“I am especially attracted to outdoor spaces like bleak landscapes, forgotten and unwanted places, as well as gardens and parks, across both built and natural environments. Digital, electronic, and acoustic sound sources are used, sometimes in isolation, and sometimes in combination with each other. Occasionally, I use live performance as a sound source in the landscape. Digital signals are often used together with geographical navigation. It is important to preserve the outdoor space wherever possible, and not change it physically, and this includes awareness to the damage that sound impacts on the environment, like disturbing wildlife. Multi-sound sources are often incorporated so that sounds are designed to overlap in the environment creating experimental-phonic texture. The visitor/listener decides how the piece is experienced in reception through her landscape movement. Easy access for wheel-chairs may not always be viable due to feasibility limitations like rules against altering landscapes, and funding. One way round this is to replicate the same work in different areas where wheel-chair access is very good. Another is to reproduce the work on digital music platforms”
Frances Gill.
Outdoor sound installations by Frances Gill
2024 - ongoing | A place called Tingsryd
– sound sculpture about the history of textiles, sewing and knitting in Sweden from the local perspective, installed digitally via the navigation app called ‘Shuttle’ in Tingsryd’s ‘torget’ (Småland, Sweden), currently accessed by on-site visiting. Launched 1st January 2024.
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2018 - ongoing | smound
– the twelve sound sculptures of, and physically replicating, SOUNDmound (electroacoustic composition), installed digitally via the navigation app called ‘Shuttle’ in an outdoor region of the Parkgate Road Campus, University of Chester (UK), currently accessed by on-site visiting. Launched 17th December 2018. Funded by the Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity (ref. nr. 20160056).
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2018 - ongoing | SOUNDmound
– twelve sound sculptures (electroacoustic composition) from audio material recorded on a Zoom H4n field recorder, and produced in Logic Pro X, installed digitally via the navigation app called ‘Shuttle’ in the landscape at the Iron Age archaeological site of Sandby borg (situated in the world heritage landscape of Southern Öland, Sweden), currently accessed by on-site visiting: - West Yorkshire Moorland (in B flat); Öland’s Water (in F); Urshult Winds (in C); Celebration (in G); Syrian Futures (in D); Väckelsång Lullaby (in A); Entitlement (in E); The Dig (in B); Heaven’s Mountain (in F sharp); Somali Heritage (in D flat); A Flat Hierarchy (in A flat); and Yellow Box (in E flat). Not wheel-chair friendly due to rules in connection with this archaeological site, the UNESCO landscape, and public access. SOUNDmound is Experimental Music, and a ‘peace work’ for Experimental Heritage on the theme of fortresses; it deals with dissonant heritage in relation to contemporary immigration. Launched 16th July 2018. Funded by the Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity (ref. nr. 20160056).
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2017 | Deep Water
– digital composition (produced using Zoom H4n field recorder and Roland Digital Piano FP-3) illustrating Bäckahästen for digital-sound installation. Commissioned by artist Annika Grünwaldt Svensson funded in association with the Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity (ref. nr. 20160056) for her organological sculpture Bäckahästen in the landscape at Gärdslösa (Öland, Sweden), and originally accessed on site via the navigation app called ‘Tidsmaksin’ from 22nd July 2017.
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2016 | Flutings from the earth
– experimental-flute performance as an installation in the landscape, delivered 5th October 2016, performed from a pre-sculptured hole in the ground (custom-made for a human body), during the evening programme at the Experimentellt kulturarv och entreprenörskap Seminars and Workshops in Experimental Heritage, Yellow Box, Sättra (Öland), 5th - 6th October 2016.
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2012 | Slurp (for three loud speakers)
- sound installation (using sounds from a Roland Digital Piano FP-3, with acoustic material) for sculptures by Annika Grünwaldt Svensson in her garden exhibition called Te Hos Hattmakaren, during Tingsryd Konst & Hembygdsrunda, 1st - 2nd September, 2012.
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