Experimenting with cranks and cams. Thinking of using something like this to sample water from the river. Also experimenting using wooden pegs to connect things without using screws or glue.

This is an escapement drive mechanism, used in clocks transforms backwards and forwards motion to rotary motion, but will always go in the same direction, useful for our bidirectional tidal drive

Here is a great project where John Eacott used the river to generate a 'live score' which musicians played.

More info at: http://www.informal.org/floodtide.htm

An Owl Project concept model for a hydrophonic periscope for the project flow.

The salmon sees a rock, we see the salmon

The idea behind this was to try and construct a machine that would dip electrodes in water samples of varying salinity. The notes vary depending on how much electricity passes through the electrodes. So the notes vary according to the saltiness of the water and we can listen to the variations. 

Kind of works but needs lots of refining.

The Water Organ, has an amazing history so I thought I would track some of it here.

Obviously there are hundreds of links... here are some good ones

http://www.pianola.org/history/history_mechanical.cfm

http://herbergeronline.asu.edu/haefer/classes/564/564.papers/curtisjwaterorgan.html

Here are a few books to hunt down.

New and rare inventions of waterworks - Isaac de Caus.

The English landscape garden Language: English Pagination: 26, 34, xxvi, [4] p: ISBN 10: 0824001788 LCCN: 79057005 Dewey: 714/.0942 

Athanasius Kircher wrote a treatise on mechanical music, Musurgia Universalis, published in 1650.

After a bit of hunting around it seems like the whole of this book has been scanned and kindly put up by the university of.

http://imgbase-scd-ulp.u-strasbg.fr/displayimage.php?pos=-185710

Here is an image of a water-powered barrel-operated pipe organ designed by Kircher.

Kircher states that three things are necessary for a water organ: water, air and a recording barrel. The recording barrel is the pinned cylinder common to so many of these instruments.

When we were developing the Flow project our first problem was how to make a floating water wheel that worked with the changing levels of the river Tyne. We decided we had to make a floating structure that moved with the tide. We soon found that the floating mill concept was not new. Floating ‘Ship-mills’ were used in proliferation in medieval times.

http://www.histinst.rwth-aachen.de/ext/tma/tema/muehle/sm.htm

A ship-mill uses a water wheel attached between two interconnected floating platforms, one of which often supported the mill-house. The whole floating structure is tethered to the river bank, while the wheel is moved by the passing current. The advantages of this floating arrangement are that it can be moved into the fast flowing areas of rivers and it can work with the changing levels of tidal rivers. It could also be moved to allow larger boats to pass. It is one of the earliest examples of mobile manufacturing technologies.

http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/waterwheels/

Evidence suggests that the Ship-mill concept was first developed by the Romans. In medieval times the Ship-mill had become a common sight throughout Europe. Notably spreading as far as Bagdad, where large ship-mills of iron and wood, were built on the Tigris. Today a hand full of ship-mills exist, Some painstakingly restored. Four of these ‘schiffmuehle’ are in Germany, with other good examples in Austria and Slovakia.

Recently the Ship-mill concept has been put to good use in Baltiore where a working Ship-mill that uses a special conveyor belt to scoop floating debris from the river.

This will form the hub for a 5ft diamiter overshot water wheel to provide auxillary power inside the mill when the main wheel is not turning, this is the most basic design using a square center prototype is built arround an 10mm steel axle and pillow bearing, the spokes and rim are to be attached to this.

A visualisation of the low wheel made in Sketch-Up.  The Millhouse element of the model is only to give a sense of the whole thing, though the entries and viewing areas are quite indicative of our thoughts.

Moving water from one place to place to another is going to be an important feature of flow. Here is a video our first attempt to make a semi wooden pump. It worked !

A month or so ago David Gilbert asked us if we would like to do something for Derbyshire food and drink festival.

http://www.davidgilbert.org.uk/   http://www.derbyshirefoodfestival.co.uk/

As most of our instruments were on show in Sheffield we discussed doing something new. Recently we have been trying to make some different shaped horn speakers and really wanted to work with steam bending so we proposed to work with Mike Turnock, who is apparently the last riddle maker in the UK and an expert in bending wood. 

http://www.riddles-sieves.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/audioslideshow/2009/nov/27/making-a-riddle-mike-turnock

Mike lives near by so we drove down to his workshop in Whaley Bridge and checked out his steam bending equipment, essentially a hacked boiler. We got a load of tips such as; leave the wood in there for 4 hours, taper the ends to make it easier to bend. After a great tour through the whole riddle making process we bought a couple of riddles and some 1/4 inch thickness beech.

