Listening to the Landscape at St Catherine’s Oratory

As part of CAN YOU HEAR US?, our six-week celebration of creativity and culture taking place across the Island this autumn, creative activity is already getting underway.

This week, we’re shining a light on the Landed Commission, delivered by the Isle of Wight National Landscape, and on Hector MacInnes, a sound and participation artist responding to St Catherine’s Oratory.

Working primarily with the Isle of Wight National Landscape Youth Committee, Hector is leading a series of imaginative sessions - sparking creativity and developing ideas based on the knowledge, opinions and perspectives of the young people involved.

The first session included a walk up to the Oratory, where the group began exploring sound across the landscape - thinking about what this place might have sounded like in the past, and what it could sound like in the future. Drawing on their own memories, learning and imagination, they started to build a foundation for the project.

Handmade loudhailers were used to test how far sound travels, and what can be heard in return - a simple but playful way of opening up new ideas and ways of thinking about the space.