A two-month deep-listening sound installation by Phil Coy
sixty beats per minute turns St George’s Church in Ramsgate into a musical instrument and time machine. An array of microphones amplify the 1829 Vulliamy turret pendulum clock to form a multi-channel surround sound installation inside the church. The work performs a temporary reversal of time creating a feedback loop that focuses these technologies back on themselves. Matching the tempo of our heart at rest, the clock’s rhythm is known to raise consciousness and stimulate meditation. Specifically tuned to the resonant frequency of the architecture, sixty beats per minute creates a deep listening experience where audiences can reflect on the physical nature of time.
Opening times: 12 – 5 pm Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays
Launch: 3 May 4 – 6pm, all welcome, refreshments served
Closing performance Sunday 29th June: Phil Coy invites local music producer and UK dub legend Adrian Sherwood and friends to hijack sixty beats per minute. They will perform a new composition and live dub remix that breaks down the mechanics of the clocks regimented beat.
More details:
St George’s Church is a prominent feature of Ramsgate’s skyline thanks to its architecturally unique tower that acts as both mechanical Turret Clock, displaying the time to viewpoints across Ramsgate, and as a Lantern Tower, built to aid navigation in the English Channel. When constructed, these technologies signified a fundamental change in the world’s consumption of time. Populations were no longer attuned to the rhythms of the sun and the seasons but instead forced to keep pace with time dealt by a mechanical clock. In the
200 years since the introduction of clock towers our relationship to time is ever more sequenced, reaching fever pitch in the always on world of global surveillance capitalism.
An intrinsic element to sixty beats per minute is the live 24/7 relay of the 1829 Vulliamy turret clock – a unique working example of the celebrated horologist’s technological skill with a rich mechanical sound. For users in search of authentic analogue rhythm, this live audio stream offers an ambient aid to mediation in an angst-ridden world.
Tune in at sixtybeatsperminute.info
Phil Coy has exhibited nationally and internationally including: Matt’s Gallery; South London Gallery; Royal Observatory Greenwich Planetarium; York Art Gallery; FACT, Liverpool; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Eastside Projects, Birmingham; BFI London Film Festival; Focal Point Gallery, Southend; Loop, Barcelona; Volt, Bergen, Norway; Whitstable Biennale; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull; Aldeburgh Music festival; Artprojx Cinema, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Cornerhouse, Manchester: Chatham Historic Dockyard, Kent. A resident of Ramsgate for 10 years, sixty beats per minute is one of his most ambitious site-sensitive sound installations to date. Also exploring our perception of time, but through the lens of solar time, his exhibition sometimes i see ghosts is currently on at Front Room until 12 April 2025.
sixty beats per minute is supported by a series of workshops with local teenage musicians run by Pie Factory devised around the core relationship between time and music.
Adrian Sherwood is a pioneer of the Dub sound tape delay techniques and has developed a cult-like following via his experiments in reggae, punk, post-punk and bass music. As the founder of the fiercely independent On-U Sound label he has brought the attention to artists like New Age Steppers, African Head Charge, Dub Syndicate, Creation Rebel and Tackhead.
sixty beats per minute has been commissioned and organised by Art and Christianity and St George’s Ramsgate.
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
Also with support from the Diocese of Canterbury and the Parish of St George’s Ramsgate