Back in the studio we modeled the shape we wanted in Blender and then unwrapped it and cut out the 12 segments on a cnc machine. After some fiddling around I discovered that we could give the model a thickness and work out the angle the wood needed to be cut.

This is a bit of a jump forward to post cut, steamed and bent wood. ( I must add the images that  Steve took of our steam box shoved out of the studio window. Unfortunately we didn't document the swearing that went into getting the bits of wood into gigs. )

I was left with the the job of assembling the horn and I ended up using a threaded bar with appropriate sized dodecahedron shapes fixed on it.

Amazingly it came together.... but only after a lot of swearing, gorilla glue and sanding. I think sanding should be really only be used as a finishing touch and will endeavor to make sure the next one needs less. We will definitely be using thinner wood for the end curve !

Finally we made it to the food festival with our horns. The new one was still looking a bit rough so it was lucky we had a two others. 

It was great to hear so many peoples memories of horn speakers, they have an interesting history, apparently they were really popular during among hifi enthusiasts in 50's and some people went to the lengths of extending them into their gardens to get the bass frequencies ( I have yet to see a photo of this). At the festival we happened to be next to the guy who was doing the announcements.  He had this fantastic set of Grampian speakers that were quite a bit louder than ours and apparently made by lathing a solid piece of aluminum.

All these horn shapes do dramatically change the sound, and allow you to create a big sound from a small speaker. We are still trying to decide what style works best and will try and post some of our audio experiment with them soon.

If you know a lot about horn speaker and have building tips etc please get in touch we would love to hear from you.

A three day development meeting with the whole team led to some interesting new developmnets in design. Our consultant engeneer is an expert in maritime engenering; one of his inventions, a floating trashmill is installed in the docks of Baltimore  is also powered by a water wheel.

We met up with the Environment Agency to do some test on flow rate in the river, here a floating sensor measures flow volume across a section of the river near where FLOW will be installed.

 
We took water samples from the river tyne over the tide cycle to experiment with at the studio.

Experimenting with cranks and cams. Thinking of using something like this to sample water from the river. Also experimenting using wooden pegs to connect things without using screws or glue.

This is an escapement drive mechanism, used in clocks transforms backwards and forwards motion to rotary motion, but will always go in the same direction, useful for our bidirectional tidal drive

The electronics within the salinity sampler sequencer have become quite involved

The electronics within the salinity sampler sequencer have become quite involved

Over the year. I have been getting my head around analog synth circuits and
produced this ADSR VCA circuit. Its mainly based around around other peoples work
but I am still proud of it. 

This circuit would not have been possible without the generous support from Tom Wiltshire
over at www.electricdruid.net/. He came up with ADSR circuit and I just added the VCA
(voltage controlled amplifier) bit.

Check out his site, it has a lot more detailed information about it than you will find here.

The circuit lets you put a sound through it and control the shape of it in particular
the attack, decay, sustain, and release. This picture shows it best.

Our circuit also allows you to control the overall time and volume of the envelop.

Oh and most importantly a light fades in sync with the sound.

Of course a ADSR VCA in itself does not make any sound so here is a prototype
VCO (voltage controlled oscillator), Its a pretty dirty squarewave oscillator with 
a lowpass filter control to smooth it a bit.

I will add some video and sound examples soon so it will all make a bit more 
sense.

We have been experimenting with cranks and cams.  We might
use something like this to sample water from the river. 

Also we are experimenting using wooden pegs to connect things
without using screws or glue.

This is an escapement drive mechanism, used in clocks transforms 

backwards and forwards motion to rotary motion.

We are making laminate parts from CNC cut components, to create 
strong wooden peices that dont warp in the changing damp conditions 
on borad ~Flow. Here a peg gear disk is being clamped together 
and glued.

We are making laminate parts from CNC cut components, to create
strong wooden peices that dont warp in the changing damp conditions
on borad ~Flow. Here a peg gear disk is being clamped together
and glued.

The assembeled geneva mechanisum and the peg gears made
with Oak and Ash, with hard wood dowel pegs.

This week we started to assemble the turbidity sensor. This is the
transparent tube that will hold water being extracted from the river.
A laser will project through the tube. Here you can see the wooden
frame assembled to hold the tube in place. 


The metal fittings also arrived this week. They connect everything
together and move water around the device. They look fantastic
with the oak!

