Snape viewing platform
There is one project that showed me what can be done if you really let your imagination roam.
In 2015, Aldeburgh Music held a competition to create an outdoor sculpture for children at Snape Maltings. The aim was to offer a vantage point across the marshes at Snape and a new view over that flat and beautiful landscape. Roger Wright, Chief Executive at Aldeburgh Music, said: ‘This is an exciting opportunity to create a wonderful sculpture, inspired by the tradition of children climbing on the site’s existing artworks’.
My core concept was to make the structure about the music the site is famous for as well as the amazing landscape. With that as a starting point, the ideas began flowing: a giant xylophone for the stairs; a wind gauge measured in musical tempos; ‘bar chords’ made from handlebars with differently tuned bells; a safety rail in the form of two staves; a pipe organ using everyday plumbing pipes; and a climbing wall based on musical scales. All of this was conceived at the size of a standard shipping container for ease of transport.
Needless to say, this was not the winner of the competition, I doubt it could have been built within the time and budget allocated for the project. But it was great fun doing it and some of the ideas found their way into Onomatopea 1 that stood outside the Lettering Arts Centre in Snape for two years.
My statement accompanying the entry is as follows and you can see the designs here:
The purpose of the Children’s Viewing Platform is to raise you up to enjoy an enhanced view of the surrounding landscape. But it can do more than that. I believe we can use this sculpture to enhance the experience of music and sound as well.
When visiting the sculpture, you will need to climb up to reach the viewing platform; when you play a musical scale, you need to ascend the notes. I want to link the physical ascent of the sculpture with the musical ascent of a scale, the higher up the structure, the higher in pitch the notes will be. The sculpture will be called Higher and Higher!
Music should be accessible to all. Higher and Higher! will introduce children to the idea that making music is something we can all do. Using familiar, everyday objects and materials the sculpture will show how notes work together to create music. It will encourage participation and experimentation and hopefully a lifelong love of music.
Higher and Higher! will also invite visitors to listen to the environment through the audio equivalent of telescopes. You will be able to enjoy the magnified sounds of the landscape to accompany the magnificent scenery.
Benjamin Britten’s vision for Snape was to create a special place where established stars, young artists, amateurs and audience members come to broaden their horizons in an exhilarating creative and natural environment. The Children’s Viewing Platform is an opportunity to contribute to Britten’s legacy, to engage with existing visitors and attract new audiences to discover the wonderful work of Aldborough Music.