VOICE NOTES

New Art Exchange is delighted to present Voice Notes, an international art project exploring the role of the telephone in experiences of exile. Featuring recorded phone calls left by young refugees and asylum seekers from around the world, the exhibition investigates displaced voices, creative networks, transnational communication, and different modes of talking and listening across cultures.

This exhibition has been co-created with young people who have fled war, violence, conflict and persecution and yet who continue to offer stories of solidarity and hope. At the heart of the installation are multidirectional ultrasonic speakers that are positioned to create a network of intersecting telephone messages. As visitors move around the gallery, they tap into stories of home and belonging, landscape and loss, and communication and connection. In turn, visitors are invited to shape new ways of thinking about sanctuary by contributing their own voice notes as part of our evolving telephonic soundscape.

Voice Notes is led by poet Dr Sarah Jackson, Associate Professor in Modern and Contemporary Writing at Nottingham Trent University, in collaboration with acclaimed sound artist and founder of the Space21 international festival Hardi Kurda, and refugee arts organisation Compass Collective, whose recent work includes the award-winning professional development arts programme Next Steps. The project is supported by international partners, including New Art Exchange, Counterpoints Arts, Refugee Roots, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, Slemani UNESCO Cities of Literature and STEP. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.