Two immersive sound installations by Max Cooper and Chris Watson, powered by L-Acoustics, at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station

Timings:

11 Sept 10:00 – 16:00

12 Sept 10:00 – 18:00

13 Sept 10:00 – 18:00

14 Sept 10:00 – 18:00

15 Sept 10:00 – 18:00

This Special Project for LDF26 invites visitors to immerse into two spatial sound installations powered by L-Acoustics at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station: "Feeling is Structure" by Max Cooper and Chris Watson's "Trent Falls".

Multi-disciplinary artist Max Cooper presents "Feeling Is Structure": A Spatial Audio Installation. Originally developed through a commission for a live performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall, "Feeling Is Structure" investigates the relationship between physical form, perception and emotional experience. Across sound, architecture, biology and visual culture, Cooper considers structure not simply as an organising principle, but as something that actively shapes how we sense, interpret and feel. Reconfigured here as a 20-minute spatial-audio installation, the work moves beyond the conventions of album playback to become an inhabitable sonic environment. Sound unfolds across and around the listener, foregrounding the spatial, material and architectural qualities embedded within the composition. The installation offers a distinct encounter with "Feeling Is Structure" as a unique spatial-audio experience.

Artist Chris Watson will also present "Trent Falls", a spatial sound installation guiding listeners on a journey down the Humber estuary. Beginning at Goole docks by Trent Falls, where the rivers Trent and Ouse combine into the estuary, the piece follows the ebbing tide through the reeds and booming bitterns of Faxfleet nature reserve and rattling rail freight past the now disappeared Oxmardyke gate box. The estuary flows under the thunderous expansion joints of the Humber bridge and then alongside Kingston upon Hull accompanied by the frenzied screams from Hull Fair, the sonorous tones of the cathedral bells and the cheers of Craven Park during a Hull Kingston Rovers home game. As the estuary broadens out, wading birds probe the mudflats, their calls merging into the distant ‘pipe' music of Saltend Chemical Park. At Spurn Point where the estuary flows into the North Sea the haunting siren songs of grey seals drift along with the rolling wave wash.

Spatial sound works "Lengua Desollada" by Hollie Buhagiar and "A Decade is a Long Time" by Helen Lyon, a collaboration between L-Acoustics and the Alliance for Women Film Composers, will be selectively featured throughout the programming.

London Design Festival’s sound installations mark the first cultural programming at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station since this historic space has been under the custodianship of Glass Castle Foundation. Originally built in 1890, Wapping Power Station has been closed to the public for the last 13 years. This is a rare opportunity to explore one of the city’s most remarkable industrial spaces.

Project hosted by Glass Castle Foundation.

Description supplied by the event organiser.