This is a detail of one of the laminate gears – We will add more detail and images to this section later as its quite a complicated process. Each gear is first generated in Blender, then edit the vectors to create 8 precise interconnecting sections that can be cut from wood on the CNC. Each section is then laminated in such a way the grain directions are always at 90 degrees to each other, maximising strength. The whole gear pops together with the dowel plugs but they also need gluing to finish.

The crank prototype was good but had some flex and wobble and was made from mahogany and a found broomstick.

The crank prototype was good but had some flex and 
wobble and was made  from mahogany and a found 
broomstick. It has threaded bar screwed to the end disks
to mount the bearings on.

-->

 The final crank is made around 25mm oak dowel shaft and has oak disks.
The dowel pegs push through the sides of the disk and fix tight the shaft,
they are doubled up in this one and make it super strong without glue or
screws. A 25mm bore bearing fits snugly on the shaft.

The disks are first CNC cut, then hand drilled in an accurate drilling jig to
make sure the multiple holes for the dowels meet up – As our drill drills at
a slight angle this is actually advantageous, as the inaccuracy means that
the pegs fit very tightly in the hole.


To take this to pieces all that is needed is a few taps with a small hammer to
remove the dowel pegs.

The disks are the slid into place on the 3 dowel shafts. Once the spacing is
right the holes are re-drilled so this time making holed in the shaft for the
dowel pegs, after the pegs are tapped in, the excesses dowel is removed
using a Japanese saw leaving the 3 shafts.


The piston crank in its final form!

Hello! Ant Long here, newcomer to Rogue Artist Studios and volunteer/apprentice/tea boy for The Owl Project.

This is my first week helping out and I already feel way out of my depth, surrounded by strange looking circuit boards and extravagant woodwork.

Hello! Ant Long here, newcomer to Rogue Artist Studios and volunteer/apprentice/tea boy for The Owl Project.

Hello! Ant Long here, newcomer to Rogue Artist Studios and volunteer/apprentice/tea boy for The Owl Project.

This is my first week helping out and I already feel way out of my depth, surrounded by strange looking circuit boards and extravagant woodwork.

Ok folks, I've been slacking with posting duties so here comes a bombarding of wood based wizardry which I fully understand the mechanics of and can therefore confidently relay to anyone interested*.

Ok folks, I've been slacking with posting duties so here comes a bombarding of wood based wizardry which I fully understand the mechanics of and can therefore confidently relay to anyone interested*.

*not necessarily true.

This set of images show the innards of a highly complex section of the machine Tony has named the Turbilatron. I'm sure it'll be made clear why it's been called this, or maybe there's little more to it than he watched Transformers the night before he came in to the studio, but anyway.

I was shown how to use the CNC, a woodcutting machine rigged up to a computer which allows you to plot measurements and cut the wood to your exact design. It's a great tool for quickly making lots of the same pieces, which can then be pieced into bigger designs, in this case the huge cog I'm holding in the last photo.

Once assembled, I was filling any splits or cracks in the wood and

The reclaimed pontoons have arrived on site in Amble for the build to start.

The reclaimed pontoons have arrived on site in Amble for the build to start.

These steel units will form the main section of the hull under the millhouse.

So besides the constant drilling, sanding, sawing and miserable country music (my pick again then) the most fascinating/worrying sounds heard in the studio come from Simon's corner of the room.

So besides the constant drilling, sanding, sawing and miserable country music (my pick again then) the most fascinating/worrying sounds heard in the studio come from Simon's corner of the room.

After helping assemble some circuit boards, Simon decided he'd had enough of us and went on holiday for a couple of weeks, leaving me a list of cables that needed preparing for the Silinity Sampler Sequencer. 

Now then. The Salinity Sampler Sequencer is an instrument that uses the salt levels of river water to generate sound. The water (taken from the River Tyne in this instance) will be drawn at regular intervals and pumped through glass jars. A wooden mechanism then dips a series of electrodes into the jars and creates a series of sounds. The pitch of the sounds will be modified depending on the salinity levels of the water. 

Once the Flow wheel is finished, the lovely people of Newcastle will be able to play around with the sounds by changing the length of the notes.

We thought people who can't come to Newcastle next year would like a little Tyne-data to play with, so are creating a River-to-web connection.  Our heads are quite full at the moment, so are looking for someone with Arduino skills to come and spend a couple of days working with us.  

Here are some details www.owlproject.com/exchange/flow/sensor-1.txt. Do get in touch if you can help.

We are looking for a Creative Programme Manager to work with us over the coming months, to devise some exciting projects around Flow.

