collaborative Development of Mike Blow & Alison Ballards Pods 1.0, Hogarth Productions and Oxford Contemporary Music – Helping redevelop sonic sculpture Pod (Pair), into Pod 2.0 a larger scale performance installation, a flock of 8. 101 space, Audiograft March, Reading Capital of Culture March, OCM Oxford dec.

A number of other projects in progress incl:
Designing a touring installation for The History of Parliament Trust • New collaboration with vertical dancer Lindsey Butcher Gravity & Levity • New aerial theatre production with Scarabaeus • Romantic Botanics with Miraculous Theatre • Developing a site-specific project with an amazing derelict paper factory with Scenekunst Østfold Norway • Site-specific project ‘Sonic Poetics’ Ioannina 2021 European Capital of Culture bid.
New 4 part Film* online of ‘Flying into the Dawn’ the AWARD WINNING: – ‘Best Temporary Installation Project’ Winner 2015. Thor McIntyre Burnie/Tannoy (Wind Tunnel Project) – ProSound Awards 2015. – (*4 new films by ShyCamera).

(Video above is 1st part of my 3 building Installation, The Wind Tunnel Project here )
ReWire the Bustop – Over a 5 day period in Sept 16, a Bus Stop on Hulls Beverly Rd, began to transform over nights.. Day1: A Real Time Display appeared, featuring the words of local poets & writers composed for the hack’d device. Day2: A plush bespoke sofa fitted, a wood burner and Re-Rediffusion hosts provided fresh mint tea. whilst a Rediffusion selector switch offered a soundtrack selection.. Day 3: The bus stop grew an island of plush turf and a series of strange horns sprouted up thru the tarmac, featuring the words of locals and specially commissioned poets which combined with eh soundtrack helped you travel whilst you wait.. **More info to follow on this covert project.

for FreedomFestival 2016. – inc. work with OpenDoors Refugee Centre, Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery & Emancipation, Poets & Spoken word artists from A Firm of Poets Word on the Street (inc. Zena Edwards, Holly McNIsh, Joe Hakim, Michele D, Catherine Scott, Robert Eunson, Richard Harries, Mehdi)

• HugBag Hugbag – People United 10th anniversary Kindness Commission. Developing an installation & system to train in the art of embracing & making connections, whilst walking amidst a neural network of sonic squeezables. Developed with Newham Big Lottery, BestFest. Ramsgate. Apr-July. – Developed in collaboration with Chloe Osborne and Kati Francis.

• Dr Blighty -1418 & Brighton Festival A series of sound installations set around the Brighton Pavilion for NutCut‘s collaborative multi-platform project about the role of Indian Soldiers in WW1, when the Pavilion was turned into a Field Hospital for Indian soldiers.. Inc collaboration with Designer Tom Piper on a series of pavilions and composer Shri Sriram.

• Pod 2.0 – Guest Artistic Direction in collaboration with Alison Ballard, Mike Blow, Hogarth Productions and Oxford Contemporary Music OCM – Helping redevelop tactile sonic sculpture piece Pod (pair), into a larger touring performance installation Pod 2.0 – a flock of 8 pods. •Audiograft March • Reading Capital of Culture March • OCM Dec.2016

• The Speakers @ Montpelier ZAT festival: New adaption themed around the notion of ‘Refuge’ in public space & in the EU. In partnership with La Boutique D’Ecriture (& Refugee writing groups), curated by Lieux Public.April 9-10th.

Stanmer Speaking: Giving voice to the role & history of a unique public park space, via one of its oldest residents, a 1000+ yr old Yew Tree. Extending the Yew branches to the ground, as they would naturally grow & re-sead up anew, copper pipes resprout vocal gourds, cyphering the many voices that use, live and work this place.. Stanmer Park, Brighton, UK. 25/26th Nov 2015. (Zap & Inroads Productions commission)

• The Speakers new commission for: Marseilles Travellings Festival by Lieux Public & INSITU, France: Opens 25-27th Sept 2015. -Content focus on question of ‘What is a refuge for you?”. Working both with local residents & users of Parc Deand the Refugee (more info on The Speakers Page)

Rites of Rubble. + The Body-less Soldier. –Site specific Installations in Gunpowder magazines of NEWHAVEN FORT, UK : – part of WW1 project Home Fires with Zap Arts & Inroads Productions. April 17-22nd 2015.

