Nothing to Hear Here
Hackney Wick, London, 2018
Series of sound pods installed to connect the community of Hackney Wick, post the Olympics, through playing stories of people that are unheard in order to bring light to the voices being forgotten.
Once a marsh used extensively for grazing, then a thriving industrial estate famously known for the Clarnico Sweet Factory, home to a community of artists - to now a place that is trying to claim its position in a city that is developing at a different pace – Hackney is constantly changing.
Nothing to Hear Here is an installation that brings forward the voices of Hackney that have been forgotten. A sense of complete isolation and intimacy is created by being enveloped in an environment which addresses the political, social and cultural aspects of Hackney primarily through the use of voice and additionally through activating the senses of touch, smell and vision.
the name
’Nothing to Hear Here’ is a take on graffiti seen on the fence of a demolition site in Hackney Wick which reads, “Nothing to See Here, it’s only social cleansing”. The name also resonates with the proximity of the site to Here East, a post Olympic construction – that uses the term “here” in their branding all over Hackney Wick and in parts of Stratford.
the social aspect
Over time many communities in Hackney Wick have been displaced, newer communities have moved in and a few have remained. What started as research on collecting stories of the displaced Traveler community, the pods now accommodate the voices of a wider community of people that have been forgotten or unheard. The stories, sound recordings and interviews collected, have been chosen as best representations of the area, with each pod containing voices of people belonging to different communities.
the historical aspect
The pods stand as a metaphor for the turning point in the history of Hackney, the 2012 Olympics.
The exterior of the structure, clad in wood and painted pink is a direct signifier of this. Within the structure, the fabric, the openings, the lights and the voice create a warm homely environment and are tailor made to the character of the person whose story is being told.
The use of Olympic colours as a part of installations was common practice before and during the Olympics. Superniche Architects for instance used the blue fence surrounding the Olympic site in its true form “to transform the negative connotations of forced regeneration into something which will encourage local communities to use the site after the Games and reclaim it as their own.”