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Street life 2017

An array of daytime recordings made along street markets and other gathering-places which are pedestrianised by official design or unofficial habit. Playback of each recording is synced to a simple animation plotting the route taken.

Leicester Square 5:51

Map image extract © OpenStreetMap contributors, reproduced under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Time, date and weather: 5.10 pm, Saturday 16th August 2017. Partly overcast, 23°C, wind 6 mph.

Description: Starting at the eastern end of Irving Street near the junction with Charing Cross Road. Hubbub of voices; indistinct traffic noise growing fainter; a woman touts for a restaurant; faint music from performers in Leicester Square, growing louder; a street dancer performs to a Michael Jackson track; a strange chicken squawking noise is heard briefly; a recorded prayer or call to prayer from a stall run by Muslim proselytisers; a performer speaks through a PA at the north-east corner of the Square before starting his act to solemn-sounding organ music.