Curated by Karen Lauke, senior lecturer in sound design at Edge Hill University, the Sound Booth presents work from some of the UK's top sound designers whilst also opening up the opportunity for up and coming sound designers to showcase examples of their work.
The intention of the exhibition is to draw people's attention to sound design whilst also illustrating some of the processes involved when working in sound design, with production notes and presentations from John Leonard's recent production of The Master Builder, trailers from Gareth Fry's productions of Beauty and the Beast and Sucker Punch, Mic Pool's Bad Girls The Musical and Steve Brown's Comedy of Errors, to name just a few.
Karen Lauke says: "It is always difficult to exhibit sound in an engaging, exciting ways for people unaccustomed to the discipline to experience, especially when it is isolated and removed from its intended theatrical setting. However, the Sound Booth, designed in collaboration with visual designer Dody Nash, offers its audience an unique audio-visual experience."
Audience members are invited to climb into the spherical-shaped opening to sit and relax on the beanbags in the cosy designed space. Reflective mood lighting delivers an exciting installation-like environment for the work to be appreciated in.
The exhibition has been constructed and is run using Qlab and functions much like a sound design would for a show, with the addition of video files, still images and text all featuring alongside the audio. The show runs for over an hour, giving the audience a flavour of sound design work which has featured through the UK, from West End productions to regional and touring theatre productions.
The sound booth will be considered for selection alongside other exhibits from set, costume and lighting designers to be featured as the UK entry exhibit for Prague Quadrennial in June later this year.
"I would like to thank the designers Nela Brown, Steve Brown, Gareth Fry, John Leonard, Tom Lishman, Mark Melville, Roger Mills, Mic Pool, Brad Ward, Lisa Whistlecroft, Peter Wyer and of course visual designer Dody Nash for contributing to the exhibition. In addition, special thanks to our sponsors Duran Audio and Sound Stage Services for the loan of all the equipment."
(Lee Baldock)
