Conductor | 8 Movements by Keith Harrison with accompanying soundtrack by Preston Field Audio
A live choreographed interruption of 60 minutes in the life of Preston Bus Station will take place on Sunday, 14 July from 9.30am – 10.30am.
Conductor celebrates the architecture of Preston Bus Station as a place designed for the movement and boarding of double-decker buses.
The project has been organised by The University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLan) In Certain Places in conjunction with the Harris Museum and Art Gallery.
It will consist of a sound score for 32 buses driven by skilled drivers form Preston Bus and Stagecoach. They will perform slow sequenced movements from the bus bays and across the forecourt, mirrored simultaneously by the actions of volunteers in the passenger concourse. Their movement will be accompanied by a sound track played through the PA system of the station provided by Preston Field Audio, created from recordings of the station and electronic loops in response to artist Keith Harrison's schematic working drawings.
The event will be recorded by filmmaker Jared Schiller and subsequently re-presented as part of the exhibition Beautiful and Brutal: 50 years in the life of Preston Bus Station at the Harris Museum.
"This work is a unique way of marking 50 years of Preston Bus Station."
Professor Charles Quick, co-curator of In Certain Places at UCLan, said: "Keith Harrison’s exciting new performative work Conductor for Preston Bus Station, uniquely appropriates all the resources of the station to create a dramatic new work that pays homage to the interaction between the people, vehicles and the architecture of the UK’s biggest bus station."
Councillor Peter Kelly, Executive Member for Culture & Leisure at Preston City Council, said: "This work is a unique way of marking 50 years of Preston Bus Station. The city is proud that partner curators from the Harris and In Certain Places working together with Preston Bus Station operators have enabled this exciting work by artist Keith Harrison and recorded by filmmaker Jared Schiller - to be seen by thousands of visitors to the Harris' autumn exhibition and in the future."
To see this unique free live performance at Preston Bus Station, visitors are asked to gather at 9:30am near the Information Desk.
Beautiful and Brutal: 50 years in the Life of Preston Bus Station opens on 21 September and runs until 24 November.
Admission to the exhibition is free.