Sounds of the Valley
(2008)
Location : The Medway Gap, Kent
Funding : Heritage Lottery Grant/Valley of Visions
Evidence of industry, particularly cement works, is always present in the Medway Valley, set amongst some beautiful semi-natural landscapes. This mix of nature punctuated by industry, some new, some long abandoned, characterises the area.
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Four groups of children from three local primary schools (Burham, Cuxton and Halling) walked the locality with myself and musician/composer Stephen Clee. Together we set out on a series of four 'journeys', exploring the landscape and documenting the experience through sound recordings, photographs and videos. During the walks the children were encouaged to tune in to their surroundings, stopping at key points to form a circle, listen in silence with their eyes closed. Back in the classroom using computers and simple software programmes, a series of short videos were created by the children.
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The DVD that followed recreates a sense of their journeys through each landscape, the children's pieces being creative responses to their experiences of that place, on that day. Below are three extracts from the DVD Sounds of the Valley.