arriving Middlesbrough

Getting off the not Express Transpennine train in freezing wind  (having lurched as a sick bus with tragic engine noise all the way from Manchester) we realise we were expecting a large city – maybe due to Middlesbrough being the heart of the British steel industry back in the day away way up in the North East on the river Tees,  so yes we’re surprised. We’re here by invitation of Liam Slevin, artistic director of the Auxilliary to make a new sonic bike piece plus six new sonic bikes that will stay for future projects. Fantastic. And, it’s a project for the Bicrophonic Research Institute which will find three of us on site to build the new bikes plus on site collaboration with the city and its spaces and its people.   Here now for a week of exploration.