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Sonic Signals

With Chandos School and Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK, 2022—2023

Installation view, Abbas Zahedi, Sonic Signals, at Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK, 2023. Photo Gavin Wade

Image Gallery

Installation views and project documentation of Abbas Zahedi, Sonic Signals. With Chandos School and Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK, 2022—2023. Installation views by Gavin Wade.

Project Text

What could it mean to send your voice out into space? To communicate beyond your own sphere of experience?

Sonic Signals is a proposal for a new form of open ended infrastructure; conflating and connecting primary schools, after-school radio clubs, and an artist-led multiverse.

Responding to the particularities of working with Eastside Projects and Chandos Primary School as an Incidental Artist, Abbas Zahedi developed a site-sensitive concept that proposed a new kind of relationship between the two organisations, opening a portal between them through which a potentially infinite loop of audio could be transmitted. Messages made by children moved from the school into the gallery, where they were played openly for everyone to hear.

What the children chose to send was completely up to them.

Looping, dynamic, intuitive and non-linear, this collaged structure emerged over time in dialogue with a group of twelve, nine and ten year olds who met weekly as an after-school Radio Club. From January – July 2023 Radio Club got used to the sound of their own voices, learnt to record sound, used mixing software and built sound loops. Visiting creatives showed them how to use audio description to create vivid pictures in peoples’ minds, how to interview people and record sound in their environment, and how to collectively design a visual identity using handmade stamps and collage. They also developed their own ideas, making recordings to send through to Eastside Projects.

In May – June 2023 artists Exodus Crooks, melissandre varin, Sarah Farmer, Samiir Saunders, Indira Lakshmi and Ayan Aden ran Sonic Signals workshops in school, using their own practices and a series of open prompts developed by Abbas as starting points for sessions which generated new recordings. Every child in years 1–6 had the opportunity to participate.

The broadcast went live in the gallery on Digbeth First Friday 2 June in a listening space which was co-designed with Radio Club. It evolved across the next six weeks as new recordings were added.

The next step is for the prompts and tools Abbas and Eastside Projects have prototyped through this phase to be imagined as an open source platform housing resources, workshop formats and an approach which other artists, children, and schools can to use to develop new Sonic Signals loops in the future. We want to create opportunities for children to be more DIY, share thoughts, ideas and feelings, sketch with sound and have the agency to connect to their local environment. If you can help get in touch.

Excerpt From Radio Broadcast

Excerpt from Sonic Signals, radio broadcast, 2023

Virtual Exhibition Tour

Sonic Signals, Virtual Tour

Online Studio Visit


Abbas Zahedi in conversation with Eastside Projects’ Artist Maker Ruth Claxton. Together, they discuss Zahedi’s practice and the ideas that have informed the development of Sonic Signals. (Recorded Tuesday 11 April 2023.)

Text Response To The Exhibition

Joanna Fursman, A letter to Radio Club, 2023.Download

Collaborators

The final Chandos Primary School loop included Sonic Signals from:

Radio Club: Ahmed, Azrah, David, Dhwani, Imaad, Mayah, Mossie, Tolu, Saara, Safa and Salamatu.

and

Daniel, Soheil, Norah, Mahi, Denys, Nadim, Narjes, Muhammed, Mohammed, Ibrahaim, Sarmad, Fatimah, Muhammed, Amaiyah, Ravya Aarav, Khemi, Diris, Ella, Hafsa, Aseel, Anshi, Rehab, Alicia, Shireen, Liyah, Sara, Shupriya, Mayss, Nasrudin, Ramin, Faheem, Kavontay, Arya, Tala, Joshua, Alice, Artie, Muhammad, Arhan, Mohamed, Alia, Surah, Mohammed, Rayan, Daryus, Fatima, Bonny, Mohammed, Paryan. Iman, Abdikafi, Taha, Yahya, Ramah, Christina, Yasmeenah, Liviu, Carissa, Mohammed, D’Andre, Aryana, Reece, Marwaan, Amaan, Tanari, Omais, Sana, Anya, Ahmad, Faroug, Azraah, Yousef, Mayah, Sawsan, Daeem, Sareedo, Malik, Saadollah, Yome, Baboucar, Jeevita, Warisha, Zuhair, Mehek, Adhiba, Ahmed, Hamdy, Sagnik, Krystal, Shayan. Hashem, Arham, Anaya, Amle, Hajar, Safa, Tallinn, Izyaan, Kabir, Zara, Sepehr, Ahad, Dean, Salman, Mosa, Darin, Adam, Nora, Caira-Leigh, Jordan, Treasure, Meela, Richard, Tiarnah, Salwa, Mikaeel, Arissa, Haley, Casper, Madhu. Danial, Umeir, Shehab, Sajida, Shrihaan, Gurpreet, Adna, Mariyam, Taijuan, Danyal, Ubeid, David, Sabrina, Zubaida. Rayan, Sulaman, Mustafa, Sareenah, Yahya, Hamdan, Faisal, Muhammed, Darryn, Oliver, Shaniya, Aneesah, Rym, Udeyl, Evelyn, Kloi, Ismail, Aisha, Sami, Moosa, Webany, Zineb, Avin, Zariyah, Kshitij, Richard, Ameen, Dhai, Yacqub, Malak, Solaf, Ammar, Aiden, Rayaan, Henda, Shreyangsh, Azariah, Safi, Shun, Nathan, Chimmy, Kemarni, Reya. Aanya, Xavier, Keisha, Blessing, Enda, Katia, Rylee, Hinson, Serena, Pedro, Dariush, Xavier, Sam, Dhwani, Anya, Shayan, Patrick, Shubh and friends.

To date Sonic Signals has been made possible by a range of guest contributors, artists, designers, makers and members of the Chandos School and Eastside Projects teams including:

Elaine Joseph, Sofia Niazi, Sam Coley, Peter Donnelly, Laura Grinvalde, Lenny Singh-Raud, Lezli Howarth, Yuri Nishikawa, Alex Cockell, Sarah King, Middleton Hall Upholstery, Ayan Aden, Exodus Crooks, melissandre varin, Sarah Farmer, Samiir Saunders, Indira Lakshmi, Ruth Claxton, Jaz Morrison and Dinosaur Kilby.

Further information about this project can be seen on the Eastside Project’s website source