A project with young people with experience of forced migration and of being unaccompanied asylum seekers, working alongside artist Emma Smith to explore how we connect to one another using our voices.

Emma Smith hosted Lyric Cacophony Sound Club with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people in Barking and Dagenham in 2020.

Through a series of online sessions the group explored the extraordinary ways in which we can connect to one another using our voices beyond language, examining the ways in which the voice can impact our emotions, and evoke feelings in ourselves and others.

Together, the group experimented with audio and digital technologies, exploring the musicality of speech, politics of voice and the physical nature of sound. They also learnt how sound travels through the body, what we can and can’t hear, and how this affects our physical and emotional response.

The collaboration culminated in a new sound piece that can be experienced at Valence House Library from 1 Feb until 30 April, 10am – 6pm (on loop), Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturdays, once at 10am.

The work is presented as part of Becontree Forever celebrating the Becontree Estate centenary in 2021.

Emma Smith

Emma Smith is a visual artist based in the UK. She has a social practice and creates platforms for people to share research, experiences, knowledge and know-how of human relationships. Involving thousands of people in her projects, Emma creates experiences particular to those who are there. Emma utilises galleries as a space for active research and public spaces as an environment for co-habitation, experimentation, play and collective action. Previous exhibitions and performances include Tate Modern, Barbican, Whitechapel, Bluecoat, Whitworth, ICA and Arnolfini.