SONIC COMMONS is a series of broadcasts on Resonance FM responding to the poetic and phonic landscape of North Kent, produced in collaboration with FIELDNOTES – an artist-run publishing project who produce a biannual print journal containing new artwork & writing to promote and support non-conforming creative practices.
Featuring field recordings, readings, and sonic landscapes, the series was produced whilst walking along the Thames Estuary. It includes encounters with people met along the way, who give voice to the collected texts that reference these places.
The resulting soundwork, composed by artist and musician Rob Shuttleworth, ranges across a sonic and textual landscape, producing unexpected encounters and resonances.
Starting in in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey, this episode, was broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM on Tuesday 27 February 2024.
Voiced texts include extracts from: a letter written by Uwe Johnson to Hannah Arendt while the writer was living in Sheerness; Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad; ‘Wreck, Rescue, Mutiny, Disaster, A shelf’, a found poem composed by John Hartley; and ‘TESCO’S’ by Fred Grimwade from the anthology Islanders, the collected stories of the people of Sheppey. Narratives from the island’s history were shared with us by Jenny Hurkett who founded and manages The Criterion, a heritage centre in Blue Town, Sheerness.
Listen to episode 2 below.