Between Air, Clay and Woods of Certain Flutes

By moving through the space, you can experience a multi-faceted reality that changes in relation to your position within the environment. 

It all begins in

a variety of woods from different locations – the valuable and living wood; civilisations crafting the clay earth into sounding objects; air, as nature’s blowing entity; the hands of makers – as transforming magicians, intermediaries between nature and musicians.

Audio and visual projections of forests, recorder-making, and images related to flute culture are combined with two electroacoustic compositions: generating a constantly shifting dialogue between sound and merging images.

A booklet with detailed information on the project’s components and collaborators is available here. 

The exhibition runs from 2nd May 2023 – 15th June 2023, downstairs at StreetLife Hub. It is free to attend and no booking is required. View our opening times here. 

Note: The Hub may occasionally close for daytime events. If you are planning a special trip to visit us, please check our social media channels, @streetlifeyork (Twitter and Instagram).

With workshops on flute-making and printing, the exhibition will also inspire and promote university research. Information about upcoming workshops and how to book those will be available here.

Contact Carmen Troncoso , Richard Kearns and info@streetlifeyork.uk with questions and for more information.

About the Authors

Dr Richard Kearns is a Film & Television Production lecturer at the School of Arts & Creative Technologies, University of York. In his practice as a visual artist, he investigates human interaction and user experience by creating immersive environments using combinations of audio-visual technologies and physical objects. New narrative connections within his artworks often emerge through interactor play. He is curious how the information generated through physical or virtual activity crystallises into the kind of relationship that connects visitors and how the meaning they make can be shared through their encounter. In the design of this installation, he explores how stories are relational. How we, as relational beings who live through stories, can reconnect with a greater narrative. Reconnect in a way that does not make us superior to the blade of grass, nor inferior but part of the same process.

Dr Carmen Troncoso is the recorder tutor in Music at the School of Arts & Creative Technologies, University of York. Her research arises from her practice as a musical performer and examines the various processes involved in preparing a performance, which often lie undisclosed. She studies the relationship between performers and their instruments, the creative potential behind the instruments’ history and evolution, issues of identity and decision-making processes in music-making contexts. Carmen develops interdisciplinary artistic projects, often juxtaposing early and (extant and/or co-created) contemporary music. Collaboration with other artists plays a significant role in her research. This leads to a deepening investigation of different types of distributed creativity in each project. Her research explores the boundaries of collaborators’ roles, such as issues of authorship. From this endeavour, new performances and artwork arise that invite the visitor/audience to perceive and delve into imagined realities. 

Collaborators

• Brazil: visual artist, Sarah Hallelujah
• Chile: composer, Sergio Cornejo
• Chile: sound artist, Felipe Cussen
• Chile: architect, Jaime Inaldi Inostroza
• Chile: paper-making artist, Carolina Larrea
• Chile: industrial designer, Juan Francisco Troncoso
• Chile: composer, audiovisual maker, Carlos Zamora
• France: composer, Jean-Christophe Rosaz
• Guatemala: musician, pre-Columbian flute maker,  Erick Boror
• Singapore: video editing, Lynette Quek
• Uruguay: composer, Guillermo Eisner