JOE Stevens news

I’ve taken a break from my creative conversations this week to put together this soundscape made up of field recordings around Fleet.

This work is part of an ongoing audio exploration to capture my local environment and ties in with the conversations I have been capturing. http://51degreesnorth.bandcamp.com/album/fleet-lagoon

This month I again had great difficulty in capturing the extremely peacefulness of this special place. Capturing the quietness is proving to be quite a challenge in these soundscapes.

The field recordings that make up this soundscape were recorded near to the village of Fleet that lies close to the lagoon of the same name. This area was made famous by the novel of smuggling by J. Meade Faulkner, “Moonfleet”. Beyond the Fleet is the famous bank of Chesil Beach where treacherous currents and a strong undertow (you can hear some pounding of the waves onto the beach in the distance in some recordings). Amongst the diverse range of animals, birds and plants, the Fleet is probably most famous as the home for swans and you will hear them feeding early on in the piece.

Latitude 50.618979, Longitude -2.523662

Over the last three years I have been working with Poole museum archives and with archives at Devon Records Office. Through this working with archival material has become a bit of an obsession within my artistic practice. It is a passion, a commitment. As my friend Luís Antero, said; “tradition is like a huge file and a stimulating point of departure for exploration and work. One can use it to build entirely new things.”

One exciting aspect of my work with Poole museum was, what I labelled, Sonic Bus Tour of Poole’s working landscape (http://www.51degreesnorth.net/joe/archives/1002). I hired a 1959 Routemaster bus to take people to areas in Poole not usually visited by commercial tour packages. Snaking through Poole’s industrial estates, as well as other features of Poole’s economic landscape. During the tour people heard snippets of oral history about working life in the forties and fifties, about Poole history and how its infrastructure has developed, interspersed with segments about life today in Poole and its possible economic future.

I see archives as a way that we can explore how Britain makes culture and culture makes Britain.

This has led me to develop a range of new work based on my creative activities over the last few years. One is new soundscapes that I am regularly releasing to capture my sense of place around where I live. This is a constant work in progress and the sound recordings will be a counterpoint to another aspect of my audio work, where I’m producing a weekly radio show that is capturing conversations with local artists, arts administrators, arts organisations and commentators in debates about the arts sector, funding, creativity, and the cultural Olympiad. I’m looking to document the artistic practice in this part of the world in the run up to the Olympics and the capital investment into the cultural Olympiad. These vocal pieces are helping me define the relationship between this region and its inhabitants. More at; http://creativedialog.wordpress.com.

While with my soundscape series of works, working within my restricted territory, I expect to find inspiration in the most diverse corners and objects. Moreover to reflect on the changing landscape and weather patterns as we shift through the year. When I undertake engaged listen to the area I’m living in, I feel alive and realise its full acoustic potential. If my work leads to getting more people to discover their own surrounding and to really listen to it, then I’m contributing, even in a utopian way, to their enrichment. There is still plenty to explore.

In this part of the world, tourism is a vital economy and the influx of people into the landscape and the extra events, businesses, etc that go on, fundamentally changes this place. I’m also surrounded with agriculture business with their ever-changing routines and this can change the landscape dramatically. http://51degreesnorth.bandcamp.com

Alongside my personal work I also work with arts and educational charity digital:works. Whose work rests on the principles of participation with local communities. They do a lot of oral history projects working with young and old to capture people’s stories of places. Not just history from the olden days, but they are interested in capturing this moment in time for future generations. http://www.digital-works.co.uk

Sometimes I feel I am exercising a kind of public service. Someone has to do it. I feel that collective memory is important and must not be erased. I also feel that not just an ‘official’ documentation should exists that tells everyone how successful it all was. I wish I had more time for my documentation. One recent project I initiated was working with a local photography club, exploring contemporary landscape photographic practice. Curating an exhibition at Poole Lighthouse for the arts to capture our working landscapes. This came out of my finding no archival images in Poole Museums showing its trading estates; the shops and its commercial panorama. Those spaces we simply drive through, that when you pause to recall it, leaves little or no lasting impression. http://issuu.com/joestevens/docs/joe_stevens_landscape_industry

See more details on a wide range of archival work: http://www.51degreesnorth.net/joe/index.php?s=archive

Very happy to hear my soundwork, Roadworks, has been selected for the 6th edition of the Streaming Festival. The piece will be available on the Streaming Festival website from 1 till 18 December 2011. The complete program and additional screening information can also be found on their website.