Accentuate

For the Sensory Soundings project, on one day in July 2009 Fort Brockhurst became a small kingdom populated by people with neurological impairment; people who are highly sensitive to spatial qualities of scale, light and sound and the different buildings and environments of the Fort. Despite a huge increase in understanding of physical access to buildings, there is little information or discussion about how people with cognitive impairments experience buildings and the spaces in and around them. The Sensory Soundings Project explores this gap and has provided a privileged insight into a particular way of being in and investigating an unusual and historic building: Fort Brockhurst in Gosport.

The visit was recorded through sound, video and drawing and then processed to produce elements of a mixed media film installation. The resulting film is an artwork made through collaboration between artists and individuals, Project Art Works and English Heritage. It follows four people as they explore the Fort in their own private investigation. The result is a film edited from the sound and video recordings taken during the day.

Sensory Soundings was led by Project Art Works, as part of a series of innovative investigative projects that focus on how people with complex needs experience built space. The participants were a group of people who have worked with Project Art Works as part of their Tuesday Studio programme in Hastings. The artist team worked closely with the participants and those who love and know them well, to establish consent for exploring the Fort, for their being filmed and for the subsequent installation being shown at the Heritage Open Day.

There was a careful and ongoing process of editing and showing the film to the participants as it evolved into a linear narrative. Close consideration was given to signs of assent and dissent by those who do not use language to communicate, as they watched and responded to the different edits of the film.  Everyone demonstrated positive responses to what they saw and how they were shown in the film.

Sadly, Fred Mazzio, one of the participants in Sensory Soundings, has died since the making of the film, which we now dedicate to him in memory of the contribution that he made to the project.