Supporting Material
The Dreamer Awakes, broadcast on 8th March. https://soundartradio.org.uk/listen 102.5 FM in the Totnes area.
‘The Dreamer Awakes’ (2022), is an ongoing exploration bringing traditional storytelling to new audiences to harness and access its healing properties (i.e. generating community, holding, as well as entertainment) while acting as a vehicle to encourage discussion and remembering. One of its early aims was to bring the older residents of Haddenham, (a rural village in Buckinghamshire) together after the isolation of lockdown, and make contact with some of the more vulnerable members in their homes. On a personal level the research is an ongoing exploration into linking traditional oral storytelling with technology, i.e. sound and moving imagery. The first part of ‘The Dreamer Awakes culminated in an i) open rehearsal at Wycombe Arts Centre, High Wycombe in October 2022 for an invited local audience, ii) and an interactive memory workshop with the older residents of Haddenham in November 2022. The second part of the project is an edited version of ‘The 7 Wild Geese’, layered with music, and recorded memories, to be broadcast on SoundArt Radio March 8th @ 1pm to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The Dreamer Awakes was created by Anna Walker, with musical composition by Ben Park, percussion by JT. The performance was directed by Michael Harvey, and the radio broadcast was produced by Lucinda Guy.
Funded by Farnham Maltings + The Rothschild Foundation, with support from Wycombe Arts, and The Public Engagement fund, Plymouth University. For more information: www.thecityartsdoctors.com/the-dreamer-awakes.html
The Dreamer Awakes was created by Anna Walker, with musical composition by Ben Park, percussion by JT. The performance was directed by Michael Harvey, and the radio broadcast was produced by Lucinda Guy.
Funded by Farnham Maltings + The Rothschild Foundation, with support from Wycombe Arts, and The Public Engagement fund, Plymouth University. For more information: www.thecityartsdoctors.com/the-dreamer-awakes.html
The video, ‘Becoming Bird. 1: Spring’ (2022, 14 mins), is a layered sound and imagery assemblage that coalesces, changes and reforms in its journey across the screen. Through the work, I am extending the idea of knowledge, experiential knowledge in an endeavour to challenge the definitions of animal to human boundaries and the experience of being in a merged/shared world. The collection of footage and sounds began in February 2022 with a request to a group of colleagues and friends to leave voicemails or messages with and about the bird song they heard as they walked through parks, fields, or city streets. In exchange I would call them and leave similar messages. For more information: https://unlikely.net.au/issue-08/becoming-bird
'We are the granddaughters of those who didn't burn' (Walker, 2020-2021, 17.12 minutes)
'We are the granddaughters of those who didn't burn' (Haraway, 2017) is a visual poem or prayer to the ancestors. It is a calling to them, specifically to the Celtic Cailleach asking for her support and guidance at this time of need. The myth of The Cailleach comes from a culmination of written and oral accounts about the Celtic wise woman and/or crone. She is a dynamic force and a continuing presence in Irish and Scottish culture. The Cailleach exemplifies the psychodynamic process of change and transformation and symbolises a feminist reframing of Irish culture, a reclaiming of the demonised otherworld female of Irish tradition. The title: 'We are the granddaughters of those who didn't burn,' is from a talk by Donna Haraway given at Yale University in 2017. Opportunistic, contingent, The Cailleach is worlding through myth, through feminist principles, and through the extraordinary.
Making is a recycling of found imagery. It is a cut-up, which Simon O’Sullivan calls doing violence to, to create something new, something different, (2017). It is a reusing of footage, in this instance bringing it forward from the past to create a future fictioning (Burrows, O’Sullivan, 2019). The found footage, from YouTube, news footage, nature, and surfing videos has been animated, recoloured, chopped up, and re-framed before being layered into current video footage filmed by the 3-artists, Anna Walker, Jo Milne, and Fin Walker. It is a video collage, created, edited, and layered by Anna Walker. The performer is Fin Walker. The sounds, by Anna Walker, were collected over the past 3 months. Voices: Anna Walker as The Cailleach, Fin Walker as the spoken whisper, and Jo Milne as the spoken whisper. The version of the song Witchcraft, with original lyrics by Pearl King / Dave Bartholomew is arranged and reworked by Stacey Blythe and edited by Anna Walker. The hands of the older woman: La Roser de Cal Timoneda.
Making is a recycling of found imagery. It is a cut-up, which Simon O’Sullivan calls doing violence to, to create something new, something different, (2017). It is a reusing of footage, in this instance bringing it forward from the past to create a future fictioning (Burrows, O’Sullivan, 2019). The found footage, from YouTube, news footage, nature, and surfing videos has been animated, recoloured, chopped up, and re-framed before being layered into current video footage filmed by the 3-artists, Anna Walker, Jo Milne, and Fin Walker. It is a video collage, created, edited, and layered by Anna Walker. The performer is Fin Walker. The sounds, by Anna Walker, were collected over the past 3 months. Voices: Anna Walker as The Cailleach, Fin Walker as the spoken whisper, and Jo Milne as the spoken whisper. The version of the song Witchcraft, with original lyrics by Pearl King / Dave Bartholomew is arranged and reworked by Stacey Blythe and edited by Anna Walker. The hands of the older woman: La Roser de Cal Timoneda.