2016, 7 channel spatial soundwork
Starry Plough is a spatial audio recording, mapping a conversation that took place in the Banner Room of Drogheda Museum Millmount, April 2016. Millmount houses the largest collection of Guild and Trade Union Banners in Ireland from the 1700’s on.
The Starry Plough flag was unveiled in 1914 and flown by the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Easter Rising and depicts an asterism of Ursa Major, The Plough. The loudspeakers here are configured similarly. The Guild and Trade Union movements in Drogheda represented in the banners in Drogheda Museum Millmount trace social and political histories back to the late 18th century and into the early 20th century. They tell a story of changing society, of national movements seeking fundamental rights for workers and for the individual. The banners have been witnesses. They have been present at public protest, during expressions of solidarity and for celebrations of community. The conversation here begins from this starting point.
