PLAY

LEARNING & PARTICIPATION

18 August - 2 October 2006

176,900 people visitors experienced this project in just seven weeks. We invited visitors to take the stage and become the orchestra!

"On the outdoor terrace, seating is laid out as if in an orchestra. When you take a seat the instruments that belongs there begins to sound, playing its part in a piece of music. Moving around the space and trying different seats, you experience a musical score in constant evolution. By switching on your mobile phone's Bluetooth function, you can download unique ringtones and send sounds back to eventually become part of the music played by the virtual orchestra."

Click here for more information on this project.

Trading Places

LEARNING & PARTICIPATION

People, poetry and photography of Lower Marsh

What is the poetry of the places where you live? What are the hidden stories of the street you walk down every day?

Trading Places was a project inspired by the Poetry International Festival 2006. Kwame Dawes' Wisteria: Twilight Songs from the Swap Country is a collection of poems based on the memories of elders in his local community in South Carolina. In a parallel journey of reminiscence Southbank Centre worked with the people of Lower Marsh, Spread the Word an the Lomographic Society International on a project that discovered the hidden poetry of everyday places and captured a portrait of this street through photography.

Working with school children, local young people, residents, shop owners, office workers, market traders and elders we created an interactive wall of songs, snapshots, poetry and memories, a 'Lomowall', at the front of the Royal Festival Hall.

Visit the minisite: www.southbankcentre.co.uk/tradingplaces/

Hidden Love Song

LEARNING AND PARTICIPATION

February 2006

Hidden Love Song was part of a series of installations on the hoardings keeping the public in touch with education at the Royal Festival Hall during the building's transformation:

"Valentine's Day and a new composition by Mark-Anthony Turnage is celebrated in a new collaboration between Southbank Centre, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Central Saint Martins and two primary schools in Lambeth and Kent.

The new installation is the latest in a series to brighten a popular commuter route alongside the Royal Festival Hall. The installation contains hundreds of love messages written by Londoners, hidden behind a silver film. Visitors to the South Bank walking past the installation will be encouraged to scratch away the silver to reveal the poems and messages, while being serenaded by excerpts from Turnage's composition: Hidden Love Song."

Related Media:

Saxophonist Martin Robertson plays a fragment of Hidden Love Song

Pupil at Ashmole primary school reads his poem about love