The British Council, in association with Invisible Flock, presents first large-scale sound art installation in Qatar

105+dB recreates the roars and cheers of a football crowd through high tech sound bubble

On Sunday 2 December 2018 the British Council Qatar is to unveil a mass-scale sonic installation, 105+dB, in Souq Waqif, Doha. Created by UK-based interactive art studio, Invisible Flock, 105+dB will immerse members of the public in Qatar’s passion for the beautiful game.

In football, the ‘12th man’ is a well-used phrase that identifies the watching crowd as a single entity. A many-headed beast that gives a match its emotional backdrop and dramatic score.

When the noise of a crowd reaches 105+dB it becomes a roar as the individual voice is submerged into the whole. A unifying moment that provides a visceral outpouring of passion from the collective soul.

The British Council in association with Leeds-based interactive art studio Invisible Flock, aim to distill this elemental force of nature into a unique mass–scale sonic installation 105+dB in Qatar. The project is part of the British Council’s ambition to engage audiences with new kinds of public art, bringing creativity out to the public for everyone to enjoy, learn from and be inspired by, and will be exhibited as part of the fifth annual Qatar British Festival 2018. The Festival, a celebration of the long-standing relationship between Qatar and the UK, includes cultural events, panel discussions, public activities which give audiences the opportunity to experience a series of fun, educational and creative events across culture, sports, education, business and more.

105+dB is public art that encourages playful interaction by people of all ages, using the mass appeal of football, and the canvas of the city to encourage conversations as Qatar continues the journey towards the FIFA World Cup Qatar in 2022. The audience experiencing the installation are invited to navigate through the roar, walking in and around invisible walls of sound and stillness as the match is replayed. The result is the rousing sound footprint of the terraces in 360 degrees.

Raising awareness on the questions of identity, place, and participation, this large-scale sound installation, will transplant the awesome wall of noise and energy captured at the Grand Hamad Stadium in Doha to a new location at Souq Waqif.

The match is captured purely through the prism of the fans; cheers and boos, chants and songs, using a custom-built array of microphones positioned around the stadium in order to record an exact spatial replica of the scale and location of the crowd in 3D space, recording both the roar of the mass and individual voices.

The audience experiencing the installation are invited to navigate through the roar, walking in and around invisible walls of sound and stillness as the match is replayed.

Catherine Baxendale, Creative Producer at Invisible Flock says, “Experiencing 105+dB can be epic and evocative, so exhilarating that it vibrates through the soles of your shoes, but it is this physical intensity that creates a very visceral connection between you as an audience member and the tens of thousands of fans experiencing the match.”

“With the passion and power behind the collective voice and the togetherness of the chants you can’t help yourself but be carried along with the momentum of the crowd, enveloping you in a giant embrace. Being able to experience a match through the prism of the spectators alone means that all of the politics behind the game is stripped away and the narrative is owned by the fans.”

Find out more here http://invisibleflock.com/

 

 

 

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