soe-logo
eu-logo
Joe Stevens
Weymouth — United Kingdom
Biography
Description of work with field recording
My practice is people orientated and explores issues in an engaging and creative way. I feel that each different subject area under investigation demands different approaches to achieve defined representation. My vision is explored through print, photography, moving image and sound. One of my main motivations is to help make sense of the things around us and to help serve as my visual memory. Whether it is exploring personal memories or looking at how we relate to our surroundings or simply looking more closely at the objects and spaces around us. I have added field recordings into my repertoire of community engaged work I undertake. As these types of recordings can be made with relatively cheap equipment. And the places, where noises are recorded, are not excluding socially disadvantaged groups. Far from it: Any worker, anybody on a bus or walking down the street can document noises in a much better way than managers, who lead a life in between the office and the company car. Through field recordings, the listeners can experience the sound of places that they might never be able to visit. That is not only a quality of a field recording but also of photography – both record media can easily comple­ment one another. Their authenticity is not as important as their prospect of recording moments, atmospheres, noises and images and making them accessible, so that people can visualise a place they did not know. The new experiences and discoveries inspire people and make them “see” their world in a different way.
Listen to spring birds, Barr Lane, Chickerell 1