New Artwork Launched - 'A Sense of Space' - 23 January 2006

Issued By: City of York Council

Issue Date: 23/1/2006

"A Sense of Place" - a site-specific artwork by Damian Murphy, John Oxley and Immersive Media Spaces

Bootham Bar, York, 8am until dusk, January 26th until late March 2006 (open until 7pm on Thursday evenings)

From the last weekend in January until the end of March, visitors to one of York's most ancient spaces will experience a 21st Century multimedia artist's interpretation of 2000 years of history. "A Sense of Place" is an interactive audio-visual artwork created by sound artist Dr Damian Murphy in collaboration with York company Immersive Media Spaces and John Oxley, the City archaeologist.

"A sense of Place" will occupy the first floor of Bootham Bar, one of the cities four well-loved medieval gateways and the only one to stand on the site of a gateway originally built by Roman soldiers almost 2,000 years ago. A specially-composed, "soundscape" featuring real and synthesised sounds will be mixed with elements captured from floor-mounted microphones to create three scenes from the history of the city as it has changed around Bootham Bar during the twenty centuries that have passed since the Romans arrived in York.

The first scene - The Place Where the Yew Trees Grow - reflects the foundation and naming of Roman York as Eboracum. Part 2 - Bedern - is inspired by the traditional tune of York, dating from 1615, and is a lament to a specific site within the city walls that at its height in the 13th century was the seat of the Vicars Choral (responsible for celebrating masses in the Minster for the souls of their dead patrons), to the mid 19th century when it was a slum and a ghetto for Irish immigrants, and the location for 'The Ragged School' for 'the poorer classes' where many of the children who attended met a pitiful end at the hands of one particular headmaster. Finally, Part 3 - The Railway King - recalls the life and death of George Hudson who brought the railways to York. Upon his death in 1871 his body was brought back to the city from London on a railway carriage, and was there processed through the streets to the sound of the tolling Minster bell as people gathered to wish him a final farewell.

"A sense of Place" has been commissioned by Renaissance : Illuminating York and follows the success of other cutting-edge artworks created specially for York over the past two years including The Square by KMA, Ghost Ships by Nigel Sandor, Weather Patterns by Loop.PH and The heart of Yorkshire by Patrice Warrener.

Editors Notes

The aim of Renaissance: Illuminating York is to re-interpret and breathe new life into York's historic urban environment while inspiring and showcasing the creative talent within the city. Renaissance: Illuminating York is supported by funding from the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and is delivered through a partnership with the City Council and the First Stop York Tourism Partnership, conservation groups within York and by a panel of experts selected from the City's creative industries.

Ian Collins from YF said "This is a fantastic project and a very creative means of increasing the level of footfall and developing the evening economy of York. Our investment in Renaissance: Illuminating York is targeted at attracting longer staying, high spending visitors to Yorkshire and thereby maximising the economic benefits of tourism to York and the region".

Bios:

Dr Damian Murphy is Lecturer in Music Technology at the University of York, and visiting lecturer to the Department of Speech, Music and Hearing, KTH, Stockholm. In 2004 the multi-disciplinary approach to his work as sound artist and scientific researcher resulted in his appointment as an AHRC/ACE Arts/Science Research Fellow. Recent work includes solo acousmatic pieces, Parted Rather Sadly (York Art Gallery, 2001), and Autumn - Fading Days (32nd Bourges Festival, France, 2002); collaboration with visual artists Annie Halliday for GlassWare (Translucent Exposures touring exhibition, 2001), and Peter Heaton for the DVD installations Winter Sea (York Art Gallery, 2002; Scarborough Art Gallery, 2003) and Reconfigured (York Art Gallery, 2003; Leeds International Music Technology Conference, 2004; International Computer Music Conference, Barcelona, 2005). Current work explores interactive sound design in collaboration with digital media companies KMA (The Square, Davygate, York, until March 2006) and Immersive Media Spaces (A Sense of Place, Bootham Bar, York, until April 2006).

Immersive Media Spaces (IMS) Ltd is one of York's premier creative companies working across a range of sectors from education, through to museums and one off artistic installations. It creates installations that respond to people's movements and gestures, translating these to a range of media including sound, light, water, video and special effects. Adept at working with artists, IMS has collaborated on several national and international touring pieces including for the Jerwood Fine Arts Award in 2003.

John Oxley is the City of York Council Archaeologist. He is responsible for conservation work on York City Walls. Together with Rory McCarthy, City of York Economic Development Unit, he shares responsibility for the implementation of the first phase of orientation and interpretation installations on the City Walls.

Papers:

Note that the scientific aspects of this work from which this piece has been developed is supplied in hard copy as the following paper:

D. T. Murphy, "Multi-channel Impulse Response Measurement, Analysis and Rendering in Archaeological Acoustics", Presented at 119th AES Convention, New York, USA, 7-10 Oct, 2005. Convention Paper 6532.