Meet the Artist – Joseff Harris
At Culture Weston, we work with many accomplished artists and we love to chat to them to find out more about their passions and their connections with our town. Composer and Sound Designer, Joseff Harris, is Working on the Weathering Together Project, where we gather stories about local peoples’ thoughts and experiences of the weather and the environment and what that means to them in a Weston context. On 18 June, Joseff leads a practical workshop for 14-19 year olds, exploring with them what it means to create an immersive piece of audio. Sign up to ‘Introduction to Sound and Music Production’ HERE.
Over to Joseff …
Culture Weston: Hi Joseff! Tell us about your connection to Weston and the locality.
Joseff Harris: I spent the early part of my life in Weston and, to this day, it still brings back vivid memories every time I visit. Hot summers down the cricket club watching my dad play, going up into the woodland areas with my grandparents for picnics and barbecues in my parents garden. It is a part of the UK that will always be attributed to forming my early views on the world.
CW: Could you share more with us about what you’re up to on the Weathering Together project?
JH: I am being given the pleasure of heading out into such a wide-range of communities in Weston to record conversations about how the weather shapes us, is tied to life-changing moments and how rapidly it is changing. As well as harvesting stories that will no doubt evoke nostalgia, I am aiming to shine a spotlight on the importance of acting now to preserve the natural worlds we know and love. Over the next few months I will be unearthing the gems from conversations I’ve had with local communities, pairing it with immersive sound design as well as original composition. The aim is to create a 10-15 minutes piece that will place you firmly in vibrant memories in-and-around Weston, all types of weather and most importantly, voices of the future.
CW: Tell us more about your professional work.
JH: I am a composer, sound designer and audio producer working across theatre, film, radio and installations. It was over the past few years that I really began to unearth my strong connection to the natural world; how it influences the work I seek to create and the stories I strive to tell through sound. I am interested in how sound can tap into our subconscious and how it can effortlessly transport you to places that words can’t. I like to draw upon broad influences to create compelling scores that are often interwoven with sounds from the natural world. I think there is so much texture, rhythm and melody in the sounds we hear every day and I love to use them as a springboard for what I create. My recent work on Florence Espeut-Nickless’ debut play, DESTINY, helped it earn a four-star review from the Guardian.
Recent and upcoming credits include: Macbeth (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire), Galapagos (Central School of Speech & Drama), If.Destroyed.Still.True (Jawbones Theatre), Miracle on 34 Seymour Street (Trowbridge Town Hall), Assembling (Tim Lytc & Knowle West Media Centre), Atlantis (Arts at the Old Fire Station), DESTINY (Tobacco Factory Theatres & UK tour), underGrowth (BBC Radio 4)
CW: How does Weston and its people inspire you?
JH: The project has provided an unexpected opportunity to connect with my past; communities I was once a part of, communities that often get overlooked and places that hold a great deal of nostalgia for me. Being given the time and space to meet such an eclectic group of people has been utterly heartwarming and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hours of conversations about the past, present and future.
