Marin Eccles: No. 2: ‘no trace’ – live sound event
19 Nov 2019 at 7.00 p.m., live sound event
The event is part of 8-channel sound installation No. 2: ‘no trace’, being on display: 16 Nov 2019 –14 Jan 2020
No. 2: ‘no trace’ is a sound work that examines the interplay of walking and human senses. The route is downstream and then upstream along a small river in Northumberland, in the north east of England. Whilst the overall distance is not great, progress is slow and the walk takes about an hour and a half. For much of the first half of the walk the predominant sound is of the river (and occasional cars and aircraft) as progress downstream is with the current and there is little disturbance. On the way back upstream each step becomes audible as the artist produces a wave of water and a wave of sound.
Artist about performans:
“I focus my work on ideas of movement, distance and time. My performance examines what it means to walk, the human act of moving over the earth’s surface – how I move, across distance and time and how this might change when my senses are compromised. The senses used to walk are assumed but when they are removed, walking becomes a more precarious, considered and slower activity. In deep water, or underground, vision is compromised – we cannot “look where we are going”; From recordings of walks in a river, a lead mine and across moorland my performance will present a sonic picture of the human act of walking.”
Martin P Eccles is a walking sound artist and poet. His practice aims to reflect the experience of his presence in and walking through natural environments. He uses a range of methods (predominantly sound and text) to respond to time, distance and place in the landscape. His sound works explore time through a number of methods such as replicated walks, durational walks, “Cagean” walks and walks that challenge his senses. His poems are presented as text but are also spoken and presented within the sound recordings.
He qualified in Fine Art from Newcastle University and is currently studying part-time for a PhD in Fine Art. He has exhibited in various international galleries and venues. He has had many solo radio broadcasts, in 2018/19 he had a 24-episode radio series and the broadcast of a continuous 24-hour work. He has published work in Alliterati magazine and presented work in ‘Desire Lines, Dawdles and Drifts: Walking Together as Research’, Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, Cardiff, 2018 and at the 4th World Congress of Psychogeography, Huddersfield, 2018.