A reflection: Derlication- Transformation
www.knocklong.net
The thing that struck me about Knocklong from the first day I beganwork there was the sounds, or lack of. The overwhelming sound of trafficpassing by dominated the landscape. For hours every day, traffic passes.No one stops. Ever hour the train fly’s past, for a moment you hear whatperhaps Knocklong may have sounded like prior to its dereliction. Theindustrial sounds set the tone of the village. It’s hard to imagine how sucha historic place had become so silent. However there were sounds, theyjust lay within each member of the community. Knocklong is home tonine derelict buildings. Walsh’s, Byrnes each consisting of 5 Shop fronts,Cleeves Creamery, the Hotel and the Train station. They out-write that ofthe small functioning establishments.
The local pub, the Magnet was given its name as it drew so many peoplein, locals would come and park up their horses and carts and pop in fora pint. This industrial village in the 70’s was booming, this caused a largepassing of people in and out of the pub, now Knocklong is called thesleepy village, until March 2016 when news came that Cleeves creamerywas being renovated back in time.I had begun to collect data from October, when there was no sign ofrenewal.During site visits to Knocklong.
I heard the story of the village. Thecommunity wanted change. They wanted to address the problem ofDereliction. The first space I documented was Walsh’s Shop. It has beendescribed as having everything, from a needle to an anchor. Pauline,whose late father owned the shop, Pauline told me everything about theshop, and boarded my understanding of dereliction in the village, fromsomeone who has felt the lasting effects personally. I documented thesounds of this space, each encounter created a different sound.
In January 2016, I gained access to the creamery with the help of MaryHarty, who is a leading member of the development society. I had firstlygot in touch with Mary back in October when I emailed the village ofKnocklong on account of their vast amount of derelict buildings; she andher fellow community member Joe Maloney had facilitated my site visits.They are the reason this project began.12Gaining access to the creamery was bleak, it was damp and cold and youcould hear it was ready for its scheduled demolition later that month.We couldn’t have much access to the place but, gathered a soundscapes.Following theoretical ideologies of sound you learn that there is no suchthing as silence. There was something there. Something wanted to beheard. In late January I met again with Joe Maloney, who informed me ofthe annual history weekend. This year however, it was different.
Little didwe know, during this history weekend, Knocklong would make history inits own right?News came of a development plan. Fiona Quinn, creative director of Co.Limerick Youth was approached by Knocklong’s development society,to device something around the rescue of Sean Hogan in the station ofKnocklong in 1919 for the annual history weekend.Fiona had a vision, as part of of this theatre production which was toinvolve all artistic sectors, the main ethos behind this was to encouragepeople to connect and re-imagine their spaces, and considering audienceand how the public interact and interpret derelict spaces. She wrote a playand with her youths in Co. Limerick youth theatre, this vision becamea reality, through a variety of approaches, ranging from installation andsoundscapes to historical documentation of the Specific site.
The projectwas realised.I have published three visual diaries documenting the event. Entitled;Dereliction, Participation and Transformation.During this time, “Sounds of Knocklong”, moved into the village. Withthe renovating of the community it became an opportunity to fully engageand meet with all members of the community. Everyone had a story totell. The sounds of the creamery changed almost immediately. It became amethod of form of acoustic archaeology; you imagine sounds of the pastin the present moment, through story-telling as a further material for theradio shows.When you get people to think about they’re spaces and the connectionsthat are still there, as a community, memories are activated.13Documenting this space through the stories that people tell is part ofthe active research in learning more about the village of Knocklong,these incomplete and imperfect fragments of the built and decayingenvironment are important components in narration and relate to people,place, and historyThrough stories and sounds you visually imagine the space adding layersto the experience .
Sound has the power to bring people on a journey.Gathering the audio interview element is my favourite process about theproject. When you have insight into the place you are engaging with, andinto the subject it becomes much more than an interview. You see theperson with the design of sound and you think back to how you felt andwhat stuck you about that encounter.When people respond to their space they make their own connections,that way you always remember the purpose of the interaction. Whenpeople to think about these derelict spaces and the connection that arestill there a shift is made, and the sounds heard become universal.The project became an exploration of the dialogue between individualand place, highlighting the invisible interactions with the ambient soundsof the spaces allowed for the impact to be felt.
Once people respond to theproject they made their own connections. This was highlighted especiallyduring the renovations of the creamery. This happened on every site visit.A door opened to a place that was about to be lost, if not for this theatreproduction the creamery would of been demolished and the issue ofdereliction in the village would be further away from getting addressed. Itre-gained community involvement and spirit.When archiving the sounds of the creamery, there was a link between thatparticular building and the community.Response allowed for narration to become a key element in this partof the project. Stories show the link. When the space was re-opened, ittransformed everyone’s perception of dereliction.
This is the bridge whatagain connects contemporary art to the community through the displayand documentation of soundscapes and active story-telling.14Finding in the process, what was inaccessible at the beginning becameaccessible through involvement and engagement. The way you presentthe sound designs had to be mirrored back into the community, all to beexperience differently by each listener, no-one would experience the samenarrative. As I collected the material different themes emerged, differentspaces accounted for different meaning of this evolving soundscapes.Radio as art was the crucial element in this project. Radio waves neverstop, they still exist on some level, in the memories of the place and timewhere they start, they may change and alter over time but they are alwaysthere, the same can be said in the aural documentation of the buildingand event.
The key point here was how people re-imagine their spaces. That was thepurpose of the radio programs and the purpose of this project, to addressthe issue of dereliction. Even though the future of Cleeves creameryis uncertain, the weekend of May the 13th /15th, went beyond whatanybody every anticipated, and became like the radio programs an activeopportunity to promote the village, and in this case, the juxtapositionof space, arts and development all created through community.
Thedevelopment placed Knocklong in a platform for cultural change andcommunity renewal.2019 will be an exciting year for the village. There is going to be anotherbuilding transformed that of the railway.“Sound’s of Knocklong”, is an on-going project, and will be invited withfurther participation, collaborations and documentation in this evolvingvillage.