Date:

Saturday 8 March

Venue:

Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens

Time:

14:30 - 15:30 Artist talk
15:45 - 17:00 Screening TV At The Cinema: The Life of Birds

Ever wondered what it would sound like to be standing in a tropical rainforest? Chris Watson is one of the world's greatest sound recordists, famed for his work capturing the natural world for David Attenbrough. For the Whispering in the Leaves installation, he has recreated the experience of a day in a rain forest amid the exotic foliage of Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. With 16 speakers in surround sound, you will be immersed in another world.

In an exclusive talk for AV Festival 08, Watson will discuss this new art work, and his other sound art and electronic music projects, dating back to his pioneering bands Cabaret Voltaire and the Hafler Trio, through to his work on many of the BBC's landmark natural history TV shows. Watson has transformed the way we hear the sounds of nature on radio and on television, and following the talk, you'll be able to hear how.

Watson will introduce a screening of an episode of the award-winning Attenborough series, The Life of Birds. You will experience a dawn chorus that took Watson and his colleagues two years to record and edit, and marvel at the closing scenes of the programme, which juxtapose magnificent bird song with the noises of technology, tourism, and deforestation.