Amanda Wall is a recent Innovation in Sound MA graduate who used her degree and worked with Shelter UK to highlight the vital issue of homelessness in Bristol.
At dBs Institute, we always encourage our students to use their degrees and the power of sound to impact the world around them. Amanda Wall, a recent Innovation in Sound MA graduate, used her Master’s project to do just that.
Working with the UK-based homeless charity Shelter, Amanda created an interactive sound art project FEAR that reflected on her experience of insecure housing and homelessness and highlighted what it feels like to be homeless.
We caught up with Amanda and Peter Farrow from Shelter to talk about this emotionally charged project and how it can help raise awareness about the housing crisis in Bristol.
Learn more about MA Innovation in Sound.
Hi Amanda! Introduce yourself and your Innovation in Sound MA project.
Amanda Wall: Hello. My name is Amanda Wall and I've just graduated from the MA Innovation in Sound degree. FEAR stands for Families Emergency Accommodation Restart and it aims to raise awareness and support for homeless families using audio and visual techniques to explain the story.
What was the inspiration behind this project?
AW: The inspiration behind the project was being homeless with my children in 2022. Having attended various appointments with heads of housing and having recorded those appointments made me realise there needs to be more awareness about the housing crisis. I wanted to raise funds to help support those families.
What’s it been like working with the charity Shelter throughout the project?
AW: Working with Shelter has been brilliant because of the resources. They’ve been a priceless source of support and help throughout the project. My current working relationship with Shelter is that I'm an advocate for them. I was part of the Winter Campaign last year and I’m part of the Winter Campaign this year and we've done some national press.
To donate to Shelter’s Winter Appeal go to shelter.org.uk/WinterAppeal.
What is involved in this project and what makes it unique?
AW: What makes this unique is I was homeless, and those emotions and experiences have been rolled into this. Using music, audio, visual tools, costumes, immersive techniques and theatrical production, FEAR portrays how I felt in that situation. The process started with ambisonic film recordings going back to places like the Travel Lodge [where I stayed] and the building sites that caused us dismay when we stayed in hotels. Everything was composed in Logic and then, from Logic, the storytelling was split into Reaper, which is an ambisonic software program so we could create immersive audio instead of flat audio. FEAR is a mixture of The Greatest Showman, sci-fi, immersive audio and interactivity to make you feel like you're part of the show.
How has studying at dBs Institute helped you with this project?
AW: Coming back to dBs has helped me develop my skills and career prospects in the sense that I've gone from being a singer in the music industry and I'm now a live performer. My favourite thing about dBs is the lecturers, the staff and the unity and the support that you get here to further your career. The equipment is second to none, but knowing I would have the support and mental health support I needed brought me back.
Hi Peter. Why do you think projects like Amanda’s are important for highlighting the housing crisis in Bristol?
Peter Farrow: I think projects like this are really important to highlight issues in the housing crisis. Especially at a local level, because it is so widespread and it impacts so many families living in Bristol. Anything that can bring a new light to that, and provide another way of ensuring that it’s still present in people's minds is really important. I think it's quite a brave and inspirational project. It's coming from an experience that has been really challenging for her and her family, but she's managed to use that positively to continue to raise the profile of the housing crisis in Bristol and use it in a way where she's actually trying to change the homeless experience for other families in Bristol as well.
How would you describe the housing crisis in Bristol at the moment?
PF: The housing crisis in Bristol is particularly bad at the moment. Private rents are on the increase. I think Bristol is now the second most expensive city in the UK. There's not enough truly affordable social housing, so the result is that the number of families in Bristol that are presenting as homeless is just increasing.
Want to use sound to change the world around you? Learn more about our MA Innovation in Sound online or at our next Open Event!
