Arcadia (2008)
8 - channel sound piece, for the 'Sound of the Deer' event , April 5th 2008, Falkland Place, Falkland, Scotland.
Arcadia, is an 8 -Channel sound piece produced by David Chapman and Louise K Wilson. It uses the seventeenth-century Dutch tapestry, hung in the Tapestry Gallery of Falkland Palace, as a 'score', creating an audio response to the fantastical scene depicted with its diverse menagerie of wild and domestic animals. The tapestry, which includes representations of deer, hunting dogs, horses, goats, peacocks, birds of prey and kingfishers as well as monkeys and lions, evokes an arcadian landscape that is peopled with a courting couple and hunters.
The artists created a soundtrack which the guests discover as they walk the length of the tapestry, illuminating its visual elements and immersing themselves in a rich world of ambient field recordings. These recordings have been made in numerous locations on the Falkland estate and other locations in Fife. Extracts from the hunting song Johnnie O Brairdislie are from a recording made especially by folk singer Sheena Wellington.
Re-Sounding Falkland
Wilson and Chapman have recently been awarded research and development funding by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation towards the creation of temporary sound installations on the Falkland Estate. This will be used to enable dialogues with relevant archaeologists, historians, architects and others in a project to explore and uncover the sonic properties of the Estate.
The first phase of this project - an mp3 based pre-recorded audiowalk - was launched at the Big Tent Festival, Falkland (July 25th -26th 2009). You can asses the audio walk at: Falkland AudioWalk
Final Exhibition of the above work, and three new installations, is on in Falkland May 29th - 30th 2010. Go to Falkland Estate website (below) for information on the exhibition.
For more information on the project, please see the interview in Scan: Journal of Media Arts Culture: Scan Interview
From more Information on Falkland Estate: www.centreforstewardship.org.uk