Yann Seznec joined The Floating Cinema: on Tour as artist-in-residence, travelling the 5-week journey from London to Bristol to create a floating library of sounds, including those forgotten from the canal's industrial past as well as exploring time-lapse and underwater sound recording.
On the return journey The Floating Cinema was presented as a mobile audio installation, slowly making its way through the rural countryside back to its London home. Throughout the residency Yann explored embedded memories, histories, and identities inherent in the canal, as a way of examining its character in both past and present functions. As The Floating Cinema travelled through rural Berkshire and Wiltshire and finally on towards Bristol, Yann worked with local residents, schools and community groups in each location to gather and record the sounds of that make each area unique, reflecting the landscape and the people who dwell within it.
"Canals are designed to link places together, most often connecting industrialised areas with maritime transport links. They occupy a liminal space between manufacturing and distribution, between rural and urban, and between land and sea. This can be extended to the sociocultural histories of the canals - in the post-industrial age they lost their original function, often becoming forgotten or even derelict, whilst retaining the locks, towpaths, and other original structural elements." – Yann Seznec
You can listen to Yann's soundscape below - please note that the recording includes one instance of strong language.
Neither Here Nor There was funded by the BFI awarding funds from the National Lottery, Arts Council England and Canal & River Trust, as part of The Floating Cinema: On Tour programme.