TOURING EXHIBIT _ THE BODY-LESS SOLDIER. – An exhibit Touring WW1 Museums & Centres in UK. Featuring a mix of Interviews with Blind War Veterans (WW1 Centenary Oral History Project)

Collaboration with one of UK’s leading Aerial Theatre companies Scarabeus:
Touring UK: Summer Tour incl London City Festival and Autumn dates below bOing! Festival, Canterbury 29 August 2015at 1pm and 3pm South Hill Park, Bracknell 12 September 2015 at 3pm and 7pm Bell Square, Hounslow 26 September 2015 at 2pm and 6.15pm

FLEETING: – BRIGHTON FESTIVAL FINALI – Spatial Sound and Fire Installation & Performance, inspired by Starling Murmeration s. Collaboration with Mandy Dyke And Now

‘FLYING INTO THE DAWN..’
The Wind Tunnels Project
7th June-20th July 2014.
Farnborough, London UK. – An extensive site specific solo commission to re-awaken 3 vast spaces, open to the public for the first time. http://thewindtunnelproject.com/
New Short Doc film about Flying Into The Dawn – made by ShyCamera:
THE SPEAKERS – An evolving project which adapts to each new location & time. Adding new layers of content and new forms of interventions into public space.

• 29/30th Dec 2014 @ Burns Birthplace Museum> Ana That Festival> Scotland.

• 31st Oct-2 Nov 2014 @ BELGIUM. Samhain Festival & Klankenbos Sound Art Forest, Neerplet. – Art Trail Commission by TAKT Dommelhof and Musica Impulse Centre for Music. Here long term old collaborator and artist Toby Jarvis re-enters the fold (Aswarm). – Here’s a sneak preview of the location in the midst of the worlds only sound art forest Klankenbos. incl: a sealed glass cube called Tacet, the forest around which The Speakers will occupy, along with a new element of Voice Responsive Light Fences, inspired by WW1‘s Dodendraad (‘Wire of Death’ dividing Belgium and Holland).

•20-28th Sept (TBC), Placcc Festival, Budapest (pending funding decision).
5-9th August @ LaStrada, Graz, Austria. Opening the day Britain declared war on Germany 100 yrs ago, in Arch Duke Ferdinand’s home town, in this special version I collaborated with Austria’s leading WW1 Historian Helmut Konrad, a team of 9 Historians co-ordinated by Stefan Benedik, gathering half the content from archived texts (much of which previously unpublished) from the Hinterland during WW1, contextualised with the Tweets from current zones of conflict & resistance. http://www.lastrada.at/en/programm/thor-mcintyre-burnie-gb/
• 14th-22nd June 2014. @ Oerol Festival, Island of Terschelling, Netherlands. Europe’s leading festival for site-specific art set in the environment. http://www.oerol.nl/festival/programma-a-z/

Here responding to the WW2 bomb crater forest clearing, we asked visitors a related personal question and over 10 days their input gradually replaced the content anew..
RITES OF WAR : touring Choreographic Performance.
– A collaboration with Darshan Singh Bhuller, Lindsey Butcher’s Gravity & Levity and BBC Afghanistan Correspondent David Loyn.

Rites of War – Spring Tour Dates:

May 1st,2nd & 3rd at Stratford Circus, London https://www.stratford-circus.com • May 13th & 14th at The Lowry, Salford http://www.thelowry.com • June 4th & 5th The Lighthouse, Poole http://lighthousepoole.co.uk/rites-of-war • June 15th, Mobilsation Festival at Kendrew Barracks http://a4r.org.uk/events/mobilisation/ • For Autumn Tour Dates – watch this space!

Rites of War – Autumn Tour Dates:
Tue 28 Oct, 8pm & Wed 29 Oct, 4pm Landmark Arts Centre, Teddington
Sat 8 Nov, 7.30pm Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Tue 11 Nov, 7.30pm Laban Theatre, London SE8 3DZ
Fri 14 & Sat 15 Nov, 7.30pm The Point, Eastleigh
Sat 22 Nov, 7.30pm The Riverfront, Newport
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Photographer Credits: Shaun Jackson (Flying Into the Dawn)