Construction Gallery – 18 – 29 Jan 2012

Keeping the Park: Archive is a sound installation based on a re-working of Keeping the Park, an audio guide originally made for Wandle Park, Colliers Wood in 2010. Amidst a wild track of birdsong and traffic, you hear the voices of the local residents of the area. An ‘instructional voice’, which playfully guides users around the park in the original version, has been extracted, leaving space between the moments of anecdote, conversation and thought.

The original audio guide explores how different park users relate to, care for and think about the park. Bending and borrowing the conventional form of a tourist’s audio guide, Present Attempt created this bespoke experience in collaboration with local residents and park users, through conversation, walking and workshops.

The project was originally commissioned for Away Day, a festival organised by POST, which took place in the borough of Merton in May 2010. The original twenty minute audio guide is available to borrow from Donald Hope Library or available to download from Merton Council’s website.

Construction Gallery and Cafe
74 – 80 Upper Tooting Road
London SW17 7PB