Susan Atwill
Ear Plan, 2021
1 May - 31 May, 2022
Born in Sunderland, Atwill is a sound hunter & part-function/part-fiction artist. Inspired by her grandparents’ homes, cultural history and roots in mining communities of North East England, she creates alternative realities using time-based media such as casting, film & sound.
Ear Plan is an audiovisual work exploring the mining culture of North East England via processes of casting, photography, and sound, combining material experimentation with poetic imagination.
Drawn to edges of rivers, excavating mud, and other elemental materials, Atwill is a part-function/part-fiction artist. Inspired by her grandparents’ homes, cultural history and roots in mining communities of the North East, she creates an alternative reality where fossilised sound exists and objects speak, materials sing; merging tangible precious debris* with sounds of heritage and inheritance.
Listen to our chat with Susan about archeology, language origin stories, sound and much more below.
Listen to our chat with Susan about archeology, language origin stories, sound and much more. You can download the transcription HERE.
Mentioned in conversation
Books/Writing:
Vibrant Matter by Jane Bennett
The Sound Sweep by JG Ballard
Greek Myths - Orpheus and Eurydice
Plato’s Cave / The Allegory of the Cave by Plato (from the book Republic)
Now You're Talking: Human Conversation from the Neanderthals to Artificial Intelligence by Trevor Cox
Places/Plants:
Monkwearmouth, Sunderland (now the site of Sunderland AFC’s Stadium of Light)
Dawdon, County Durham (the start of Alien 3 is filmed on the beach)
Clubmosses - giant trees in the Carboniferous forests that became the coalfields https://ebps.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Binder1.pdf
Parrot Coal - https://news.stv.tv/east-central/rare-victorian-table-carved-from-fife-parrot-coal-bought-for-6000
Dialects:
Pitmatic- https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9781904794257/Pitmatic-Talk-North-East-Coal-1904794254/plp
Geordie
Mackem
Music/Comedy:
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Daphne Oram
Delia Derbyshire
Mighty Boosh - S1 Ep 4 Tundra. Full episode available to watch on BBC iplayer (Frozen Last Words scene starts around 13:00 mins)
Bob Mortimer on Would I Lie to You?
Bobby Thompson
Prisencolinensinaicuisol by Adriano Celentano
Other Stuff:
Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021 exhibition at South London Gallery
An Eye Plan by John Rain
Arthur Scargill - playlist of speeches
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3kcqiO3Lj8
Lastly, this video was such an inspiration - everything about it, the Hollywood intro - and then the sound of the mummy., then the ridiculous news presenters trying to take it seriously.