In We Wink, We Wink, our Voices Blink, a field of orbs is filled with voices that shimmer and shake, mumble and gurgle, ripple and sway. As you touch them, you feel vibrations linked with the sounds. Passers-by converse with the orbs like they are people, touch them, bend their sounds with their movement and change their colours. The voices inside them, and the actions of the bodies outside them, subtly morph the sounds, vibrations, colours and brightness, creating the impression that the orbs are somehow little beings. In Southampton, children’s sounds of forest plants and animals filled the orbs. In Lancaster, the piece reached about 3000; in Southampton, about 70000. The piece has three levels of engagement. From afar, the light variances are mesmerising; upon approach, the chorus of sounds becomes audible, and then as you move toward them, movement detectors shape the sound and draw you to touch them, when you feel vibration. In Southampton, just over 3000 audience touched the orbs of the 70000 who saw and roughly 32000 who heard them. The piece was made for and belongs to the Tract and Touch Trust and belongs to the Voice-Styling research-creation strand.

Commissioned by Light Up Lancaster (pilot); Festival of Light Southampton and We are the Fair. Concept, direction: Yvon Bonenfant; Coding, sound, light, vibration, digitals, movement detection: Kingsley Ash; Design Julien Masson.