Project Start – Museums Research Visit: 29 – 31 May

Looking back to the project start. Such a productive gathering. Poems were read and vocalised in situ, and co-creation began.

Staff and volunteers at the Kelham Island Museum and Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet were generous with their stories and allowed us ‘close up’ access to tools and the collection.  The image below shows Kim Cunio holding his recording device at Abbeydale, which was closed to visitors that day. It was an ideal opportunity to record ambient sounds needed to give authentic ‘texture’ to a sound track in a film. For those who are not so familiar with recording technologies, the fluffy cover you see below is known as a ‘dead cat’!  It is very useful, as it prevents noise interference from wind blowing across the microphone, but I have no idea who first coined that term.

Kim recording at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet, 29 May © Cradle of Fire

Two extraordinary visit highlights were:

Experiencing the most powerful working steam engine in Europe, ‘Big Don’ power up.

Heather and Kim performing and recording live poetry ‘improv’ in Kelham Island Museum. Staff were still talking about it when we visited again two weeks later!

Check Carolyn’s blog posts for some of the poetry and the Sounds section for recordings.

The River Don Engine is a 1905-built steam engine used for hot rolling steel armour plate © Creative Commons

Blog by Diana Scarborough and Emma Boden