12 Tones

Inspired by and contributing to the development of Susan Philipsz’s public artwork Station Clock, Twelve Tones is a year-long citywide participatory art project engaging communities across Birmingham and Solihull exploring sound in relation to place and time in a series of artist-led workshops and sharing events.

The project will cultivate dialogue between the UK’s second city’s diverse communities – from young to old; across all genders; races and faiths; differing social backgrounds; professional and amateur vocalists – a breadth of humanity.

Launched by Susan Philipsz in a workshop with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire students in November 2018, throughout 2019 Twelve Tones will deliver artist-led sound art workshops with communities across Birmingham and Solihull. In a series of workshops and sharing events, the Twelve Tones artist-composer team will work with fifty-five community groups to explore the twelve tone chromatic scale utilised in Station Clock and discover how sound can be experienced sculpturally in the public realm.

Workshop participants will be invited to record and contribute their voice to become part of Station Clock, as one of the 1,092 voices of that will sing one or more of the twelve tones in union, harmony and dissonance, on the hour, every hour, seven days a week.

For more information about the project and to find out how to get involved please email [email protected]