Our guests were invited to try out using professional recording equipment to collect sounds and interview material, and to experience audio editing in a radio studio environment. They were given the tools and guidance, but what kind of content they created - whether documentary, sound art, or musical composition - was up to them.
"When working on a project as experimental as this, a key challenge is not knowing what to expect. Every participant had different ideas about the sound and style of their creation, everyone faced different challenges and factors in gathering that material. My job was to help the Sound Collectors create something they were proud of, and working with them was a delight. We've made a truly varied mini-series together, and hopefully (if I've done my job right) some of them will have caught the audio bug, and want to continue exploring audio production as a creative outlet.
"Every year, the Summer Streets Festival wows me in bringing together an engaged community of music-lovers, and this year's packed offering continues to demonstrate the impact of bringing people together. For an afternoon, Cliffe Park comes alive. It's an absolute credit to Ross and the entire team, and it was a pleasure to be a small part of Summer Streets."
SARA LEILAH & ALEXANDER SMITH
Sara Leilah, who performed at Summer Streets as the opening act for the 'Young Musicians Project', teamed up with budding content creator Alexander Smith, who investigated Sara's writing as an emerging singer/songwriter. Their chat-cast style conversation dovetails Sara's original acoustic performances, and recordings from performances at the Festival.
"Working on the project was great, it was fun to get to talk to young local musicians and learn more about their artistic journey. Also finding a new love for audio recording and editing was incredibly rewarding, and I hope to be able to do more things like this in the future." - Alexander Smith
MARYAM ALMAHAMEED & LOUIS YOUNG
Maryam Almahameed and Louis Young created a chaotic, energetic and undulating bustle of people's reflections about music and the Summer Streets Festival; whether performers or audience members.
"We had a lot of fun collecting interviews and editing in the studio. Meeting Rapasa [one of the people we recorded at Summer Streets] was the highlight, his energy was incredible and he shows why people love making music. I'm really proud of how we included him in the project, and as a whole we made something really unexpected." - Maryam Almahameed
JAMES WILKINSON
Perhaps the most musical and experimental creation was visual artist James Wilkinson, whose sound art vignette explores how Summer Streets Festival attendees connect with music on an emotional level, with the interviewees' responses and found sounds adding into a musical beat of crescendoing complexity.
"I had been wanting to make soundscapes for a while, but didn't quite know where to start. [Sound Collectors] was a fun challenge." - James Wilkinson
