University of Huddersfield Repository Bradley, Simon Archaeology of the Voice: Exploring Oral History, Locative Media, Audio Walks, and Sound Art as Sitespecific Displacement Activities Original Citation Bradley, Simon (2016) Archaeology of the Voice: Exploring Oral History, Locative Media, Audio Walks, and Sound Art as Sitespecific Displacement Activities. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/28316/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE VOICE: EXPLORING ORAL HISTORY, LOCATIVE MEDIA, AUDIO WALKS, AND SOUND ART AS SITE- SPECIFIC DISPLACEMENT ACTIVITIES SIMON BRADLEY A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Huddersfield February 2016 Archaeology of the Voice: Exploring Oral History, Locative Media, Audio Walks, and Sound Art as Site-Specific Displacement Activities Simon Bradley Doctor of Philosophy School of Music, Humanities and Media University of Huddersfield 1 Copyright i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the "Copyright") and he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trademarks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the "Intellectual Property Rights") and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables ("Reproductions"), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions. 2 Abstract This thesis develops a notion of an archaeology of the voice that is situated between three principal areas of research and practice: oral history, locative media, and sound art. The research takes place in the context of contested urban space in Holbeck, Leeds one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the U.K. Through a reiterative and reflexive process of extensive interviewing, soundwalking and field recording the area is deep mapped and material gathered in order to produce a percipient led site- specific presentation of oral history I term 'phonoscape'. Although the technology exists to connect oral history to place via locative media within a database aesthetic, a practical and conceptual gap is identified between these technologies for those working with audio interview material. In this context a purpose-built app is developed to enable oral history audio archives to be distributed geospatially, becoming navigable aurally on foot. In order to distribute a polyvocal sampling of an archive in time-space, techniques and principles from contemporary sound art are introduced, in particular a form of field composition involving an understanding of constitutive silence, soundscape, and voice editing techniques. Research into contemporary audio walk and memoryscape practice confirms that non-linear, fragmented narrative forms are used the construction of polyvocal understandings of place, and this is taken forward within a conception of the embodied hypertextual affordance of locative technology. The findings are then brought together in a transdisciplinary manoeuvre that introduces Displacement Activities, a translocational form of site-specific participatory performance art, providing a public vehicle that draws attention to phonoscape, its oral history content, and the archive itself. As an open work that is generative and reflexive, Displacement Activities extend the notion of site-specificity, finding global analogues before returning to the original site to begin the work again. 3 4 Acknowledgements This research would have been impossible to undertake without a generous award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Also the University of Huddersfield has provided crucial funding enabling me to extend my engagement with fellow researchers at home and abroad. My sincere thanks to my main supervisor Prof. Paul Ward who has been unwavering in his patience and support throughout the work, and to my second supervisor Dr. Rupert Till who provided inspirational and timely advice whenever things looked as though were about to fall apart. I would also like to thank my examiners Dr. Rob Ellis and Prof. Mike Pearson for their helpful advice and comments, and for their willingness to brave the wind and rain of Holbeck exploring the phonoscape. I am very grateful to friend and colleague Phil Legard of Leeds Beckett University who developed the LOAM app, without which the phonoscape might never have been realised. I would also like to thank Graham Smith and fellow oral historians at the Oral History Society who have provided much help and advice when needed. Also I am grateful to Dr. Stephen High and my friends and colleagues at Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia who introduced me to some of the fascinating inter-disciplinary projects going on over in Canada. I would like to thank the whole crew who made the 2011 world premiere of Displacement Activities at Leeds Light Night such an incredible success. This was a major turning point in the research process. Thank you Layla Legard, Seth Cooke, Mark Shahid, Robert John Lee, Helen McDonald, Emily Clavering-Lee, Anzir Boodoo, and Stu Bannister & James Islip from Lumen. Also for their endless inspiration and assistance in the translocational Florentine Displacement, a special thanks to Greta Grendaite, Pamela Barberi, Guy Wouete, Pietro Gaglianò, and Marina Bistolfi and everyone who made it possible. The work has relied on many friends, colleagues and fellow artists along the way, and I am extremely grateful for their help and encouragement, in particular Toby Butler, Graeme Miller, Jeremy Hight, Jeff Knowlton, Teri Rueb, Jason Farman, Alex Harker, Martin Howse, Derek Hayles, Jackie Calderwood, Ross Kinghorn, Tim Waters, and Silvie Fisch deserve special mention. I would like to single out sound artist Phill Harding, who has become a true friend over the years it has taken to complete the work, provided calmness and advice to get me through some of the most difficult tiimes. Phill’s engagement with Displacement Activities 2011, and John Cage 4'33" ~ M621 Underpass has become part of my own place memory, the stuff of legend. I would like to thank all the people in Holbeck who were involved in the project either directly or indirectly. In particular, in the early stages Steve Ross at the Dewsbury Road One-Stop Centre, and local resident and blogger Steve Peacock opened up many avenues for fruitful research. Also Susan Williamson, temporary guardian of Temple Works, opened the way to unprecented opportunities for field recording and interviewing in and around that strange and wonderful building. I would like to express my eternal gratitude for the generosity of the sixty-four interviewees who shared their thoughts and precious memories so freely, without which nothing would have been possible. I am grateful to my children Josh and Anna for their good humour and assistance throughout this extremely long and gruelling process, and for putting up with me when I have ventured into sub- human territory. Finally, there is no way this work would have been completed without the love, encouragement and support of my wife Sally. Thank you. 5 6 To the past, present and future people of Holbeck 7 8 List of Contents CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 15 CHAPTER 2 INTRODUCING HOLBECK AND ORAL HISTORY ........................... 26 2.1 HOLBECK HISTORY AND CONTEXT ...................................................................... 30 2.1.1 A VANISHING ORAL HISTORY 32 2.1.2 EXISTING HISTORY OF HOLBECK 36 2.1.3 FOLLOW THE BECK: DEEP MAPPING THE WATER AND GEOLOGY OF HOLBECK 41 2.1.4 HOLBECK’S THREE ZONES 47 Residential Holbeck .............................................................................................................................. 48 Transitional Holbeck .............................................................................................................................. 50 Holbeck