'View In View Out' (VIVO) is a unique 360 soundscape that will transform an empty town centre shop in Weston-super-Mare into an immersive, multi-layered sound installation from Monday 14 – Sunday 20 July. VIVO is part of a national season of art in National Landscapes.
Inspired by workshops and conversations with young people, community groups and local Mendip voices, and in collaboration with each other, artists Gwyneth Herbert, Jason Singh and Chris Howard have created a new work that reveals the stories, sounds and nature of Mendip.
VIVO takes audiences through layers of time and history, soil and stone to hear the stories of ancestors of the caves, the dying song of the Ash trees, and the birds of the plateau.
Visit our VIVO event page.
Read on to learn more about the creative journey and to hear from artist Gwyneth Herbert about the creative process.
Artists (from left to right) Jason Singh, Gwyneth Herbert and Chris Howard. Photo by Paul Blakemore.
Creative Nature Encounters
The artists began the creative journey in the heart of South Ward, Weston - meeting young people and community groups, listening to and exploring nature within their own neighbourhoods. This is where the name for the piece originated: View In – looking at the nature around us in Weston, in our streets and neighbourhoods, and: View Out – looking out to nature in the Mendip Hills which border the town.
Led by Weston-super-Mare based composer and lyricist Gwyneth Herbert, with Mendip resident nature TV producer Chris Howard and sound artist Jason Singh, walk and talks within Weston started the process of listening to and recording the sounds of nature and conversations with people. You will hear some of these sounds and conversations woven into the piece.
Through the 8-month creative process, the artists explored locations across the Mendip Hills to walk the land, listen to the landscape, hear stories from people who live there and record the sounds of nature. They went caving with young people, spoke with farmers and a dry stone waller, heard from National Landscapes rangers, sang with refugees and gathered tales.
Using a range of specialist microphones, Jason recorded the wind, bird song, the acoustics of caves and bells and the bio data (electrical signals) of plants and trees in Mendip. Within the soundscape you will hear music created by a Beech tree, and that of a dying Ash.
Jason Singh records Gwyneth Herbert reading a poem about the dying ash tree in the Mendip Hills. Photo by Paul Blakemore.
Weaving together the soundscape
After 8 months of gathering sounds and moulding words, the artists spent an intensive few days together, weaving the collected sounds and stories into a 40 minute soundscape.
The piece takes the listener on a journey; from Mendip's deepest history within the inhabited caves and a prayer for ancestors, through the joyous sounds of the Weston community, and out onto the Mendip Hills where we meet the Ash trees, the restless spirit of Eliza and the Skylarks.
Echoing the dry-stone walls that criss-cross the Mendip Hills landscape, Gwyneth has composed and recorded a cycle of poems that form a thread through the piece; leading us along the artists’ journey and connecting the sounds of landscape, nature and community.
The work has been transformed through the technology of d&b Soundscape; turning the sounds and voices of this journey into a fully immersive audio experience in a transformed space in Weston.
Photo of Gwyneth Herbert standing in the Mendip Hills. Photo by Paul Blakemore.
We caught up with Gwyneth to find out more about the VIVO creative process and the collaboration with Jason and Chris.
What has really stood out for you in this process?
Gwyneth:
The most awe-inspiring moment for me was recording the Ash tree’s lament. Encircled by a natural amphitheatre of ashes in various stages of decay, in brilliant sunshine, we sat and read as a storm approached. I giggled nervously and the sky grew darker. We carried on recording, and the thunder rumbled around us…as I read the line about “weeping”, the first raindrops fell from the clouds, and with the word “hope” came a magnificent, roaring clap of thunder. It was a moment of magic we couldn’t have planned.
What has most surprised you?
Gwyneth:
There have been many surprises during this process, the biggest probably being the way that the writing has unfolded. In the beginning, we’d imagined that I’d compose a song cycle. I’m a songwriter, after all. But the words came out to be spoken - the melodies are those of streams and bells and birdsong and the music hidden within the biodata of the trees. We’ve hummed in the caves and the caves have hummed back. Nature has emerged as the real musician of the piece.
Artists (from left to right) Chris Howard, Gwyneth Herbert and Jason Singh walking in the rain on the Mendip Hills. Photo by Paul Blakemore.
Is there anything else you would like to say about the process and working with Jason and Chris to develop the piece?
Gwyneth:
When I was holding a workshop at Windwhistle Primary School, one of the students asked if a composer is someone who puts a load of leaves in a bucket and then waits for them to turn into something else. For me, this is a beautiful description of the process of this project.
It’s the first time Jason, Chris and I have collaborated, and we’ve gathered leaves both separately and together - walking in the land, learning to listen in each other’s languages. We’ve had creative nature encounters with communities both in Weston and across Mendip. People have offered their delight, their grief, their resistance; their thoughts, poems, songs, stories and wishes - each one a leaf placed into the project cauldron. And out of this stew, a new VIVO tree has grown.
It’s been an honour to be a part of it, and I feel a new, deep connection to the people here and the land we inhabit together.
You can experience View In, View Out (VIVO) from Monday 14 – Sunday 20 July, 1-5pm, at The Sovereign shopping centre, Weston-super-Mare. Visit our VIVO event page.
‘View In, View Out’ is commissioned by the Mendip Hills National Landscape Team and National Landscapes Association as part of Nature Calling – a national Landscapes Art programme, in partnership with Super Culture, Sound UK, Activate and Poetry School. Funded by Arts Council England and Defra.
