This is an experiment with Time, an attempt to create a radio poem out recordings made all over Britain during a single chosen minute, blending the sounds with one another, and with the text of a poetic narrative, to give a sense of the population of the British Isles engaged in disparate but linked activities that make us one community.
Producer Andy Cartwright and I invited sound recordists [reporters, producers, media studies students and members of the public] from all over the country to capture the 6.00pm minute wherever they were. We asked them simply to switch on their recorders at that time, and send us the result. We asked them not to set up a situation, but to be a witness to that time in their place.
And that was the minute – complete. All our recordings, all our places singing together through the magic of radio. We all lived the minute, but confined by our own location. This gives us the opportunity to experience time outside the limitations of place.
Well the request produced hundreds of recordings from all over Britain – making this perhaps the most heavily staffed radio programme of all time! The quality of the recordings varied, according to the equipment used, some are in stereo, some on mobile phones, and the style varied too; some recordings were actuality – pure sound –while others were fragments of commentary or interview. As Andy listened through, themes started to emerge – children playing, the evening meal being prepared, the journey home, offices packing up for the night, other workers starting shifts, relaxation, music rehearsals.
As these sounds were orchestrated into sequences, I worked on developing a reflective poetic narrative which weaves through, as a counterpoint to the sound poem’s own stanzas, or, to put it in musical terms, adding my own voice to this choir, who sing together briefly here, but who will never know one another.
And we’ve extended the game of time we’re playing to the dates
of recording and transmission – each 30 days apart. I’m recording
this on the 9th of December. You’re listening on the 9th of January.
Here then, are the sounds of 6.00pm to 6.01pm on November the 9th 2005. A geographical
history – or is it a biography? – of just one minute of the year
2005, as written by a number of people who lived through it. It is authentic,
although, like all biographies and histories, it is flawed because it has been
written from the point of view of only those whose witness has been preserved.
Nevertheless, we all lived this minute. Here it is again – or at least,
its ghost, its memory.
Then-Now.