As a creative artist, my work explores how people interact with sound and how it impacts our daily lives through listening – that is active listening with attention, rather than passive hearing. I do this by using recorded sound, particularly sound which is associated with place, addressing issues of memory and identity.
This can be in pieces of music, sound installations or online sound maps, which I have been creating since 2005. My passion for listening comes from a concern that in an increasingly visually-oriented world, it is easier for us to push the sound into the background, rather than focus on it.
To an extent, we have forgotten how to listen, but the lockdown has provided us with a new opportunity. For many of us, restrictions have given us more time and more space in our lives – but they have also changed the soundscape of our lives significantly.
