“Sound art” doesn’t sound like the most tempting of entertainments, does it? Ah, but what if I was to tell you that this aural art was taking place underwater? Now you’re interested, right?
Wet Sounds is a touring “underwater festival” which uses special underwater speakers to allow you to swim while being submerged in sound waves. Apparently sound moves four times quicker underwater, so… um… actually, I’m not sure what effect this would have. Maybe you hear the sounds before they actually occur or something.

Wet Sounds kicks off this Sunday, 6th July at London Fields Lido in Hackney, before heading off around the country for a couple of weeks. You don’t need to pay any more than the usual entry price to the relevant pools to experience it.
On Saturday 19th July it returns to London Fields Lido to close the project with performances from Nurse With Wound and Andrew Liles; this date requires the purchase of tickets (which you can get here).
All sounds very interesting, although I suspect most folk would be a tad more interested if the festival had a more populist approach. Imagine underwater raving. Underwater moshing! Underwater shoegazing? As long as nobody has the bright idea to pump out Suede’s “The Drowners”…
Visit the Wet Sounds website
[via Guardian.co.uk]

Posted by Stuart Waterman on Thursday July 3rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm