In Clean air we Fly

in clean air we fly raised issues around UK air pollution and our dependence on cars in the weekend before the UN Climate change Conference in Copenhagen. It is also the inaugural event for Invisible Dust, an organisation set up by curator Alice Sharp to highlight air pollution, health and climate change. The work incorporated several different elements including some input from leading Atmospheric Chemist Professor Peter Brimblecombe, University of East Anglia, who measures air pollution and is commissioned by Invisible Dust and Hackney Cooperative Developments Gillett Squared project.

Matthews works in sound so she has always dealt with the invisible. For this work, she collaborated with 40 children from Shacklewell and Colvestone primary schools to explore the possibilities of city transport without pollution and its related health and environmental effects. Together they investigated the local streets, identifying the air pollution hotspots and mapping the results at both street and sky levels to build a musical score from the local Dalston airspace.

in clean air we fly  is an audio experiment, music with no beginning and no end, which combines tones and voices from specific locations and draws their play across the square. The piece was be presented through eight channels of amplification and powered by the audience cycling special bicycles, on stage with the help of the Magnificent Revolution.