Coming Up for Air
Multi-disciplinary researcher, flutist and composer Dr Kathryn Williams joins the PRiSM team to undergo collaborative research with Dr Bofan Ma (PRiSM Post-Doctoral Research Associate).
This collaboration focuses on ‘Coming Up for Air in Rossendale’, a project connecting creative musical practice, accessible technology, and the interplay between eco-friendly sustainable performing arts infrastructure and musicians’ health and wellbeing.
Williams and Ma will build collaborations with researchers and organisations working in the fields of digital transformation, green innovation, and smart technology in the Rossendale Valley and across the Northwest England.
The project will also see them deliver workshops at local primary schools, to raise awareness of indoor air quality through participatory music-making using accessible musical instruments.
The initial six-month phase of the work will culminate in a performance-led, multi-sensory installation at the Horse + Bamboo Theatre in Rossendale, Lancashire.
Lucy Wright new work, ‘Add to Rushcart’ for Horse + Bamboo
Notes from the Artist
The cart itself is essentially a soft sculpture – hundreds of individually sewn and stuffed flowers and leaves as well as a skull and horns, topped with a crown made from 2 interlinked pool noodles!
The base is a shopping trolley – which felt like a suitable replacement for the old wooden horse carts that were used in the past. And it made me think about ‘cart’ as a skeuomorph in online shopping – how we’re invited to add stuff to our digital cart, to both satisfy and activate our desire to consume. And how we can now do this at any time of the day or night – in contrast, I guess, to the fixed hours of most IRL shops. With courier services now offering round the clock delivery, we don’t even have to wait too long to receive our fix!
This brought me to the – perhaps endangered – social practice of going to the supermarket in PJs – for when virtual shopping just won’t do, and you need a bag of crisps or packet of fags or whatever but you’re not getting dressed today. I designed the blush pink fleece PJs for my cart attendants to reference this, featuring rushcart imagery (bells, heather, skulls, horse shoes etc.) designed by @izzie.hinton.illustration
My two broom maidens – @_kyliedarling and @disorderingdance – reference a similar tradition in Whitworth, Lancs where a team of women with brooms sweep the pathway in front of the cart as it processes through the streets. We opted to cast them in the role of the youngs who hang out outside the supermarket, maybe hoping someone will buy them alcohol.
Folk customs reflect the times in which we are living and they don’t have to be mystical…or rather, perhaps they speak to everyday magic (whether dark or light) of global systems and logistics and the ability to shop the world whenever we feel like it.
Joe’s Acoustic Panels
Joe Chesterman-March is a musician and music producer based in Prestwich. He runs various music sessions with young people in schools and is also a community choir conductor with ‘Salford Sings’.
In 2024 Joe came into the Horse + Bamboo workshop with the aim of making several acoustic panels for his home recording studio. He had an initial conversation with Tom regarding the designs, ordered his own materials, and then had 7 days between early February and late March building time in the workshop. Although most of this work was independently led Tom was always on hand to assist practically and offer construction advice. Joe has now completed his panels and installed them in his home studio.
“I don’t know how I would have made my acoustic panels without the facilities of Horse + Bamboo and Tom Byrne’s expert guidance. From the mitre saw and bandsaw all the way down to clamps and fabric scissors, there were so many useful resources I could tap into that I both didn’t have at home, and didn’t realise I would need! Of course good equipment is no use if there’s no one to teach you how to use it safely, which Tom did so helpfully. Not only was I trained on the machinery, I also benefited from his years of experience, guiding me on when a manual screwdriver might work better than electric, and on how to reinforce a structure. Thank you so much!”- Joe Chesterman-March