Phonography from The Creature in Between, a collaborative project in Santa Victoria Este II, Salta (Argentina), October 2016. 

A series of recordings made collaboratively with Mawó Mendoza and others from the Wichi community of Santa Victoria Este II, as part of conversations and listening games in the Gran Chaco savannah of north Argentina. Some of this material was later developed into a spatial sound composition, "Caller of the Winds" (2023), premiered at Cafe OTO (London) as part of Vibrational Worldings: Songs of Entanglement in June 2023.

For more information about the Creature in Between (La Criatura Intermedia), read here: claudiafontes.com/project/the-creature-in-between/

Thanks to the Appreciation Society, Centro Cultural Tewok, Arts Council England, British Council Argentina, Secretariat de Cultura de Salta.

All rights reserved: Duncan Whitley / Centro Cultural Tewok.
Cover photograph: Guadalupe Miles © All rights reserved 2016

La Criatura Intermedia

Array No. 13

Edited together from two stereo recordings at Rampisham in Dorset, 26.05.11.  The recordings are drawn from fieldwork from the site as part of a collaboration with Ivon Oates, 'Wavelength: Documenting Rampisham Transmission Centre'.

Originally released the Impulsive Habitat netlabel's "A Quiet Position. Locale", curated by Jez Riley French.

Array 13

The "salida" of the Virgin Esperanza Macarena from Seville's cathedral, on the 31st May 2014, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the canonic coronation of the "Señora de Sevilla" in 1964.

Macarena50 Salida Catedral V01

Field recording. Raw material from The Creature in Between, a collaborative project in Santa Victoria Este II, Salta (Argentina), October 2016.

This recording is one of a series made collaboratively with Mawó Mendoza, as part of conversations and listening games in the Gran Chaco savannah of north Argentina. For more context, read here: https://claudiafontes.com/project/the-creature-in-between/ 

Thanks to the Appreciation Society, Centro Cultural Tewok, Arts Council England, British Council Argentina, Secretariat de Cultura de Salta.

All rights reserved: Duncan Whitley / Centro Cultural Tewok

El charco

Field recording. Raw material from The Creature in Between, a collaborative project in Santa Victoria Este II, Salta (Argentina), October 2016.

This recording is one of a series made collaboratively with Mawó Mendoza, as part of conversations and listening games in the Gran Chaco savannah of north Argentina. In this recording Mawó performs the 'caller of the winds' - a delicately carved wooden object, widely known as a 'bullroarer' in the English language, used in Wichí tradition to call the four winds (corresponding to the cardinal points) into conference during times of drought.

For more context, read here: https://claudiafontes.com/project/the-creature-in-between/ 

Thanks to the Appreciation Society, Centro Cultural Tewok, Arts Council England, British Council Argentina, Secretariat de Cultura de Salta.

All rights reserved: Duncan Whitley / Centro Cultural Tewok

Lhayialh

A recording of the 'salida' of the procession of 'El Silencio' ('The Silence'), captured at 1.05am in early morning of Good Friday (the 'Madrugá'). Susana Martínez Sierra sings a 'saeta' in the darkness as the 'Cruz de Guía' (Guide Cross) is carried from the church at the head of the procession.

This recording is one a collection of recordings carried out 2006-2015, forming a study of the intricate world of acoustic communication of Seville's Semana Santa. 

Copyright in the recordings: © 2013 Duncan Whitley and British Library

La salida de El Silencio, La Madrugá, 2013

Rocking It: insider/outsider material archives
Outsider(s) Zine Festival, 2nd March 2024

Readings in solidarity on Palestine, around the rock from Bethlehem, in Coventry Cathedral.

Overview:
A geologic, sociological and poetic collaboration of solidarity  from the 100 million years old rock, sitting in the modernist Coventry Cathedral, gifted in 1960 from Bethlehem. The stone becomes a touchstone to Gaza today, as we collectively read and say words from and connected to the never ending destruction, starvation and desecration of Palestinians under settler colonialism.

The readings:
(1) Mahsa Alami Fariman
(2) Myka Tucker-Abramson
(3) Lisa Tilley
(4) Muna Dajani
(5) Ashjan Ajour
(6) Nirmal Puwar 
(7) Collective Reading.

Links:
https://twitter.com/spatialmutation/status/1764234097306595378

Thanks:
Outsider(s) Zine Festival 2024
The POD/Food Union
Coventry Cathedral Events Team
Goldsmiths, University of London
British Academy

Rocking It: insider/outsider material archives

Anda La! is a short, stereo sketch from production of the multi-channel sound project "Four Shepherds".

