6th june 2006
in the underground deer shelter at the yorkshire sculpture park, bretton hall, near wakefield, visiting an installation by “light-artist” james turrel.
the installation was beautiful transcendent stuff, but i was fascinated by an aspect probably unintended by mr turrel—ie the soundscape [as you’d imagine, maybe]. the shape of the interior of the deer shelter [square, with walls which slope inwards towards the bottom] and the hard materials of which it is built, make for extremely reverberant acoustics, where all sound is very interestingly transformed, so even the crows flying overhead [heard through a hole in the roof, through which a section of sky is revealed] end up sounding electronically treated.
Comment by paul — July 29, 2009 at 10:00 pm
The version at Keilder Resevoir is circular and i remember it having similar lush acoustics. lots of birds about too….
Comment by phill — July 30, 2009 at 1:42 am
thanks for the tip, paul. i didn’t know about the keilder skyspace. hoping to make a trip to the borders soon, though, so i’ll try visit.
Comment by Adrienne A — November 29, 2009 at 1:22 am
Phill,
This is amazing. I just discovered your blog via Flickr, and what a treat! I loved the sneeze near the end.
Comment by phill — November 29, 2009 at 1:27 am
thanks adrienne… i’ve just been enjoying your photos on flickr too!
Comment by Tom — September 14, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Hi Phill,
I’m not sure we’ve offically met, but I’ve been directed to you by our mutual friends Lucy and Stu Bannister after I chased them for some sound/acoustics advice. Would I be ok to send you an email or to have a quick chat over the weekend about a project I’m thinking of doing in London?
Yours,
Tom