We are looking for a Creative Programme Manager to work with us over the coming months, to devise some exciting projects around Flow.

There's a full spec of the role here:

http://bit.ly/nrxYua

After a lot of work constructing large composite gears and designing a beautiful Axe and Tipper gear arrangement it was great to finally connect a motor to drive the first of the 3 bellows.  Here are some images to wet your appetites for the final machine.

After a lot of work constructing large composite gears and designing a beautiful Axe and Tipper gear arrangement it was great to finally connect a motor to drive the first of the 3 bellows.  Here are some images to wet your appetites for the final machine.

Front view.

Details of large drive gear and of the valve inlet and outlet modules.

View of the Owl Studio, bellows in the foreground and Turbidity and Salinity machines behind.  Great to see all three main machines in one place.

A final phone camera image of the Bellows system before it gets dismantled for installation

The millhouse was launched at 07:44 on Monday 30 January, by the amazing team at Amble Boat Company.

The millhouse was launched at 07:44 on Monday 30 January, by the amazing team at Amble Boat Company.

On 02.02.12, the bridging decks and waterwheel were installed on Flow. It was an amazing day!

Wheel installation on 02.02.12 - We had beautiful (icy) weather - a perfect calm day. The team in Amble demonstrated their incredible professional skill, craning into position both bridging decks, the waterwheel, and the two debris guards.

~Flow's creative programme for Spring 2012, filled with talks, tours, music sessions, family art workshops, storytelling, gigs, sound walks and more, is now live...

~Flow has now reached its home for the next six months and is safely moored on the North bank of the River Tyne, opposite BALTIC.

There's a special preview event on Wednesday 21 March before the mill's doors open to the public with an action packed day and night on Sunday 25 March. With free children's music workshops, guided tours, family art sessions, onboard storytelling and live music from Andy Sheppard and Seb Rochford, there really is something for everyone. 

April and May feature opportunities to work with ~Flow artists Owl Project and make your own iLog photosynthesiser,  accompany renowned sound recordist Chris Watson on an early morning recording session and create music with Sage Gateshead's Learning and Participation Ensemble.

You can find out more about the creation of ~Flow from the artists, engineers and architects, visit the mill late at night and experience Balinese percussion and dance.

And if that's not enough, you can explore the live data visualisation created by Moritz Stefaner and Stephan Thiel and hear what best-selling author Mark Stevenson has to say about ~Flow, sustainability and the future.

You can see our whole programme of events and activities here. Our Summer programme will be announced in May so keep your eyes peeled...

~Flow opens its doors!

The wait is over... ~Flow opens its doors to the public at a special preview event in the evening of Wednesday 21 March and on its first open day on Sunday 25 March.

On Wednesday, from 8pm, as well as celebrating the launch of ~Flow at Baltic with new music from Winter North Atlantic, Owl Project and Field Music, there'll be free public tours every half an hour from 8.00 - 9.00pm. Just sign up for a tour when you arrive at Baltic.

If you can't make it on Wednesday or miss the chance to get onboard, you can still be amongst the first to experience ~Flow by joining us this Sunday from 11am for free artist led tours, creative workshops, family story telling, creative music sessions and gigs from Andy Sheppard and Seb Rochford.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Check out some pictures from the ~Flow preview night on Wednesday 21st, with tours onboard and party at BALTIC

We had 550 people come down to BALTIC on Wednesday night to welcome ~Flow to the Newcastle Gateshead Quayside. Check out the photo gallery for a selection of images from the night. 

Enjoy the Spring sunshine on ~Flow, open to everyone this Sunday.

There's an action packed day on board ~Flow on Sunday 25 March when the floating mill opens its doors at 11am to the public. The Sage Gateshead are leading family music workshops from 1pm and Baltic are hosting Busy Bs workshops from 2pm - also featuring some demos from artists Owl Project themselves. Seven Stories are providing magical story telling for all the family and there'll be a special artist led tour at 4pm. 

There's plenty more in the evening with live improvised performances from jazz saxophonist Andy Sheppard and drummer extraordinaire Seb Rochford, featured in partnership with the Gateshead Jazz Festival. 

See you onboard!

Here are the pictures from the ~Flow Opening Day. 

What a day. Over 1,700 people visited ~Flow, and we hosted workshops, performances and tours. Check out the photo gallery for a selection of images from the day and evening. 

Apparently the weather's taking a turn for the worse this weekend, so why not bring the kids along to Busy B's?

