Site Gallery: Society of Explorers and Folk Forest

I was invited to deliver a series of workshops with Site Gallery’s collective of young people aged 14 – 19, the Society of Explorers.

Drawing inspiration from Anton Mobin’s ‘Prepared Chambers’, Origami Boe’s ‘Acoustic Laptops’, and Hugh Davies’ ‘Shozyg’ this workshop built small, self-contained electro-acoustic instruments from domestic objects.

In the first workshop we constructed contact microphones, learning basic soldering and wiring of audio jack plugs.

In the second session we explored springs, pan scrubbers, elastic bands, combs, egg slicers, and other household ephemera, to learn of their sonic possibilities. We then assembled these into wooden storage boxes to construct our own instruments.

The final workshop explored performing with our instruments and improvisation games to encourage interaction and play.

The explorers really got into things and produced really interesting and unusual instruments (a slection shown in the gallery below).

The workshop was then adapted to a larger scale drop-in format for all ages. This took place over two days as part of the Folk Forest festival. With ready made contact microphones, starter instruments, and an assortment of bits and bobs, visitors could adapt, modify, or build from scratch, instruments of their own.

There were also opportunities for the Society of Explorers to show off and talk about their work.