Four Shepherds is a documentary sound project,
based around the vocalisations of the shepherds
of a small village in the São Macário mountains.
Working with a community of goat-herders in Covas
do Monte – one of the few villages in the region
where a communal shepherding system is employed
to manage the approximately 1,500 goats that are
owned and kept there – a series of sound recordings
were captured in which the shepherds document their
daily work taking their flock to pasture.

Anda La!

Estreno de la marcha "La Pureza de Triana" en la Iglesia de Santa Ana, Triana, en el último acto de la Exaltación de la Saeta 2015 Antonio Mairena (2015.03.21) en homenaje a Pepe Peregil.

"La obra original de Miguel A. Font Morgado es la primera marcha de procesión dedicada al barrio de Triana, reflejando pasajes inspirados en los cantes primitivos del legendario barrio sevillano como la Soleá de Triana.” 

Gracias al Ayuntamiento de Sevilla Distrito de Triana.

Compositor: Miguel Ángel Font
Interpretada por: La Banda de Música "Las Cigarreras"
Grabación realizada por: Duncan Whitley

Derechos de autor en la grabación © Duncan Whitley 2015

Pureza de Triana

Field recording. Raw material from The Creature in Between, collaborative project in Santa Victoria Este II, Salta (Argentina), October 2016.

Subject: Collecting of honey.

Thanks to the Centro Cultural Tewok, Arts Council England, British Council Argentina, Secretariat de Cultura de Salta.

All rights reserved: Duncan Whitley / Centro Cultural Tewok

Miel

Joga, Isso! is a working through of sound recordings gathered during two residencies at Binaural / Nodar between 2008-2009, composed and produced specifically for 'Three years in Nodar: Context-specifc art practices in rural Portugal' (published Edições Nodar 2012).

The composition is one output of the larger project G. D. Parada, culminating a sound and video work of the same name, for single-screen and multi-channel sound environment. Link to G. D. Parada trailer and further information here - http://vimeo.com/49222647

G.D. Parada was produced by Nodar / Binaural, with support from Grupo Desportivo de Parada, and funded by the Portuguese Ministry of Culture. 
Assistant sound recordist: Luis Costa.
Photograph: Manuela Barile.

Joga, Isso!

Christian Nold & Duncan Whitley  2003. Part of the project FUELAIR, 2002-2003.

'In the first FUELAIR field tests we began to develop a low-tech audio recording tool designed to capture the impact and ignition of a petrol bomb from within. The tests probe the capabilities of the tool, aiming to optimise sound fidelity at the critical moment of ignition. Using slow motion and real time digital video and audio captured by the device to document the trials, the focus is upon the strange and unexpected sound transmitted from within the Molotov Cocktails.'

FUELAIR was shown at the Cubitt Gallery and at Dorkbot (London) in 2002. 'Black Box: Recordings from inside a Molotov Cocktail' was released on a limited edition cd 'FILE05', curated by Juneau Projects with Helen Legg.

BlackBox- recordings from inside a Molotov Cocktail

Rachel and Rathbone is a field recording (environmental sound recording) piece in 3 parts.

The piece documents the double-demolition using controlled explosives of two high-rise towers, named Rachel and Rathbone, on the Downs Estate in Hackney (London). The recording was the first of a series of recordings I made initially as field-research towards a possible installation, later to become an open-ended archive of stereo and multi-channel sound recordings documenting the 'blow-downs' of high-rise buildings in UK cities.

Rachel & Rathbone Part 1 - Five minute warning

Rachel & Rathbone Part 2 - Three minutes to go

Rachel & Rathbone Part 3 - Demolition

Duncan Whitley (born UK, 1974) is an artist working with sound and the moving-image. His practice synthesises the languages  of cinema, documentary and spatial sound art. He is currently Filmmaker in Residence at University of Warwick’s Film and Television Studies.

He has presented site-specific projects, audiovisual works and live multichannel sound works in the UK and internationally. His audiovisual works have been exhibited at Aesthetica Film Festival, Coventry Biennial, Cafe OTO, Flatpack Film Festival, Whitechapel Gallery, The Whitworth, Centro de Arte Experimental de UNSAM (Buenos Aires), EMASESA (Seville), Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, and b-side Festival (Portland, UK).

Duncan Whitley

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks