100 VOICES by SoundVoice
100 VOICES was an immersive sound installation capturing the experiences of NHS staff, patients, and visitors. Created by SoundVoice, the project features reflections and music, highlighting the importance of having a voice in the NHS.
In March 2024, UCLH Arts & Heritage hosted 100 VOICES, an immersive sound and music installation housed within a birch wood cylinder. This installation enveloped audiences in 360-degree sound, offering a glimpse into hospital communities through the voices of one hundred anonymous individuals.
SoundVoice created 100 VOICES after five months of research, collaboration, and discussions with staff and visitors in 12 hospitals across 4 NHS Foundation Trusts, including UCLH NHS Foundation Trust. The project features reflections from one hundred people on their daily lives and work, sharing their challenges, joys, inspirations, and losses. This resulted in a unique, multi-layered snapshot of the NHS, expressed by those whose voices are often overlooked: the service workers, patients, visitors from local communities, and the hidden, extended workforce of the NHS.
The spoken word recordings were enriched by four newly commissioned songs, embedded within an original musical score. Each song was performed by a professional singer portraying a fictional character: a midwife, a porter, a manager, and a patient. These characters explore the significance of having a voice, the ways we make ourselves heard, and our capacity to listen to others. You can listen to 100 VOICES here.
Please be advised: The audio contains honest references to life in hospital including critical care and end of life. If you are affected by any of the issues raised, support services are available at https://
100 VOICES Event
In March 2024, UCLH hosted a unique event inviting attendees to explore what it means to have a voice within the NHS, as well as how we listen to others and express ourselves. The event featured presentations by Hannah Conway and Victoria Hume, live music, and a visit to the 100 VOICES installation.
Hannah Conway is an Ivor Novella award-winning composer recognised for her dynamic collaborations bringing together diverse communities and world-class performing arts organisations. She is the Executive Director of Sound Voice, a company specialising in creating live and immersive music performance installations with interdisciplinary experts, people with lived experience and professionals from the healthcare, scientific, biomedical research and technology sectors
www.
www.hannahconway.co.uk
Victoria Hume is Executive Director of the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance. She was an arts manager in the NHS for 15 years and is also a musician and researcher. She discussed how writing music with health professionals and people who have gone through particular experiences of ill health might offer different routes into these stories.
https://victoriahume.com/
https://culturehealthandwellbeing.org.uk/
About UCLH Arts & Heritage
UCLH Arts & Heritage is the hospital arts and heritage project that serves UCLH NHS Foundation Trust and its surrounding community and is funded entirely by charitable donations and fundraising. UCLH Arts & Heritage is committed to providing a welcoming, uplifting environment for all patients, visitors and staff through the use of a varied and stimulating arts and heritage programme. Its work aims to improve the patient experience, boost staff morale, increase engagement with the arts and celebrate the Trust’s unique heritage and community.
Since 2005, UCLH has worked to improve patient and staff outcomes through the Arts. It does this in a number of ways, including a changing exhibition and music programme, creative workshops on wards, artist residencies, commissioning site-specific artwork, and a staff culture club. UCLH arts and heritage receives its funding from UCLH Charity and the Friends of UCLH.
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