In 2008 Artist Joseph Young founded the Neo-Futurist Collective, which Helen Scarlett O’Neill and Harry Ross joined in 2010, to examine and celebrate urban noise in all its visual and aural forms. They worked together for most of the decade.
In 2018 the collective was invited to hold a ten-year retrospective at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London. It was at Make Futurism Great Again that they decided that the Neo-Futurist Collective should self-destruct. Art will not Save the World.
Joseph withdrew to undertake a practice-based PhD at University College Dublin and Helen and Harry went to Fontys in the Netherlands to take the MA PPS course before returning to Scotland to continue their journey in artistic research - Helen at Royal Holloway University of London and Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen investigating Digital Art in Public Space, and Harry at Duncan of Jordanston College of Art and Design, University of Dundee and then at the Centre for Military Research, Education and Public Engagement at Edinburgh Napier University Business School exploring Art and the Military through an auto-ethnographic lens.
In 2023, funding from Arts Council England brought us back together to research and develop a new artwork led by (now Dr) Joseph. The work was a sounding of the voices of female ex-Military personnel that made the heart of a 3D audio artwork in public space.
Harnessing the creative possibilities of immersive sound recording and geolocation platform Echoes.xyz, Joseph experimented with devising multi-layered augmented reality (AR) experiences using veterans’ recorded voices to explore ideas around defending democracy, encountering difference and community building, at the heart of all this was the question –
what is the sound of peace?
Helen explored visual components and audience journeys in public space, and Harry looked at the production process of a contemporary war memorial through a critical military studies lens.
This research and development process is described and documented in this mixed media exposition.
As the final platform for the work - Echoes.xzy - doesn't embed on RC, please first have a look at the final R&D by reading the embedded PDF below, and clicking on the QR code to visit the Echoes.xyz interface.
When you have finished listening to that, please return here where you can find some documentation of our process below the embedded PDF.
ABERDEEN - FIRST DAY
Our first day of research was at our studio in the centre of Aberdeen, in Nellfield Cemetery, which is also the site of some Commonweath War Graves. We spent the day discussing hauntological perspectives, Helen experimenting with visual AR Tech in the cemetery, Joseph thinking about sound and immersive audio. Inspired by the psychogeographies of the cemetery (and specifically Iain Sinclair's approach to public space) we went on a derive to Aberdeen Art Gallery, which is the city's War Memorial. While there we reflected on the newly refurbished Memorial Hall, which projects the names of Aberdeen's War Dead from conflicts post 1914, an accompaniment to Gordon Burnett's Granite and Marble scuplture Forget them Not (2019). Then it clicked - as a sound artist Joseph wanted to capture what wasn't present - the sound of peace - and in particular the experience of female soldiers.
LONDON - INTERVIEWS
Harry reached out to his colleage Wendy Faux, who was the Senior Staff Officer for Art and Engagement for the British Army for four years. She is a Lieutenant Colonel who has had a thirty-five year career as a soldier, and media specialist. She has deployed in support of UK and UN operations around the world.
Wendy made an informal call for interviewees among the female Armed Forces Veteran community, including two Chelsea Pensioners.
Joseph conducted the interviews with Harry's support at the National Army Museum, Chelsea, the Victory Services Club, Marylebone, and over zoom.
Joseph had never had any contact with the military before. Few people do have contact with the military - it is in many ways a heterotopia.
CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS
We're still receiving feedback from peers on the work while considering two different iterations:
1. A static peacekeeeping memorial to overlay war memorials that discusses soldiers' involvement in UN peacekeeping around the world - this can have a wide reach and include professional soldiers from around the world.
2. An ambulatory work to explore the Female Veteran Experience - this is a much harder work to do - especially given the gender of the majority of the project leads is male. However, our feedback and our discussions with colleagues from the social sciences has been hugely positive, and we think this could be a valuable contribution.
Please, if you have any feedback to give us we'd welcome it!
ONLINE - ECHOES.XYZ AND PUBLIC TESTING PHASE
Having conducted the interviews Joseph considered the locations he would use to bring the sound compositions to life. He first placed one set in Duke of York's Barracks Chelseea - site of a former Army Barracks - now the Saatchi Gallery - and another set on a bench outside the National Army Museum. The image below shows the placement of the aural stems in front of the Saatchi Gallery. This allows the audience to walk in and out of the veteran stories as they explore the ground.
LONDON - POST TEST RECONNOITRE
Having tested the work in both locations we were satisfied to a certain extent - it made the voices of these soldiers audible in public space. In searching for the location for a full work in public space we travelled to Horse Guards Parade in Westminster. It is a huge, ceremonial space, used for the King's Birthday Parade. We took this proposal to some academic colleagues, Drs Hannah West and Hannah Richards who are specialists in Gender and the Military. Their feeling is there is still much work to be done on equity in the military and a works location in such an institutionally loaded public space might reead as "Gender Equity? - Job Done!".
A counter argument to that might be that, considering the proximity of Horse Guards Parade to the monument to the Women of World War II, the airing of contemporary female veteran voices would be locationally relevant.
The second, static piece could work in this location, as indeed it could widen out and seek out testimonies of Peacekeepers of any gender, and be placed over current war memorials.
