CHEDDAR FREQUENCIES
Over recent months residents of Cheddar village and the surrounding areas have been working with artist Richard Tomlinson to record fascinating stories that celebrate local culture, unearth hidden memories and depict Cheddar in a new light. The Cheddar Frequencies installation brings these sound souvenirs together.
Featured here are 30 selected stories, with a duration of between 1 and 4 minutes.
Commissioned by Seed Sedgemoor. Seed is a charity that brings community-led creative projects to Sedgemoor on behalf of local community organisations. Seed hold the Arts Council Creative People and Places project for Sedgemoor, offering communities new opportunities to create, access and participate in creative arts and cultural activities.
Remembering Nine Springs
Commissioned by South Somerset District Council and managed by Somerset Film, the brief was to record the memories of local residents.
Ninesprings is now part of the South Somerset Country Park and features a peaceful network of pathways, waterways and the Riverside walk, but this wasn’t always the case. These stories evoke a past of: bustling industry , steam engines running through to the gloving factories and the excitement of the annual circus.
These audio recordings are installed on a listening station located at Ninesprings cafe
Soundscapes for The Lady Chapel
A soundscape featuring: the voices of residents, choristers rehearsing, footsteps echoing and people gathering. This soundscape was exhibited in The Lady Chapel at Wells Cathedral.
CHARDCAST
In 2023 Original Light has been commissioned by Chard Museum to produce a series of 12 podcasts. ChardCast, an audio portrait of an amazing town, is a project managed by Chard Museum on behalf of Culturally Chard. It is funded through South Somerset District Council and Historic England.
ChardCast covers themes as diverse as: local inventors, Chard Reservoir local nature reserve, Chard Carnival and archival photographs.
Sound for Spaces
Collaborative work with musician and artist Michael Fairfax
Sound for Spaces provided an opportunity to shoot three short films with Michael that explored the innate acoustics within two locations, the (then) derelict Red Brick Building in Glastonbury and Banwell Caves in North Somerset.
Michael is a public artist, sculptor and designer of musical instruments. This opportunity brought together Michael, his musical instruments, a special location and filmmaker Richard Tomlinson. Special attention was needed to ensure the correct positioning of microphones within each space.
These films were made as part of Richard’s role as Creative Technologist working on the on Ignite Somerset, a project managed by Somerset Film and funded by Arts Council England.
Water Piano
A simple, noisy, intervention on Dulverton Hight Street provided an opportunity for passers-by to create music on a water piano. By dipping your finger into a bucket of water a piano chord if played. The piece was made using a MakeyMakey board, bell wire, crocodile clips and 12 buckets of water.
This sound-work was made as part of Richard’s role as Creative Technologist working on Ignite Somerset, a project managed by Somerset Film and funded by Arts Council England.
