What does it mean to amplify a collective voice through collective performance? How do traditions like bell ringing persist, evolve, or disappear, and what do strange histories reveal about their cultural significance?

Emily Roderick is the fourth and final guest of our ‘as a chorus’ mini series, sharing personal anecdotes, recordings, and sounds inside bell towers from her ongoing project Can You Call A Touch.

In this episode, we focus on her research around bell ringing, a deeply social, intergenerational practice that sits somewhere between music, ritual and public communication.

Interwoven with familial conversation, and sounds of the ascent of bells being rung up, and the resonant unwinding of ringing down, the conversation considers broader questions around collective expression using bell ringing as both a personal inheritance and a collective language. We hear how the practice functions as a “village voice,” marking time, signalling events, and shaping a shared sense of place, while also operating as a close-knit, sometimes opaque community.

Bell ringers:

Steve Roderick

Sue Roderick

Lynsey Roderick

Dave Peacock 

Emily Roderick

With thanks to Martin and Louise Green at St Michael's Church, Bishops Itchington. This work was made with support via DYCP from Arts Council England.

Bio:

Emily Roderick is an artist, producer, and facilitator, teetering between 'the serious' and 'the silly'. Based in Berlin, her creative and often collaborative outputs include performance, film, workshops, walks and writing. Curiosity and questions drive her practice across its different lines of enquiry, exploring social space and interaction with non-art audiences and community contexts, using art to create conversation and exchange. Removing barriers to the arts is also a big part of her production work, with a focus on developing accessible and inclusive projects.

Artist @emilyhrodders 

Host @influential_bro @_rebecca.edwards @niamhschmidtke 

Music @joemoss1 @jtre_v

Broadcast through @rtm.fm