Memories of Movement is a participatory sound artwork exploring migration, belonging, and the sonic traces of community. Developed by sound artists Adam Stearns and Finn O’Hare in collaboration with the Primary 7 class of St Albert’s Primary School—winners of the 2023 Turner Prize for Schools—the project transforms personal histories of movement into a shared audio-visual environment.
Suspended throughout the space, a constellation of sculptural objects—each created by a student—hangs as both artefact and loudspeaker. Using transducers, the objects themselves are turned into speakers, allowing their material surfaces to resonate with sound. These hybrid forms transmit field recordings, oral histories, and domestic sounds collected or composed by the students, mapping their individual and familial journeys across continents and generations.
Through the use of transducer technology, the artwork literally gives voice to the objects—transforming static artefacts into speaking bodies that communicate stories of heritage and movement. Together, they form an immersive sonic landscape where the act of listening becomes a way of experiencing connection, empathy, and collective memory.
Presented at the Common Ground Festival, 2024. Coinciding with World Refugee Day, Refugee Festival Scotland and Glasgow International, Common Ground Festival aimed to strengthen the connections and collaborations across the arts and refugee sectors.