Big Screen Southend Associate Programme: Richard Ducker & Ian Thompson

Focal Point Gallery presents the work of Richard Ducker and Ian Thompson, The Accurate Perception Available When Our Eye Becomes Single, as part of our Big Screen Associates Programme. This immersive audio-visual film explores the enigmatic essence of Orford Ness, a shingle spit located on the Suffolk coast.

This film transcends a linear narrative as it delves into the elasticity of time, history, and myth.  Ducker captures the haunting beauty of the desolate site’s decaying architecture with slow-motion black-and-white footage, with the addition of Thompson’s otherworldly soundscape. The telephoto shots revealing intricate details of Orford Ness as if seen through the sight of a gun are delivered in colour, which add an extra layer of complexity to the work. Eerily detached in time, the site’s dark history of military, science, and myth is woven into an immersive work of psycho-geography, inviting viewers to slow down and absorb the extraordinary landscape.

The soundscape reflects the location’s environment, history, and atmosphere, further transporting viewers to this haunting location. The film also includes a performance by artist Sarah Sparkes who dresses as a mythical creature in reference to Orford Ness Merman of local folklore. This addition instils the film with a sense of mythical grandeur, serving as a commentary on the site’s unique history.

The film is 41:57 mins long and will run twice daily, at 11am and 1pm.

Richard Ducker Selected Biography

Richard Ducker’s work brings together various processes, including sculpture-installation, sound, wall text, and video, that are often juxtaposed to convey narratives of displacement and explore the multifaceted nature of authorship. His work often evokes a sense of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, creating a thought-provoking experience for the viewer.

After completing his MA from Goldsmiths in 1991, Ducker has been working as an artist and curator, exhibiting his work throughout the UK. In 2006, he founded Fieldgate Gallery in Whitechapel, London, where he served as curator-director for three years. Since then, he has continued to curate under the Fieldgate Gallery name at various venues, including online at www.fieldgategallery.com. Over the past four years, Ducker has been focusing on creating films that explore ideas of displacement and paranoia. These films use existing cinematic tropes to establish a montage of emotional disconnect and have all been shot on his iPhone. All his works and films can be seen on his website at richardducker.com

Ian Thompson Selected Biography

Ian Thompson is a senior lecturer at the School of Stage and Screen at the University of Greenwich where he teaches sound production and design for film and television. He is also a member of the Sound/Image Research Centre where he investigates the role of sound design practice in virtual production while also developing compositional work with the IKO spatial speaker system. With a professional background in music performance, digital media production, and sound engineering, Ian’s diverse experiences have converged to underpin an emerging arts practice informed by an academic interest in contemporary soundscape research.

His recent public sound works interrogate how sound can function as a representational art-form and explore the perception of space and time relative to a listener’s location, avoiding the term ‘immersion’ wherever possible. Ian’s other works include Semaht Yawdwem, a sound installation showcased in the ‘Hydracity’ group exhibition at Thames-Side Studios, London, and Ground Lift, a sound installation exhibited in the exhibition ’Can We Ever Know The Meaning Of These Objects?’, a group exhibition at Gallery 46, London.  Other projects such as Bilkova 05, The Synchronising Cue, The Cosmic Pond, and Peninsula have been showcased in various international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale Collateral, Italy,  Galerija Kontra, Zagreb, Croatia, Haus Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia, and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Mexico.

Ian’s Arrival Time, a generative composition with Transport for London data, has been presented in various conferences and festivals..  He also presented Symphony No 1 in DAB” generative composition at the NOISE colloquium, University of Greenwich, London, and  Roll Out, his interactive sound installation was showcased in the Festival No.6 festival art trail in Portmeirion, Wales.

More of Ian’s work can be found here: idthompson.co.uk