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SoundScape Enables Pandemic Reflection For CBC Community

March 2022 Event

SOUNDSCAPE ENABLES PANDEMIC REFLECTION FOR CAMBRIDGE BIOMEDICAL CAMPUS COMMUNITY

 

[CBC’s new artist-in-residence Andrea Cockerton to bring campus community together to reflect on pandemic]

 

It’s been two long years since the pandemic began.  As part of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus public arts programme, funded by the developers of the campus expansion, Prologis, a new project has launched with the aim of giving voice to what it’s been like for people connected to the  campus.

 

For many treating those with the virus or carrying out research, it has been difficult to express feelings from the last 24 months. This project – called The Dark Heals – will give the campus community a way to do just that. Artist Andrea Cockerton is asking individuals to express how it has felt and  feels, using written and spoken words, drawings, music or video.  All contributions will be displayed on a digital multi-media ‘wall’ and reflected in the composition of a 15-minute ambient soundscape. Created in response to the wall, the soundscape will be live streamed from Cambridge in late April for all campus users to experience, and then via access on demand.

 

The live performance of the soundscape will be recorded live using 3D sound to provide the feeling of being in the middle of the professional musicians creating it. The audience will be able to listen from anywhere, on headphones, and will be asked to listen ‘in the dark’ – hence the project name.  Artist Andrea Cockerton explains ‘you listen differently when you cannot see… your body and  mind have a break from all other inputs and it is incredibly restorative. Ultimately, that is what we want this whole project to do for the campus community – restore and heal where it is most needed.”

 

The deadline for submissions is 25th March, 2022.

The project website provides information and a short video for those wishing to participate – www.thedarkheals.com

 

The Dark Heals is part of the CBC Artist in Residence programme which offers campus patients and employees the opportunity to connect through creative projects. It is curated and managed by international cultural placemaking agency, Futurecity, on behalf of the campus community. The programme is led and funded by property developer Prologis under the s106 agreement with Cambridge City Council to deliver public art across the CBC expansion land. Cockerton was selected by the CBC Public Art Steering Group, made up of campus stakeholders and external advisors.

 

“The Dark Heals offers our campus community much-needed space to breathe, reflect, express and come together after an extremely difficult two years. Music has a powerful way of connecting deeply to our innermost feelings, and filling us with hope – something that we all need right now. We are so excited to be working with Andrea to create a soundscape that captures our human experience, to be shared now and to be preserved for many years to come” said Natalie Ellis, Head of Arts, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

 

We are excited by the potential for this commission to promote wellbeing and build and nurture unexpected collaborations between the CBC research and healthcare community that will support innovation in science and health”, said Andrew Blevins, Senior Vice President, Life Sciences, Prologis

 

“People need art now more than ever. Andrea’s project creates a unique space in which to articulate the highs and lows of the last two years. Her expertise in creating inspiring soundscapes will seek to honour these emotions, lift our spirits and help us remember that we are not alone, but wholly connected and supporting each other”, said Andy Robinson, Head of Strategy, Futurecity.

 

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