Soundtracks

Autumn 2022

In partnership with the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, (RAMM), Exeter City Council and the University of Exeter, Soundtracks, a Creative Arc project was developed with Emma Walton, Composer, Musician and Local Sound Artist. The aims were to link local people to the Green Circle walks that surround Exeter city centre, and invited walkers to reflect on the sounds along different parts of the walk, both past and present. Furthermore, Soundtracks aimed to encourage people to access nature in their local and nearby communities hoping to improve wellbeing.

“Rather than highlight sonic beauty spots, I spend equal time with sounds that we turn away from or filter out. I ask, what is the music? How is it made? What happens if we move or is revealed when we wait? Are there patterns? As quiet as I try to be, I hear my breathing, footsteps, clothing. I hear myself as part of an endless realtime composition.

Listening can reveal our relationships with each other, and with all of nature.”

-Emma Walton

SoundTracks is informed by research into the benefits of nature on wellbeing by the Rowan Group www.rowantree.uk, and University of Exeter Professors James Clark and Stephen Rippon. Stephen is a landscape archaeologist whose work includes the Exeter: a Place in Time (EAPIT) project with RAMM. James is a medieval historian who is particularly interested in the monastic houses such as St Katherine’s Priory.