HOUSE OF STONE

Summary

A stone, light and sound installation that reconnects audiences with nature and their ancestors.

Three spaces invite audiences to take part in acts of pilgrimage and remembrance in a new ritual inspired by the Zimbabwean gathering of Bira. Beginning in a mirrored room filled with small stones, the audience starts their journey walking over pebbles and rocks. The sound of their walking is amplified through a speaker array that plays back the footsteps to create a sonic-scape to represent pilgrimage.

The next room is where the audience participates in a shared ritual of stone placing. As each stone is placed it triggers a sonic event and notes from an Mbira. In addition, projection mapping creates the effect of ripples in a pool under each placed stone. Finally, the audience moves to the last space in which monolith-esque stones are lit by a shard of light inspired by the Newgrange winter solstice event. Here the audience can whisper the name of an ancestor to contribute to a soundscape of whispered remembrance.

HOUSE OF STONE was created as part of a collaboration between artists from Zimbabwe, the UK, China and Argentina.

‘I could see this as ready-to-go as an idea already and an experience I would certainly be interested in’, ‘the subtle way [they] incorporate technology was impressive, and made me feel this could have a universal, cross-generational appeal’

– Paul Glinkowski– Senior Innovation Manager, Arts Council England

‘What struck me was how this really feels like a collaboration, an amalgamation of all the areas of interest and skills of the group’, ‘‘it’s about ritual, it’s about connection, it’s about culture, rather than about showing a new technology, and to me that’s definitely the best way of utilising technologies in projects’.

-Kay Watson – Head of Digital, Serpentine Gallery

For more information about Immersive Assembly please email Willow@yorkmediale.com

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Lydia Cottrell

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