A free sound-and-art installation is coming to Vinegar Yard
A free sound-and-art installation is coming to Vinegar Yard, turning classical music into something you can see, hear and feel. When was the last time you properly listened to something? Not while replying to a WhatsApp, doomscrolling on Instagram or half-watching Netflix with one eye on your phone. Just… listened.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra is hoping to make that increasingly rare activity a little easier with The Power of Listening, a free public sound gallery landing at Vinegar Yard in SE1 from September 21 to 28. It couldn’t be simpler: pop on a pair of headphones, listen to music performed by the Orchestra and take in a series of artworks created in response to what you're hearing. Think of it as a tiny cultural escape hatch in the middle of London.
The project has been created in partnership with the Royal College of Art and legendary graphic designer Neville Brody, whose CV includes concert posters for The Human League and art direction for cult eighties magazine The Face. Eight RCA postgraduate artists have each chosen a different piece of music from the LPO's upcoming season and translated its emotional impact into a visual work. So instead of simply being told that Mahler is moving or Tchaikovsky is dramatic, you get to see what those sounds inspired in someone else's imagination.
One of the works, Anna Korbel's Where Your Brain Stops Scrolling, takes aim at our increasingly fractured attention spans, which is rather apt given that you may well be reading this while simultaneously checking three other things on your phone. The installation launches the LPO's first full season under artistic director Jesús Herrera, whose long-term vision centres on what he calls "deep listening". The project is, in part, a response to what Herrera describes as an "attention crisis", using classical music as a reason to pause, breathe and temporarily escape the never-ending ping of modern life.
And you don't need to be a classical music obsessive to take part. The whole point is to stop for 30 to 60 seconds, put the phone away and see what happens when you give one piece of music your undivided attention. The artworks will also appear on billboards across London, meaning the project won't be confined to Vinegar Yard. But the installation is where you can properly put the idea into practice: headphones on, artwork in front of you, London rushing around in the background.
September 21st - 28th - Free Event - No ticket. No dress code. No knowledge of Shostakovich required. Just turn up, put on the headphones, and listen.
Address: Vinegar Yard, SE1. September 21–28.
Written by Stacey Reeves
Imagery courtesy of Ace of Hearts
