1st – 23rd May 2021, Shoreham Harbour.
Points of Departure is an immersive large-scale sound and light installation for the industrial site of Shoreham Harbour by artist Ray Lee. Like Lee’s previous works, Points of Departure combines spatial arrays of moving sound sources with monumental architectural structures to create spectacular multi-sensory experiences. Audiences will be able to encounter the work as an evening performance, free to roam the harbour to explore the various kinetic sound sculptures and installations that are dispersed throughout the harbour port. Among these structures are metallic monoliths, tripods with rotating wheels and giant towers with hand-operated bells, described by the artist as a sort of ‘post-industrial carillon’. Points of Departure was commissioned by the Brighton Festival with a world premiere at Shoreham Harbour on May 1st 2021.
“We’re familiar with sound coming out of loudspeakers and there are fancy systems that will move the sound between loudspeaker systems to give the impression of movement. But I’m fascinated with what happens when you physically take a loudspeaker and make it spin: what happens to the sound? You get a little bit of the Doppler effect and the sound is kind of warmed up by this process. A lot of the work has spinning arms with loudspeakers on each end and as you walk around, the sound is being moved past you. It creates quite a mesmerising effect.” – Ray Lee
