TRANSMISSION—CARRIER is an audio work experienced on a boat trip departing from Whitstable Harbour, taking passengers out to the monumental Kentish Flats offshore wind farm before heading west to the Red Sands Fort – corroding military structures built during WWII and repurposed in the mid-1960s for pirate radio broadcasts.
On the boat trip, inventions that have spanned these waters over centuries can be seen in the present day – trade, communication, distribution devices, translation, territory, value, and ownership. TRANSMISSION—CARRIER draws our attention to the wind: an invisible force, only perceptible when intercepted by things which cross its path, or in human breath, through the spoken word.
Building on Madeleine‘s experiments with sound and her investigations into the flow of global capital, the work embraces the wind’s textural materiality and seeks to harness it as a sonic element, using field recordings, experimental sounds and voice in an attempt to capture the imagined and the inaudible. It zooms into the powerful, unpredictable nature of the wind, omnipresent through these expanses and histories.
Whitstable is situated at the mouth of the Thames Estuary, a globally important trade route and a reminder that imperialism and international trade were first enabled by sailing boats utilising the power of the wind. Today, wind farms capture this same resource for another purpose, to generate energy for use here and abroad. TRANSMISSION—CARRIER speaks to our relationship with this pervasive natural element, which envelops us and yet remains unseen.
Departing from Whitstable Harbour, each boat trip takes 12 passengers at a time on the approx. 60 minute journey.
There are five trips on Saturday 18 June – 13:30-14:30, 14:45-15:45, 16:00-17:00, 17:15-18:15, 18:30-19:30 – and four trips on Sunday 19 June – 14:00-15:00, 15:15-16:15, 16:30-17:30, 17:45-18:45.
The ticketed trips are run by Whitstable Boat Trips, who are offering a discounted rate (£35 for adults, £20 for children) for Whitstable Biennale visitors. Call 07383 441811 or email whitstableboattrips@gmail.com and quote ‘Whitstable Biennale – Red Sands Fort trip’ to book. Booking early is recommended to avoid disappointment.
The work features sound design by Alex Batchelor.
Listen to a short extract from the work