Image Designed by Little River Press
The Project
Along These Lines is a collaboration between Quiet Down There and sound artist Anna Celeste Edmonds, creating and presenting an immersive soundwalk that explores Brighton’s laundry heritage. Laundry is a distinctly aural and sensory experience, we often hear people talk of the sounds, smells and feels that come with a trip to the laundrette, and many local people remember someone in their family working in laundry services. Together, with a small group of volunteers, we explored local archives and resources to research and uncover stories, photos, and film of 19th and 20th Century laundry heritage, linked to Roundhill, Elm Grove, Hanover, and The Level in Brighton & Hove. We know laundries have been a site for organising, meeting, and connecting for over 200 years, often becoming hotbeds of activism for women’s suffrage and solidarity, but so far these incredible stories have not had the recognition they deserve. Anna and the project contributors delved into these histories; and created an immersive soundwalk made accessible through locative mobile technology. Six listening sessions were presented to the public over the period of September/October 2023, with 10 listening locations created for the final work.
Quiet Down There
Quiet Down There is a charity that offers people routes to expressing and developing their own creativity – outside of the traditional structures of the arts. We love working creatively in unexpected places and in new ways. We are ambitious for the communities that we collaborate with and work alongside artists to hone and develop their socially engaged practice.
The soundwalk included 10 final audio locations mapped in Brighton, experienced either through the Echoes application or through QR code scanning. The walk is still available on Echoes, and was presented as part of Dreamy Place festival.
Soundcloud recordings are MP3 mixdowns (without spatialisation) from the recordings presented outdoors, made for over-ear headphones which bleed the outside environment in. They will sound different when heard in an indoor environment with personal headphones.
