Blackout
Immersive AV installation inside Tower Bridge
The Lost Sound Project worked with Video Design students from the Guildhall School to create an immersive sound and video installation within the hidden working spaces of Tower Bridge
As the audience made their descent to the Bascule Chamber they encountered scultptural installations and scenic interventions combined with projection mapping and an intense and often overwhelming sound design. This created an immersive experience designed to evoke the sensation of descending into a wartime bomb shelter.
Research interviews conducted with two former City of London Police officers (both experts on police history and Cross & Tibbs) and oral histories recorded with two survivors of the London Blitz provided the commentary to the sound design. The soundtrack itself was created from heavily manipulated and circuit bent samples of these interview recordings, distorted samples of war era musical hall songs and period recordings of WWII militaria.
The Guildhall School, the City of London Police Museum, London Metropolitan Archives and Tower Bridge worked together to present a thoughtful and poignant insight into the life of a police officer, during one of London’s most dramatic historic periods.
The Bascule Chamber is the operational area that houses Tower Bridge’s huge counterweights used during the lifting of the mighty bascules. When the Bridge is at rest, this vast brick-lined space stands empty: a dramatic, subterranean Victorian space normally out of bounds for everyday visitors.
This hour-long experience took place within the hidden spaces within the bridge, telling one of London’s hidden stories: During the Blitz, when the Square Mile was decimated by high explosive and incendiary bombs, two City of London Police officers rushed out into the aftermath to photograph the damage. Inspired by the photography of Arthur Cross and Fred Tibbs, the immersive video projection and sound installation transformed Tower Bridge’s Engine Room, Accumulator Chamber and Bascule Chamber to the post Blitz era.
The show explored the hidden world of the Cross and Tibbs Collection, offering a dramatized narrative that explored the characters, the landscape and the impact of the Blitz across the City, at Tower Bridge and beyond.
The Guildhall School, the City of London Police Museum, London Metropolitan Archives and Tower Bridge worked together to present a thoughtful and poignant insight into the life of a police officer, during one of London’s most dramatic historic periods.
