Sound Little Island:a live-streamed sound translocation

Together with Julian Weaver I created a live-streamed sound translocation from Brighton to La Rochelle in France as part of the ZERO1 Festival des Arts et Cultures Numériques. This sound translocation transmits live soundscapes from two locations in England (a pub in Brighton and a viaduct) to the ancient harbour tower Tour de la Lanterne in La Rochelle. These live soundscapes are enhanced by a number of pre-recorded sounds and statements by French people living and working in the UK (diffused in a 12-channel sound installation) in order to create a hyperreal soundscape of England as sonic presence in La Rochelle. After the referendum in June 2016 we are reminded of the UK’s so-called ‘splendid isolation’ policy of the late nineteenth century. Sound Little Island is an attempt to subvert these isolationist tendencies: by transmitting the everyday (the infra-ordinary) punctuated by French lives abroad, we aim to create awareness and highlight the connections between people here and there.