Events
Air pressure
November 2011 - 15 January 2012
Our globalised contemporary world has been made possible and shaped fundamentally by international air travel; but at what costs to our sense of place and our wellbeing? This multi-media installation explores the clash between traditional farming life in Japan and the technology and economy of international travel.
Two remaining farming families still live at the end of the runway at Narita International Airport in Japan. This exhibition follows one family who have refused to move elsewhere despite pressure from the authorities since the planning and construction of the airport in the 1970s.
Air Pressure uses sound recordings, on-site and archive film, to represent the sonic experience of living and working on this farm, which is surrounded by the airport's infrastructure and constantly monitored by surveillance and sound measuring mechanisms. Air Pressure allows the audience a vicarious, immersive experience of the site and an opportunity to address debates on the impact of aircraft noise on our lives.
The installation is being created by Rupert Cox, from the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, Angus Carlyle, a sound artist and Reader at the University of the Arts, London, in collaboration with Professor Kozo Hiramatsu, Japan's foremost acoustic scientist and UK president of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.