Sound installation; staged conversation

Commissioned by ESRC Festival of Social Science

Collaboration with Tom Payne and Julia Udall

Through staged conversation and listening, Amplifying Climate Dialogues explored dynamics of social propagation and contamination of ideas around the climate crisis. The project brought together three unlikely pairs of people from Sheffield in intimate conversation, to explore fears, and frustrations, as well as tactics, and collective strategies to find better ways to live together in the face of the impending crisis. These recordings were made public through a staged listening session at the Performance Lab, Sheffield Hallam University in order to create a space for new imaginaries and solidarities. Recorded during COP26, and in the face of complex and often overwhelming challenges posed by climate change, the conversations that were played back bring together the personal and political in order to support agencies for more just and sustainable futures. In the listening session an audience sat in a circle in the dark, listening to six voices spatialised across six loudspeakers as if they were really in the space. Toward the end of this period of close listening, the lights gradually began to fade in revealing a series of envelopes containing an invitation for conversation and a series of cues. From here, a new conversation commenced, carrying with it traces of, and responses to what was heard before.