A Meeting Place | 会议地点 : An audio-locative sound walk around Manchester’s China Town

About

As part of an online residency at CFCCA, artist Hayley Suviste has created a soundwalk using material from CFCCA’s archive. The soundwalk sonically animates the content of our archive, bringing to life the hidden histories and images within and inviting new audiences and communities to engage with these stories.

The work is based on oral histories from our archive, in which interviewees talk of their migrant experience, their identities as people of Chinese heritage living in the UK, memories of Manchester’s Chinatown and Chinese festivals, and our first venue on Charlotte Street. Listeners can uncover these stories, alongside field recordings and music composed by Hayley, whilst exploring the streets of Chinatown with geolocated sounds and interview clips triggered by their GPS data. The audio for this work has been mixed in 360-degree binaural audio, creating the sensation that different sounds are being emitted from all directions around the listeners head and providing a fully immersive experience.

The walk will take 20-30 mins in total.

How can I join?

There’s no need to book a timeslot, the soundwalk will be permanently available through the ECHOES app, an interactive GPS-triggered sound walks’ app. Each listener just needs a smartphone and headphones to access.

The application is free on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. It is advised to download the soundwalk in advance to ensure the best quality and to avoid using data whilst streaming in real time. To do so, visit the ECHOES app homepage navigation bar, select ‘Walks by me’ and then ‘A Meeting Place’, where you will find an option to download the walk. Alternatively, the soundwalk will appear on the app’s homepage in the ‘near you’ section when you are in the vicinity of Chinatown.

Access:

The soundwalk comprises non-verbal audio recordings. Visitors can access the soundwalk on their own mobile devices. Alternatively, the work can be experienced in a virtual format. On the A Meeting Place | 会议地点 website each narrative and image is digitally mapped for visitors to explore virtually.