My project is about memory, early memory.

It will centre around a model railway in the middle of the room, running continuously on a circle of track. This represents playful thinking and promotes the curation of a childish perspective within the viewer.

There will be several speakers dangling from the ceiling. These will be a variety of sizes and will all be passive speaker drivers without housing. I would say that I am planning to have no more than 6 of these speakers, but whether or not I will have enough audio for 6 speakers is to be seen. These speakers will be mostly very small, between 2 and 5 inch cones, and I will be providing a couple of them from my own collection. The rest would have to be sourced from the sound arts department. In terms of amplification, I’ve been building my own amps but won’t have enough of my own amps to power all of the cones.

Each speaker will be outputting a single sound source. Some of these sources will be home-made oscillators. I have already built a working prototype. Some of the sound sources will be tape decks (probably loaded with loops) playing back recordings of my friends talking about some of their early memories.

These sources will be triggered by the movement of the train. I’m currently testing a method of creating a CV ping by having the forward motion of the train connect two electrical contacts as it brushes past.

I think that lighting is not to be underestimated, and bad lighting could have a very strong impact on the work. Either I leave natural light, or I use blackout curtains (yet to be sourced) to create artificial darkness, and then light the scene with a couple of lamps.

Visually, I’m going to leave all circuitry and wiring very noticeable. I think it will add to the curious toy-centered narrative and really enhance the notion that memories are fragile, sometimes constructed and wholly imperfect.