Stuart Childs

I went down to the Holy Trinity Church, Leeds last night to see what was happening at the first Transend / Transmit meeting: a discussion about setting up the project.

Introduced by Louise Marchal and Jo Tyler, Transend / Transmit are two interlinked art schemes / projects that explore the idea of broadcasting and the relaying of information.

Transend/Transmit aim to link Leeds’ Holy Trinity Church to Sunderland’s Holy Trinity Church, both designed by the same architect, William Etty of York in the 18th century.

Streams of data transfer – physical mail, FM transmissions, digital streaming, telephone feedback loops and DIY electronics were all mentioned as potential disciplines that could be explored.

Other topics included:

The nature of radio content, and it’s evolution through the introduction of the digital radio platform.
How does podcasting affect the idea of ‘broadcasting’ in a traditional sense: if you listen to a ‘breakfast show’ in the evening; is it still a breakfast show?
Using DIY technology to transmit information – homebrew electronics?
Possible collaboration with local broadcasters / organisations
Using FaceBook as a promotional / info network
Running a series of ‘workshops’, or ‘media labs’ to encourage participation from other artists / creators

All in all, a very interesting discussion that shows the beginnings of a potentially very interesting long term project for both Leeds and Sunderland.

Thanks to Bruce Davies + the Arts@Trinity group for hosting the evening, I look forward to more of these! If you are interested in taking part in these upcoming projects get in touch.

Yesterday I went to Oldroyd’s Rhubarb farm in Carlton, West Yorkshire with Chris and Jay to record the noise of it growing. That’s right – rhubarb makes a noise when force grown in warm, dark sheds due to the speed at which it is ‘forced’ to grow. I first heard about this here on the BBC news website a while ago, and we had been in contact with Oldroyd’s since the start of last year about going to record the rhubarb in their nursery sheds.  This forced rhubarb is apparently a lot sweeter than outdoor rhubarb, and Oldroyd’s were keen to show us around their farm [although we forgot to ask if we could sample any of their crop].

We took along some condenser mics to capture the ambience of the sheds, as well as contact mics to record the creaking and the popping of the rhubarb stems. We got a lot of decent sounds that now need editing in preparation for some rhubarb inspired composition. I also need to clean the mud off my laptop and microphone stands!

Thanks to Janet and Neil for their understanding and letting us into their sheds with our microphones.