Taking place at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, these free, drop-in creative sessions led by artists are held in QUAY on Level 1 between 2pm and 4pm this Saturday and Sunday. There'll be plenty for children under 13 and their families to do - all inspired by ~Flow!

Feeling inspired by ~Flow and by Owl Project's incredible instruments? Then join the artists themselves to make your own iLog Photosynthesiser.

The workshop costs £100, which covers materials for making your iLog. A number of bursaries are available to reduce the cost to £25, please note that places are limited.

To book tickets, please go HERE, or to apply for a bursary, please email booking@flowmill.org. 

The ListenFlow/PlayFlow improvised music performance workshop has been postponed from 10th April to 14th June. 

These informal creative sessions onboard ~Flow are led and performed by The Sage Gateshead's Learning and Participation Ensemble, an eclectic group of virtuosic teaching musicians, whose skills include percussion, voice, piano, fiddle, and tin whistle.

Did you know you can see all of the live data feeds from ~Flow at Pachube?

Check them out here...

We've commissioned leading artists Moritz Stefaner and Stephan Thiel to work with these feeds to create live visualisation of the changes in the River Tyne. 

Find out more about this commission and its presentation here.

It's not long now until The Late Shows... have you booked your tour?

This is a rare opportunity to experience ~Flow in a late night environment. Owl Project and Ed Carter are leading tours on 19th May that leave every 30 minutes from 7.30pm - 11.00pm - there are a few places left on the tours leaving after 9.30pm. 

See you there for a late night on the Tyne!

Limited places, booking essential. Emailbooking@flowmill.org to reserve your place.

Here are videos of our opening event and the public opening day, along with some live audio recordings from Field Music, Owl Project, Ed Carter, Seb Rochford, Andy Sheppard and Chirs Watson. 

Opening event:  

Public open day:

Field Music live - Flow preview 21 March 2012:

Owl Project live - Flow preview 21 March 2012:

Ed Carter live - Flow preview 21 March 2012:

Seb Rochford & Owl Project:

Andy Sheppard & Owl Project:

Chris Watson: Going with the Flow

Some photos from the River Source Sound Walk as part of Chris Watson's 'Going with the Flow'

Join us this Sunday for a spectacular Indonesian dance performance on board ~Flow, all part of the GONG Festival. 

This Sunday, Baltic Square will be transformed with the exotic sights and sounds of Indonesia - with Javanese music and dancing featuring special guests from Indonesia and the UK, colourful costumes, craft stalls and the chance to try out the Gamelan (Javanese gong orchestra) for yourself. 

Renowned dancer Ni Madé Pujawati and percussionist Brendan Murphy will also perform a brand new commission on-board ~Flow as part of Celebrate Indonesia. 

Presented in partnership with GONG Festival. For more information on GONG Festival, please click here. 

Time seemed to stand still on Sunday afternoon as dancer Ni Madé Pujawati and percussionist Brendan Murphy performed onboard ~Flow. 

The new commission by Puja, of Balinesedance, and Brendan was watched the Indonesian Ambassador himself alongside members of the public.

Forming part of this year's GONG Festival, the performers responded to the sounds of ~Flow, creating an enchanting experience for everyone. 

Re-live Flow Tow. On the 28th February Flow made its journey down from Amble to the Tyne and here's a video of the trip. 

The 28th February was an exciting and nerve-wracking day for the Flow team, as we made the journey down from Amble to the Newcastle Gateshead Quayside. Here's a beautiful video of the journey. 

All of the artist led tours for The Late Shows are now fully booked.

It's going to be a busy night... if you've missed out on your chnace for a late night tour, keep your eyes on our ongoing creative programme for other opportunities to get involved and experience ~Flow. 

And don't forget we're open 11am - 5pm every Wednesday to Sunday!

We are super exited to launch a new series of events onboard ~Flow this summer. Celebrate this sunshine with music, food, artist residencies, films, family workshops and writing. It's full of brilliantly inventive ways to experience ~Flow and loads of opportunities for you to get involved including commissions and competitions for film-makers, and writers of all ages. 

We’re particularly pleased to launch a series of engineering themed events that use ~Flow as inspiration - keep an eye on the engineering page for updates on new events.

For full listings of the summer events programme see flowmill.org/whats-on or pick up one of our brochures around town. 

See you onboard...

Write Around The Toon has been described as a ‘kraken of creativity’, with tendrils of inspiration reaching across the city. This year the creative team have been working as writers in residence onboard ~Flow. 

Debris – 23 May 2012 by Kris Anderson
As Viccy and I were hooking, poking and prodding the flotilla of debris nestled alongside ~Flow, I kept thinking about how these ‘things’ ended up there in the first place.

