Ambulation
Ambulation – LUFF, Lausanne, Switzerland [Image: François Gendre, 2020]
Ambulation is an live augmented soundwalking practice that uses listening and sound processing technologies to harvest diverse sounds from the immediate environment, and presents it back to a participant group moving through a soundscape.
Drawing on field recording techniques, Tim Shaw collects acoustic sounds, electro-magnetic waves and other diverse signals through different microphones and sensors. As he walks, he transmits these sounds to audience members walking with him, each of whom are wearing wireless headphones. He processes and mixes these sounds using a specially made system.
Ambulation – Sonic Protest, Paris, France [Image: Vincent Ducard, 2021]
What unfolds is an unusual, live field-recording performance responding to the different soundscapes it is presented within.
Ambulation – Compass Festival, Leeds, UK [Image: Jonathan Turner, 2017]
Each performance is specific to its geographical and temporal context. The listening technologies and sound processing systems are revisited in each performance in order to respond to the environmental context of each particular event. As a result this project is never finished and continues to be developed with each new invitation to walk. Ambulation has been in continuous development since 2014.
Ambulation – Sonica Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia [Image: Kaja Brezočnik, 2019]
Ambulation has been performed over 60 times at the following events:
- Creatively Connected - Raby Castle, Durham w/ Wild Museum x 2
- Klang Moor Schopfe - Gais, Switzerland x 5
- Hotel Pupik - Schrattenberg, Austria
- Crackpot Hall - Swaledale, UK w/ Wild Museum
- Muker - Swaledale, UK w/ Wild Museum
- Hazel Brow Farm - Swaledale, UK w/ Wild Museum
- Cementerio de Disidentes - Valparaíso, Chile w/ Tsonami
- Urban Waters, Zurich, Switzerland w/ Hannes Rickli
- Peninsula Sounds, Hamble Peninsula, UK
- Cheeseburn, Northumberland, UK
- Cobalt Studios, Newcastle, UK
- Cuthbert’s Moor, Durham, UK w/ Laura Harrington & WaterlandsEU
- Sool Sool Centre, Seoul, South Korea
- ESAAIX, Aix-en-Provence, France w/ Peter Sinclair and Cedric Parizot
- Collegium Helveticum, Zurich, Switzerland
- ZHdK, Zurich, Switzerland w/ Hannes Rickli
- To)pot Festival, Ljubijana, Slovenia w/ Elena Biserna & CONA
- Full of Noises, Barrow-in-Furness, UK
- Fellfoot Sounds, Into The Woods, Cumbria, UK
- xCoAx, Weimar, Germany
- Heugh Battery Museum, Hartleypool Headland, UK w/ Rob Smith
- Sonic Arts Week, Middlesbrough, UK w/ Auxiliary
- Kallio Kuninkala, Järvenpää, Finland w/ Uniarts & Walking Festival of Sound
- Cobalt Studios, Newcastle, UK
- Sonohr Festival, Bern, Switzerland
- ESAAIX, Aix-en-Provence, France w/ Acoustic Commons
- Bureau des Guides, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Symbiont, Basel, Switzerland
- Cervia, Italy w/ Elementi Festival
- German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven, Germany
- Meryin, Geneva, Switzerland w/ Konnekt
- Ravenglass, Cumbria, UK w/ RE-DRIFT & Full of Noises
- Dunston, Gateshead, UK w/ Dingy Butterflies
- SoundCamp, Breil-sur-Roya, France w/ Locus Sonus
- MUMUTH, Graz, Austria
- Der Blöde Dritte Mittwoch, Vienna, Austria
- Duke Hags Wood, Prudhoe, UK w/ Wild Musuem
- Jeanne Barret, Marseille, France w/ Explorations Festival
- Milkwellburn Woods, Chopwell, Gateshead
- Zeiträume Festival, Basel, Switzerland
- Sanatorium of Sound, Sokołowsko, Poland
- Sonic Protest, Paris, France
- NNOI Festival, Brandenburg, Germany
- LOKAL-INT, Biel, Switzerland
- LUFF, Lausanne, Switzerland
- We’re All Bats, Online, Worldwide
- Walking Festival of Sound, Newcastle, UK
- Sonica Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Walking Festival of Sound, Stockholm, Sweden
- Full of Noises Festival, Barrow-in-Furness, UK
- CAMP, Aulus-les-Bains, France
- Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK
- Middlesbrough Art Weekender, Middlesbrough, UK
- Dorothea Quarry (with James Davoll) in North Wales, UK
- SPAN at BALTIC (with Its Nice That and Google) in Gateshead, UK
- Piksel Festival in Bergen, Norway
- Compass Festival in Leeds, UK
- FACT (Foundation for Art and Technology) in Liverpool, UK
- Sonic Environments in Brisbane, Australia
- Research Through Design conference in Cambridge, UK
- The Newbridge Project, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
- Musée Imaginaire in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Ambulation – CAMP, Aulus-les-Bains, France [Image: Bruno Mello, 2019]
Ambulation – LUFF, Lausanne, Switzerland [Image: François Gendre, 2020]
Ambulation – Lokal-INT, Biele, Switzerland [Image: Chri Frautschi, 2020]
Ambulation Soundwalk in the Saltern of Cervia, Italy as part of Elementi Festival 2022 [Image: Chiara Pavolucci, 2022]
Ambulation – Compass Festival, Leeds, UK [Image: Jonathan Turner, 2017]
A chapter on Ambulation is featured in Jacek Smolicki’s book on Soundwalking
Technical details for Ambulation are available on the Bela Platform blog
The Ambulation system has been used for other projects such as Inner Voices, NET-WALK and The Rose Walks.
Ambulation – Full of Noises, Barrow-upon-Furness, UK [Image: Laurence Campell, 2023]
Ambulation – Sonic Protest, Paris, France [Image: Vincent Ducard, 2021]
Ambulation – Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK [Image: OnTheNorway, 2019]