16 min
Do it, don't say it: the HECS on precision, partial knowing and decentering histories Listening with...
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- Arts
In our fifth episode, we hear from the Heritage Education Centre Space at Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre. The HECS speak on precision, partial knowing and decentering histories.
For full transcript and web links, visit: listeningwith.substack.com
Mary-Anne McQuay 0:02
Hello, you're listening with the Bluecoat in Liverpool, a series of podcasts taking the themes of our exhibition programmes as a starting point for 15 minute insights from artists, scientists, writers, educators, storytellers and more. In this episode we hear from the Heritage Education Centre Space a Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre. The HECS speak on precision, partial knowing and decentering histories.
Kym Ward 0:29
I'm Kym, I'm one of the people who operate and run Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre over on the Wirral. We've been running for a couple of years now since 2018/2019. And is a space for researchers, artists, philosophers, dancers, musicians to come, stay and work on their own practices communally or individually.
Maeve Devine 0:56
I'm Maeve. I am a musician and sound art practitioner. I've been a friend and associate of the Observatory for about a year now. And I'm really interested in how we experience sound, and music in places and spaces and linking those experiences with oral histories. And this idea that there's a lineage of sound, when you hear a sound, you can trace it to its origin. And that becomes part of a wider kind of interlaced, I guess kind of tapestry of sounds and experience, which then for me, kind of bleeds out into like, music history and like popular culture, and then little bits of identity politics and whatnot. But specifically for me, I'm interested in how neurodiverse people process sound sensually, and how they experience sound in places. So I've been working a little bit with some of the artefacts here at the Observatory, and some of the spaces here as well. I'm really fascinated by reverb, but I haven't fully explored what that is yet. And I too have an interest in witchcraft and I guess specifically the - how would you say it - the transformation of energy from state to state, and, um, where sound fits in with that? If indeed it does. Spoiler: it does.
Jara Rocha 2:51
Hello, my name is Jara Rocha. This is my second time visiting the Bidston Observatory. I come from Barcelona. I'm an interdependent researcher there and around. And I'm here as part of the Vibes&Leaks group, which has a focus on the inner crossings between the phenomenon of the voice and its inscribed politics.
Kym Ward 3:27
So HECS is the Heritage Education Centre Space, and it sits inside Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre. The Artistic Research Centre is a place that artists, designers, dancers, philosophers, musicians can come and stay between two nights in a month. And HECS is dedicated to the history of the building. So the building's an old observatory. It was built in 1866. And from its foundings, to the mid 2000s, it was home to natural earth sciences research. So the Heritage Education Centre Space, which has a physical room in the building, empty at the moment, this is the focus for some of the researchers that come through here who want to engage with the history and heritages - multiple. Yeah, so HECS is a play of sound. We understand that it sounds a bit like a witch's spell somewhat, and we're having a kind of a joke reference or a playful reference to that which sits outside science or sits outside 'capital H History' or sits outside, well, received knowledges. And we're trying to do that in lots of different ways, which I guess we're going to go into. If we start to think about maybe we could separate the words of HECS so Heritage Education Centre Space and we can maybe talk a little bit through those.
Jara Rocha 4:54
H as in ‘heritage’, and I guess also patrimony, and inheritance, and unexpected modes of passing on memories or knowledges.
Kym Ward 5:08
Well, the
In our fifth episode, we hear from the Heritage Education Centre Space at Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre. The HECS speak on precision, partial knowing and decentering histories.
For full transcript and web links, visit: listeningwith.substack.com
Mary-Anne McQuay 0:02
Hello, you're listening with the Bluecoat in Liverpool, a series of podcasts taking the themes of our exhibition programmes as a starting point for 15 minute insights from artists, scientists, writers, educators, storytellers and more. In this episode we hear from the Heritage Education Centre Space a Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre. The HECS speak on precision, partial knowing and decentering histories.
Kym Ward 0:29
I'm Kym, I'm one of the people who operate and run Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre over on the Wirral. We've been running for a couple of years now since 2018/2019. And is a space for researchers, artists, philosophers, dancers, musicians to come, stay and work on their own practices communally or individually.
Maeve Devine 0:56
I'm Maeve. I am a musician and sound art practitioner. I've been a friend and associate of the Observatory for about a year now. And I'm really interested in how we experience sound, and music in places and spaces and linking those experiences with oral histories. And this idea that there's a lineage of sound, when you hear a sound, you can trace it to its origin. And that becomes part of a wider kind of interlaced, I guess kind of tapestry of sounds and experience, which then for me, kind of bleeds out into like, music history and like popular culture, and then little bits of identity politics and whatnot. But specifically for me, I'm interested in how neurodiverse people process sound sensually, and how they experience sound in places. So I've been working a little bit with some of the artefacts here at the Observatory, and some of the spaces here as well. I'm really fascinated by reverb, but I haven't fully explored what that is yet. And I too have an interest in witchcraft and I guess specifically the - how would you say it - the transformation of energy from state to state, and, um, where sound fits in with that? If indeed it does. Spoiler: it does.
Jara Rocha 2:51
Hello, my name is Jara Rocha. This is my second time visiting the Bidston Observatory. I come from Barcelona. I'm an interdependent researcher there and around. And I'm here as part of the Vibes&Leaks group, which has a focus on the inner crossings between the phenomenon of the voice and its inscribed politics.
Kym Ward 3:27
So HECS is the Heritage Education Centre Space, and it sits inside Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre. The Artistic Research Centre is a place that artists, designers, dancers, philosophers, musicians can come and stay between two nights in a month. And HECS is dedicated to the history of the building. So the building's an old observatory. It was built in 1866. And from its foundings, to the mid 2000s, it was home to natural earth sciences research. So the Heritage Education Centre Space, which has a physical room in the building, empty at the moment, this is the focus for some of the researchers that come through here who want to engage with the history and heritages - multiple. Yeah, so HECS is a play of sound. We understand that it sounds a bit like a witch's spell somewhat, and we're having a kind of a joke reference or a playful reference to that which sits outside science or sits outside 'capital H History' or sits outside, well, received knowledges. And we're trying to do that in lots of different ways, which I guess we're going to go into. If we start to think about maybe we could separate the words of HECS so Heritage Education Centre Space and we can maybe talk a little bit through those.
Jara Rocha 4:54
H as in ‘heritage’, and I guess also patrimony, and inheritance, and unexpected modes of passing on memories or knowledges.
Kym Ward 5:08
Well, the
16 min