The launch event for Write Around The Toon is on Thursday 7th June at Northern Stage - come along to find out more about the ~Flow residency and much more. Tickets are free, but should be booked in advance through the link below: writearoundthetoon.co.uk

Data visualisation artists Moritz and Stephan have teamed up to create a live visualisation based on real-time sensor data feeds generated through ~Flow. 

Tickets for 'Where Are the Wild Ones?" part of ~Flow's summer programme and NewcastleGateshead The Bridges Festival are now on sale.

This multi-layered acoustic and visual performance invites you to follow the journey that Atlantic salmon make each year from Greenland to our very own River North Tyne. Book your free tickets here and join in the celebration of an extraordinary animal and the myths that surround it.

Kaffe Matthews and Laura Harrington, the artists behind the project will be onboard ~Flow from the 30th July - 3 August, collecting data and stories to develop the project. Visit ~Flow during thier residency to find out more about this most noble of fishes. 

flowmill.org/whats-on/laura-harrington-and-kaffe-matthews-residency

We have a winner!

After recieving an amazing 95 enteries to the Seven Stories (Under 8's) Creative Writing Competition, inspired by ~Flow, we had the very difficult job of selecting a winner and a runner up. 

After much deliberation we are delighted to announce that 1st prize goes to Toby Fenby from Junction Farm Primary for the brilliant ‘There goes my Invention.’

We also decided to give out 5 runners up prizes, as there really were too many great enteries to choose from! Congratulations goes to:

Robert Savage from Junction Farm Primary for ‘Dazzling Music Machine’
Brogan Shanks form White Mere Community Primary School for ‘River Flow’
Sophie Moore-Hills for ‘The Tide’
Emily Youll from Stanhope Primary School for ‘The River Tyne’
Vince Rutherford from St Peter’s RC Middle School for ‘Go with the Flow’

Thank you to everyone that entered. 

King Jim and the Byker Community Choir brought a little Americana to ~Flow this afternoon... and they're back tomorrow.

As part of Sage Gateshead's SummerTyne Festival King Jim andhe Byker Community Choir took part in some special pop-up performances onboard ~Flow.

You can catch them again on Sunday 22nd July:
King Jim: 12.00 - 12.30
The Byker Community Choir: 2.00 - 2.30 

See you there!

As part of his major new commission with ~Flow, Chris Watson has been collecting sound recordings of the River Tyne from its sources to the sea.

Internationally renowed sound recordist Chris Watson is offering another exclusive soundwalk for a select few as part his new commission 'Going With The Flow.' 

Join Chris Watson on slow walk at sunset and drift down stream with the Tyne as the river ebbs past Newburn and Blaydon. Explore the natural surroundings and have a go at making your own sound recordings. 

For full information follow the link below:
flowmill.org/whats-on/sunset-sound-walk 

Tickets are extremly limited. To book buy your tickets here. 

Chris Watson has been collecting sound recordings from sites all along the River Tyne as part of his new commission 'Going With The Flow.' This major new commission charts the River Tyne's acoustic journey from its sources to the sea. To hear Chris Watson latest recordings follow the links below.

soundcloud.com/flowmill/the-meeting-of-the-waters
soundcloud.com/flowmill/rail-bridge-across-the-tyne

Birdsong, roe deer and bats... Read a review of last week's Sunset Sound Walk with Chris Watson.

Iam Noredindian joined Chris and the group along the banks of the River Tyne ahead of the Going With The Flow performance at Sage Gateshead.

You can read Iam's review on Caught By The River.

As part of a series of engineering themed events, ~Flow offered artist Mat Fleming a commission to produce a film which responded to the engineering elements of the project. Watch the stunning 'Waterwheel' here or alternatively visit the BALTIC Quayside to view.

We are delighted to preview the ~Flow Engineering Writing Commissions, exclusively on our website!

As part of a series of engineering themed events that used ~Flow as inspiration, we commisisoned a group of writers to produce a piece of original writing inspired by the engineering behind the project. Engineering relies on precision and detail, as does good writing.

The writers worked alongside Dr Viccy Adams from the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts, Newcastle University and Buro Happold to develop thier work. The selected writers were:

Wes White
Stevie Ronnie
Julie Ward
Guy Mankowski

You can read and listen to the writers work, via the Timeline or by clicking on the writers names above. 

~Flow is proud to have worked in partnership with The Royal Academy of Engineering to develop the ~Flow Engineering Programme.