Harmonic Oscillator project

Today I attended the event to celebrate the culmination of artist Vic McEwans Harmonic Oscillator project hosted by Clive Parkinson of Arts and Health in Manchester. In the cinema at HOME, Clive presented Vic's work and their collaboration together with Clive acting as a collaborator and critical friend during Vic's residency at Alderhey Children's Hospital. Vic spent his time listening to the sound environment of the hospital and making subtle recordings of heard and unheard sounds and noise, voices and interacting with patients and staff on the wards about how sound affects the patient and the staff experiences - including in the heightened environment of the intensive care unit.

Particularly interesting was his work with one young artist called Aisha, who was a patient on the ward. Vic took a recording of her heartbeat and he and Clive travelled to an underground oil tank in the north of Scotland, where the longest reverberation of sounds can be heard - with a record breaking sound reverb of 2 minutes. The single heartbeat was played and recorded in this strange subterranean environment. Clive Parkinson has written a book about the work called Critical Care which is available at the HOME bookshop.