A year in the making, #UNRAVEL is a spectacular new interactive sound installation and a collaboration between Edinburgh based band / arts collective FOUND and Glasgow-based author and musician, Aidan Moffat.

We caught up with FOUND to see if we could, well, unravel, #UNRAVEL.

Tell us about #UNRAVEL?  

At the heart of the installation is a vinyl record player and ten 7” records of familiar singles from pop music's heyday. Visitors are encouraged to select a record and, as soon as they drop the needle on to the record the installation springs to life. The vinyl controls a series of acoustic, self-playing musical instruments positioned throughout the gallery which soundtrack the story as the narrator recounts a memory he associates with that record. Each record represents a different memory, but unlike conventional vinyl recordings they sound different each time they are played.

Just as a real narrator alters the way they tell a story depending on their mood, audience and context, the memories embodied in the installation will distort, evolve and warp depending on external influences.

Can you tell us a little bit about how it works?

Ah, that would be spoiling the magic!

Who is the narrator? 

Aidan has told us that all the stories are based on real events that happened to him, most of them concerning ex-girlfriends. He chose ten songs from his record collection that prompted specific memories and then wrote multiple versions of each memory, distorting the details based on the four external factors we had chosen: TIME, OPINION, PRESSURE and AUDIENCE.

For TIME he decided to make early and late versions of each memory, giving us the opportunity to build in a 'watershed' to the installation. So if you visit #UNRAVEL early in the day, you will hear more family friendly versions of the stories whereas if you visit later in the day they will be more explicit. 

The OPINION sensor reads the latest Tweet with the #UNRAVEL hashtag. If the Tweet slags off #UNRAVEL, then the next story played on the installation will be an insecure version. If the Tweet praises the installation the following story will be told with confidence. 

We’ll leave PRESSURE and AUDIENCE for discovery at the gallery!

What’s been the most enjoyable bit of the last year?

The beginning as, creatively, that's when most of the exciting stuff happens.  I phoned Aidan up pretty much out of the blue (having never really met him before) and spieled out this madcap idea.  Thankfully, he was totally receptive about it and immediately began having ideas about different forms the stories could take.  It's great in the beginning because you're not impeded by what is and isn't possible.  As a result you just dive right in and go for it.   

To find out more about the project, which is presented as part of this year’s Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, go to: unravelproject.com

More info on the Vital Spark programme.

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