The Paths We Tread

The Paths We Tread is an outdoor interactive sound installation constructed with telephones and a giant hopscotch board which presents stories of the earth trodden over by potentially thousands of people throughout history. The sounds projected from the telephone receivers are recordings of poems written by the local community based on their experiences and thoughts of the countryside and nature. These poems are bespoke to each location that the installation visits. Each tile triggers a different poem so when the path is walked across, a dialogue is formed between the earth, the person interacting with the installation and others who have walked across the land. The Paths We Tread explores the tension between private property and public land, using oral histories.

Commissioned in June 2013 by contemporary arts producer Sound UK, the installation toured across Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall and came into realisation through close collaboration with the local communities.