Artist in Residence Week 12 - Magz Hall.

In the final week of 2013's summer season, The Old Lookout welcomed Magz Hall with her sound installation exhibition Radio Recall. As Magz describes in her statement for the project, "Radio Recall is a community interaction and micro broadcast", which began on the Friday of her residency with a recording workshop for members of the public. The aim was to both teach volunteers how to use recording equipment and also to gather a series of interviews from local people. Magz was interested in hearing people's memories of listening to the radio: their first memories of radio; the shows they listen to now; how their listening habits have changed; and what kind of radios they use. Many of the interviews were incredibly nostalgic; not only for the interviewee but for members of the public listening to them afterwards. The sound pieces were then edited by Magz, and broadcast into The Old Lookout using FM through a selection of vintage radios, old and new. Now normally I would post lots of photographs documenting the exhibition to describe it better than I can with my rambly words. I did take some photos, but seeing as this was predominantly a sound exhibition, I've made a little video to show the visual set-up alongside some of the audio from the exhibition.

Magz with one of the project's contributors, after having recorded his radio memories.

On the first days of the exhibition, only one interview was playing at a time, with all the pieces on around a 30 minute loop. This was playing from only 1 radio, all all the others mainly just for visual effect. However, when I went back a second time, Magz had decided to use a multi-channel system, with several different voices speaking at once. This used almost all of the radios that had been donated, unifying the visual and aural aspects of the exhibition. I found that when it was just one voice, it was much easier to understand what was being said. It lent itself more to visitors sitting down, relaxing and staying in the gallery for a long time, so as to hear all the interviews. When all of the radios were being used, there was a much richer, multi-layered sound. This provided more interest when considering the waves of voices, the fading in and out of interviews. Because of the way the channels were staggered, sometimes there would be only 1 voice, with others cutting in and out at various points, which created a more diverse atmosphere. Whichever way the piece was presented, it certainly created a very nostalgic feeling, with people fondly looking back to their childhood memories of radio.
In terms of the public's reaction, it seemed to me that once people understood the nature of the show, and spent a bit of time with it, they definitely did become engaged with the work. Magz did note that several people seemed to be confused about the exhibition, perhaps not quite coming to terms with the fact that the art on show was actually aural rather than visual. There were a few "I thought there was an exhibition here?" questions, but Magz was good at explaining the nature of the exhibition and directing them to a statement which gave all the details. However, in terms of numbers, Magz was happy with the steady footfall, comparing it to her previous exhibitions here and suggesting that it felt like there was a much more regular stream of visitors this year. This may have been helped by the good weather this weekend, but to have more visitors than last year is a good thing nevertheless.
This was Magz's third exhibition here at The Old Lookout, all contributing towards research for her PhD. Each of the exhibits had a very different visual identity, and unfortunately she did say that she felt that this year's was the least visually striking. She said she wished she had had more time and help in hanging the radios around the gallery in order to make the look of the exhibition as interesting as the sound. She also felt this would have been helped by having better plinths, and perhaps other ways of hanging work in the gallery. This included giving the space in the roof a bit of a de-clutter, in order to utilise this space better. Like some of the other exhibitors this year, Magz did say that she would prefer not to have to be in the gallery every day, and would have been happy leaving the exhibition with someone else on some of the quieter days. She said she did meet some really interesting people, and enjoyed the interaction, but found the day to day looking after of the work a bit tiring. She also agreed that opening at 10am is a bit too early, and being there at 11am would be preferable in the future.
Overall, Magz told me that she always appreciates how the space can be used for experimentation. There were a few issues with the tuning of the radios, given the notoriously unpredictable Broadstairs reception. However, she said that she quite enjoyed the elements of chance and not knowing quite what to expect. It also gave her the opportunity to test out the technology she is going to be using for a larger exhibition in Canterbury next year, as well as getting feedback on the work from the general public. Although it seemed that several people weren't particularly acquainted with the term 'sound art', it struck me that once they understood the concept of the exhibition, they really did engage with the nostalgic sentiments it encouraged.