Linen
Memorial
Northern Ireland Troubles

The new soundscape was made with Dr. Stephen Perrett, psycho-acoustics, with readers from the Northern Ireland and Ireland Diaspora communities of Canberra, ACT, Australia and Vancouver, Canada. Eight spatially separate loudspeakers are used to present the names readings. Each reader’s recording will be played back via one particular loudspeaker. All recordings would be played back sat the same time thereby simulating 8 spatially separate human readers all reading names simultaneously.

Presentation: Eight spatially separate loudspeakers are used to present the names readings. Each reader’s recording is played back via one particular loudspeaker. All recordings are played back at the same time thereby simulating 8 spatially separate human readers all reading names simultaneously.

Soundscape Artist: Dr. Stephen Perrett received his PhD in Psycho-Acoustics in 2002 from the University of New England, Australia. He left academia for a career in Information Technology and is working as a freelance Sound Artist and Web page designer. It was as a web designer that he became familiar with Lycia Trouton’s memorial, 2003, and created this Soundscape, 2009. In his twenties, he played and performed with the Punk Rock band Chalky Darts. He was born in Wales of British parents (who migrated in the 1950s to Wales), Perrett migrated in 1975 to Queensland, Australia and currently lives in New South Wales. The names list soundscape uses randomized 8 channel sound & techniques from Auditory Localization

Readers: Mrs Margaret Barman (Omagh, Sydney), Tania and Conor Bradley (Belfast, Canberra), Jim Clinton (Belfast, Canberra), Aidan Moore (Dublin, Canberra), Lizz Murphy (Belfast, Yass Australia), Delores O'Riordan (Dublin, Canberra), Robert Trouton (Bangor, Vancouver); Isabel Truesdale, former member of a cross-community friendship group in 1973-4 in N. Ireland (South Armagh, Canberra)

SEA2009, the 15th International Symposium on Electronic Art is a major international event that offers a premier and unprecedented showcase for creativity and innovation at the intersection of art, design, science and technology. Under the theme of Engaged Creativity in Mobile Environments it builds a rich and vibrant platform for debate, display and networking across and between different and diverse disciplines and perspectives.

ISEA2009 focuses on imaginative, critical and provocative approaches to the radical and rapid challenges to the ways in which individuals and communities live, work and socialise in the digital age. It brings together international experts and keynote speakers who are forward thinking in the strategic development and creative exploitation of digital technologies. Its dispersed and multi-modal mode of delivery aims to involve, inform and promote the creative potential of communities in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the exploration of the potential of digital technologies for new practices of exchange, networking, (self)organisation, civil engagement and transactions in the real, augmented and virtual world.

ISEA2009 has invited contributions from diverse disciplinary perspectives to eight supporting sub themes.

Lycia presented in the following sub-theme:
Inquiries in the strand Tracking Emotions reflect on innovative ways to scan, model, simulate, stimulate, reproduce and trigger emotions. The theme takes its point of departure from the different forms and modes in which human emotions are utilised in and integral to creative processes. Where and how can artists and researchers avail of new technologies to identify and measure spectators’ or users’ emotional engagement and patterns of affective response? How do conventional and innovative technologies and techniques aid the distinction between different emotional trigger and experiences? How can artists calculate and direct emotional re/actions and what capabilities do new technologies offer for such manipulations?

My (Irish) Linen Memorial is an intervention of a 'modest witness', in the intimate and historic medium of Irish linen. It is my Irish Diaspora contribution to commemorating those killed in the Northern Ireland Troubles. Its early role, given it was started in 2001, was not only to 'heal through remembrance', but also to work against the tide of continued violence and terror in post-conflict Northern Ireland. This paper is about the 2009 digitization of the memorial for The Canada Room at Queens on June 21st, The third annual Private Day of Reflection and for the web , 'A Gathering of Names' surround Soundscape, 2009, randomises the names list of all those killed and uses auditory spatial localisation for visitors to the memorial looking for loved ones.

ISEA2009 - Lycia Trouton's Presentation >