Audio Tours

Surface Patterns: Audio Tours uses a Global positioning System [GPS] device to explore how memory is linked to urban and domestic place. The GPS device can only describe latitude, longitude and altitude; however, when used to trace the route that someone takes through a place, it can reveal the pattern of the path taken, allowing us to share knowledge of hidden locations and unexpected vantage points along that path.
Traditional maps tell us where landmarks are, what streets are called, and where to find the centre of town, whereas the subjective histories and stories ezplored in this work are played out over time and rely on very different 'memory maps'.
The installation uses contributions of unwanted wallpaper, pasted on the gallery walls and threaded or punctuated with GPS patterns of ten walks. Traces of audio recordings made in conversation with the walkers are played back through speakers embedded in the walls behind the wallpaper. Reflecting different perspectives on the town the walkers include members of the artist's family who grew up in Huddersfield in the 1940's and '50's, as well as a previous Artist in Residence who lived in the town for three months.