The Studio1824.com Exhibition at Timespan, a cultural heritage centre in Sutherland, Scotland

From the official invite to the live show (1824 Seconds: Live) and subsequent exhibition.

A linguistic survey sound recording from 1964 featured Helmsdale fisherman Neil Mackay and wife Mary (nee Sutherland). A story is told and in the background, bells chime. A knitting group helped me track down the next of kin who had never heard the recordings, adding fresh elements to create a mini-album of "folktronica" with accompanying photographic cover-art. The project became a "netlabel" (www.studio1824.com), a live electronic concert, community workshops and a gallery exhibtion featuring an enormous salmon of knowledge, patrolling the ice house and nearby Gartymore. Chris Dooks

Scroll down to see stills from the exhibiton which ran from April-May 2009 at Timespan
and to read writer Eleanor Thom's texts (allow page to load)...

The Ice House, Helmsdale’s monumental deep freeze. Built in 1824, it was once a store for the salmon catch, and later a coal-fired fish and chip shop. Now, thanks to resident ice house artist, Chris Dooks, it is making a musical comeback in a project that celebrates both the past and the future of refrigeration. Dooks began his work in Helmsdale in January 2009. He was like a kid in a cave, singing resonant notes into the ice house’s vast vaulted chamber. The place seemed to be built for sound. Dooks was not the only one to have noticed this. When fish was stored here, huge blocks of ice were brought to Helmsdale from Wick and sometimes from Norway. They would be pushed through a hole in the roof of the ice house and allowed to fall to the ground from that great height. One Helmie, who called himself ‘Old Timer’, described the “almighty crash” as a block of ice hit the flagstones and shattered. Instant crushed ice, ready to be packed into fish boxes, destined for London’s Billingsgate market.

Today, few people remember the ice house in operation as a freezer, so the discovery of a 1964 recording in the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh was tantalising. The tape was part of a linguistic survey of Scotland, and the informants for Helmsdale were local fisherman, Neil MacKay and his wife, Mary (née Sutherland). A story is told, songs are sung, and in the background the clock chimes six o’clock. Sugar is stirred into tea. A knitting group helped the artist track down the MacKay’s relatives, who had never before heard the tape, and then using the acoustics in Helmsdale’s ice house, Dooks shaped music from the recordings. He added fresh elements to create an album of ‘folktronica’, 1824 SECONDS, and he accompanied each track with striking photographic cover-art taken in Helmsdale and the surrounding area. The images are displayed in Timespan’s gallery, and they complement the music you hear through the headphones. It is the music that is the key to the whole project.



The fusion of ice and music might seem unusual, but it could be very familiar in years to come. In fact, you could one day be freezing your leftovers with sound. Thermoacoustic refrigeration is a very new science based on the principle that oscillating sound waves alter temperature. The human voice can cause fluctuations of one ten-thousandth of a degree, but scientists can boost the pressure and the volume to reach a chill -24 degrees Celsius. The benefit of this technology is that it emits no chemicals and is highly efficient, thereby reducing the effects of global warming. It’s ice-friendly ice, and it’s sonic.

We chose Chris out of a very large number of applicants for the Ice House commission because we liked his enthusiasm and the originality of all his ideas. Working with Chris was a good experience, he took interest in other peoples ideas and his positive attitude made things even more exciting and interesting. The sound workshop shed a whole new light on different styles of music and how they can be made. I'm sure that STUDIO 1824 will be innovative and thought provoking as well as interesting and enjoyable, exactly what is needed to bring the icehouse into the spotlight!

Heather Macdonald, OURS