On the Circulation of Blood was an itinerant, multimedia installation and performance work commissioned for ‘The Plot’, the fifth edition of Creative Folkestone Triennial. Initially unfolding at The Old Drying Grounds, adjacent to St Peter’s School, the work later moved to the Lower Leas Amphitheatre.
At the heart of the project was a series of monumental, outdoor installations constructed from specially adapted theatrical apparatuses and bespoke fabric netting. As the work circulated, these structures became the sites for six public performances, amassing an ensemble of professional and amateur musicians. Underpinning the work was a series of six newly commissioned pieces by Sarah Dacey, Neil Luck, Elaine Mitchener, Ben Oliver, Bernhard Schimpelsberger and Josephine Stephenson. During each day of the Triennial, you could experience fragments of this music as part of the installation and at sunset the sounds were replaced by visual pulsation in the form of glowing theatrical orbs.
The work was in part inspired by the local community of St Peter’s School who were said to have repaired and dried nets for the fisherman outside the school gates. The project also directly references Folkestone born William Harvey – ‘discoverer of the circulation of blood’, whose statue is in the centre of the Leas, Folkestone’s clifftop promenade.
A free album of music composed for the project is available here.
A publication is also available featuring scores of all the compositions and access to documentation of the original performances, audio and video recordings, sound files for performances and practice materials.