Your Luton Symphony: Interactive sound installation

My new installation Your Luton Symphony opens tomorrow as part of Luton Summer Festival. Below is the press release outlining the project, which will be shown in a large marquee in the central square in Luton. The installation is open Thursday 4th August and Friday 5th August, 10am to 6pm.
Join the facebook event page here.

Your Luton Symphony
Graham Dunning (2011)

Music is the organization of sound and silence. – John Cage
Nothing essential happens in the absence of noise. – Jacques Attali

An interactive installation consisting of ten record players and records. Each record has been cut with a different sound-snapshot of Luton. You are invited to play the records individually or in combination to create your own Luton symphony: a soundscape of the noises made by people, a bustling cacophony of Luton life.

About
The sounds were recorded by the creator of the installation, Graham Dunning, and local phonographer, James Hart. Each sound was chosen for its relevance to the life of the town, and for its sonic texture.

The Mall
Train Station Lobby
Outside School Gates
Town Centre Busker
Planes at the Airport
Park Playground
Carnival
Staircase Footsteps
Near Silence in the Library
Walkabout and Traffic

The installation is a celebration of the bustling energy of Luton’s town centre, and of the people who make the town a real place. Chattering shoppers and rushing commuters mix with the noise of transportation. Distant musics from the Carnival and a local busker blend into footsteps and birdsong. The sound made by the town’s children looks to the future while the near-silence of the library mourns the empty buildings that pock the edges of the town centre.

Above all this installation seeks to communicate the artist’s sense of wonder in the exciting, colourful energy of Luton’s everyday sounds: the sounds that usually go unnoticed or, often, are thought of as unwanted noise.