A soundscape, created as part of the Witness Stand project for the Brighton Festival 2022
Razia co-created a soundscape, as part of the Witness Stand project, A community of writers and sound artists with a connection to Brighton were commissioned by Australian artists Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey for the Brighton Festival 2022.
This was a very special – and unique – live appearance at the Chattri Memorial in Patcham, near Brighton and in Razia’s words when inviting others to join her: ‘Creating this soundscape, with generous help from so many people, has been centre stage in my life over the last 4-5 months. I do hope you can join us (bring a blanket and a flask of something) and bathe in the vibration!’
Performances were held on Sunday, 15th May (8am, 9am & 10am) and Sunday, 29th May (8am, 9am, 10am. And for those who missed it but would still be interested in the experience, a recording will be available via the geo-location tours & experiences app Echoes (https://echoes.xyz/) which can be downloaded for free from your app store.
How do we understand where we are through listening?
From across the city, drifting over land, sea and forgotten sites, comes an invitation to gather, sit and listen together.
Australian artists Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey have commissioned a community of writers and sound artists with a connection to Brighton to design sound works that respond to five specific sites that reverberate with ancient, recent, and future stories of the city.
Each chosen site is a place where we can experience the confluence of past and future, the ebb and flow of time and tide. Places that hover around dereliction and renewal, separation and coming together. The Adur Estuary at Shoreham-by-Sea, the Chattri, the West Pier, East Brighton, and Brighton Marina will all be linked in a physical and aural network. We will gather together with the artists, on simple seating stands, to contemplate vistas that we rarely pause properly to see, to spend time together in a place where the site is both companion and performer.
This unique perspective merged with an immersive soundscape, live performance and each area’s natural ambience, gives us the opportunity to look outwards and consider what it means to be here now, what it meant in the past, and what it might mean in the future. A chance to witness, together, exactly what it is that makes these places so unique.
Credits
Concept and direction: Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey
Lead writer: Akila M Richards
Artists: Razia Aziz, Johanna Bramli, Thor McIntyre Burnie, Ed Chivers, Scott Smith, Emma-Kate Matthews, Gene Pool, Quinta, Ingrid Plum, James C Wilkie, Mrisi
Writers: Georgina Aboud, Jenny Arach, Sheila Auguste, Dulani Kulasinghe, Zaid S Sethi
Cultural Consultants: Dave Searby Mason, Richard Bickers, Davinder Dhillon, Richard Williams, Katie Sollohub, Rachel Clark
This ongoing project has been created and developed with Live Umbrella Finland and Bureau of Works; assisted by the Australia Council for the Arts, Vitalstatistix, Dark Mofo, and the APRA/AMCOS Art Music Fund. Witness Stand was originally commissioned for Perth Festival 2021.
