“Oh, beautiful thing, how far have you voyaged to be with me?”
By the Sound of Things is an immersive sound piece, with an accompanying film. It invites the audience to feel the vast echoes and epic scale of the modern shipping industry.
A hypnotic binaural sound work follows the journey of a shipping container as it travels from the surface to the bottom of the ocean, fusing deep sea hydrophone recordings of the marine ecosystem with man-made industrial noise.
An accompanying film focuses on the world above water, a collision of the extraordinary and the banal that defines the global sea trade. By the Sound of Things asks the audience to consider the extent and impact of our insatiable consumerism on our environments above and underwater.
In 2021 we presented this groundbreaking artwork on a historic tugboat, the Daniel Adamson. This fully flexible piece can be presented anywhere – from ships galleys and art galleries, to shipping containers and shop units.
About the artist:
Kate Davies is a UK based artist and architect. Her work explores the complexities of contemporary landscape; from landscapes of extraction, manufacturing and logistics to remote territories, wilderness and ancestral homelands. She is particularly interested in the places where conflicting value systems coexist.
Davies is co-founder of the Unknown Fields travelling design studio, and art and architecture collective Liquid Factory. Her work has been exhibited internationally, showcased by mainstream media and is held in the permanent collections of major museums. Kate lectures and teaches at design studios in architecture, new media and landscape at the Architectural Association and the Bartlett school of Architecture, UCL.
Davies presented By the Sound of Things as part of AND Festival 2021. For more images from AND Festival 2021 see our By the Sound of Things Flickr Album and head to our Youtube channel for videos and interviews.
If you’d like to know more about touring opportunities for By the Sound of Things, and to request a touring pack please contact our Senior Producer Lou Hargreaves on louise@andfestival.org.uk