Sound And Light To Unite Cathedrals

The project features in this morning's Liverpool Daily Post. Vicky Anderson the Daily Post's acting Arts Editor recently interviewed Peter Appleton and Colin Dilnot from the project and this is what she has written in today's paper:

THE hopes and aspirations of the people of Liverpool will travel the length of one of its most inspirational streets as part of a striking new art project.

The Hope Street Project is an innovative art installation which will link Liverpool’s two cathedrals with light and sound throughout the autumn.

“Voices travel as light” is the idea behind the piece, as it will use two lasers – one that will be visible during hours of darkness, and a second invisible beam carrying voices and sounds between the two cathedrals.

The visible laser will be turned on from September 25.

Following on from that, recorded sounds travelling along the other beam will vibrate the strings of a guitar, creating a chordal and harmonic backdrop to the delicate tapestry of voices which will be heard in both cathedrals at designated times.

This is where the need for outside help comes in, as the team behind the project are appealing for volunteers to contribute the phrases – a word, a sentence or short poem that describes what you hope for in life – that will be added to the mass that will resonate in both cathedrals, travelling along the sonic beam between them.

The overall sound created will offer a gentle and discreet ambience for reflection and contemplation.

Visitors to the cathedrals will be able to hear the sounds created by the installation in both Cathedrals at designated times.

Organisers have already held special events to get people involved and anyone interested can add their voices to the project, by emailing a message to hopestreetproject@gmail.com, or you can drop into either cathedral at designated times to record it (details can be found at the websites below).

Project manager Colin Dilnot said: “It’s about aspirations and the aspirations of the people of Liverpool. That’s why we wanted to do it in 2008, at such a time of optimism.”

All the software has been made specifically, and the Hope Street Project will go live the week beginning October 25 and culminate with a concert with choirs at each cathedral.

“The Anglican takes on a unique quality to the space, because of the fantastic acoustics there. If you go to the Metropolitan its sounds different again".

“The project is interesting as it is about how the sounds we are creating interplay in very different buildings. People are going to be intrigued by it.”

For more information visit:

http://www.hopestreetproject.blogspot.com/ or
http://www.myspace.com/hopestreetproject

Vicky Anderson

Big thanks to Vicky Anderson and the Liverpool Daily Post for publicising our project.

Reaching Out Along Hope Street

An intregal part of the project is the outreach work we are conducting to involve the people of Liverpool in the project. We want the voices of the people of Liverpool to be transmitted over Hope Street as light.

One part of the outreach work was to map the various organisations and businesses along Hope Street. The process began earlier this year by photographing the street to reflect the complexity of useage and the variety or organisations and business we are engaging. The idea is to move out from Hope Street and engage as many people as possible who wish to contribute to the project between now and November 2008.

The above slide show reflects the journey we made down Hope Street one bright Winter's day in January.

Laser Over Hope Street

An important part of the installation is the visual impact of linking the two Cathedrals by laser. The red laser which we are using to transmit the voices and sounds is invisible to the naked eye.

We have been conducting experiments using a green laser with our partners Lairdside Laser and Laser Quantum. The above slide show demonstrates the visual impact we want to create in linking the two Cathedrals along Hope Street. We believe this visual impact will greatly enhance the presence of the project and lead to people taking more notice of what we are trying to achieve. We would also want people to be sufficently interested by the visual laser to take part in the installation.

We have also been discussing the possibility of a greater visual impact by modulating the green laser with the energy of the voices we are generating.

We must thank Chris McCarthy for the stunning photographs in the slide show and are new banner for the blog.

Laser Installation 3

The above slide show details the installation of one of the infra-red lasers at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

Laser Installation 2

The above slide show details the installation of the infra-red laser at the Liverpool Catherdral.

The installation involved fixing the laser to a parapet on the bell tower of the Cathedral. The installation was made difficult due to access issues in the building, locating the laser at the best height, only being allowed to use non-intrusive fixing of the laser because of heritage considerations and the distance from the Cathredal's audio system to the parapet.

Access to the parapet has to be negotiated through 2 lifts, narrow spaces within the Cathedral, many stairs and finally using a ladder from the bell-ringing area to the a window onto the parapet.

We explored several possible locations for the postioning of the laser but the parapet had the best height to link to the Metropolitan Cathedral especially when we install the green visual laser.

We eventually overcame the fixing of the laser to the parapet by using a resin, which enables us to get the strength of fix to maintain the link in all weathers and get over the problem of not being able to bolt the laser to the floor.

We were presented with a problem of fixing the internal cabling once we decided on the positioning of the laser. This problem was solved with considerable help from the Cathedral's staff who fixed the cable for us so that it was not intrusive.

Laser Installation 1

The installation of the laser system has involved considerable planning and difficult work in both Cathedrals as we faced the challenges presented by the structures of both buildings.

We conducted several site inspections with staff from both Cathedrals and the project team over the Winter. We needed to ensure we complied with safety requirements and the heritage of both buildings which required safe and sensitive installation of cabling and lasers. The staff from both Cathedrals provided us with excellent support and helped with the installaton of cabling from the lasers to the internal audio systems.

In the above slide show, you can see Keith and Wayne from the project team working on installing the laser and external cabling on the Liverpool Metropolitan Catherdal.

Liverpool Cathedrals In Winter 08

Over the late winter months, we worked hard to install the infra-red laser system in the two Cathedrals. The infra-red laser will carry the audio between the Cathedrals and is a crucial part of the installation to allow us to transmit "voices travelling as light down Hope Street". The photos were taken on a cold February morning before we began work.