900 Voices is a participative sound art project by Zoë Irvine with Lindsay Perth and Jules Rawlinson. It has been commissioned as part of Edinburgh’s St Giles Cathedral’s momentous 900th Anniversary celebrations.
900 Voices is a sound art installation made specifically for St Giles’. Throughout 2024, 900 Voices invites people in Edinburgh to have conversations about belonging, connection, and community. These conversations are recorded and shared through the artwork.
What do these terms - belonging, community, connection - mean to people from various walks of life in our city? What is important? What resonates? What is our lived experience? People have generously shared their thoughts, feelings, and reflections in the artwork’s recorded conversations.
Citation
Irvine, Z. (2024). 900 Voices. [Sound]. 2 August 2024 - 19 October 2024
900 Voices is a sound artwork focused on the themes of belonging connection and community originally installed in St Giles' Cathedral for the Edinburgh International Festival in 2024. The work continues to be developed as Conversations on Belonging for broadcast other settings and the project’s oral history archive will become publicly available at The School of Scottish Studies Sound Archive (University of Edinburgh).
It was created by Zoë Irvine (Creative Director) with Lindsay Perth (Social Engagement Strategy and Visual Design) and Jules Rawlinson (Compositional programming)
900 Voices uses a variety of computer procedures to select, combine and place sounds in real-time. The computer programme makes new choices each time in installation plays by searching the conversation database for words and themes. Sometimes a single word will emerge and at other times longer reflective sections allow listeners to encounter and engage with individual contributors.
The installation works with the rhythms and tonality of the conversations in more abstract ways too. Playful echoes, choruses of frozen speech and rippling phrases are generated activating and celebrating the musical qualities of the voice and the resonances of the space where it is installed.
The subject matter is broad, sometimes touching on difficult experiences.
To talk about belonging, it has been useful to talk about not-belonging too. You may hear fragments of personal experiences of prejudice and other challenges, as well as insights into belonging, connection, and community.
