"Tranquil qualities are hard to measure, so arbitrary definitions have to be used to map such areas."
- The Environment Agency
‘Noise’ is interesting as an objective definition of sound which is based on a subjective reaction and idealism. The rural and urban spaces in England are kept totally separate in our minds, and the heart of this separation is this word: Noise.
In this project, part of FRED, a Cumbria-wide arts festival, the everyday sounds of a town were played at excessive volume in remote locations. Trains at the platform, sirens, people in pubs, printers, modems dialling, kettles boiling.
This project went some way to questioning on what levels we are affected by our immediate surroundings, while we imagine ourselves somewhere quieter.
Likewise, sounds rural areas were relocated, into towns.
