The Acoustic Commons describes a range of work that deals with the close association between sounds and places. This includes “environmental” broadcasting, sound mapping, and the development of new “transmission ecologies” making links between very local projects in urban, rural, and peri-urban areas. It also refers to a work in progress which invites people to open places as sites for listening. While in residence, the artists will set up a new permanent live audio stream, placing environmental sounds from the Wave Farm property in the public domain, and designate it as an experimental site of of the Acoustic Commons (AC Experimental Site 0_). A newly designed streambox will be installed to transmit the sounds to a live soundmap at Locus Sonus (locusonus.org/soundmap). Drawings on paper and online and a booklet (working title: (un)Manifest(o) for Acoustic Commoning) will document the project.

Grant Smith is an artist and writer working on sound, transmission, text, domestic and social projects in Loughborough Junction, South London. He co-founded the Soundcamp cooperative, and maintains a long term project at self-noise.net, which documents the mundane and ephemeral. Current activities include The Acoustic Commons, a project and 'wild concept' dedicated to sharing environmental sounds.

Sam Baraitser Smith is a graphic designer and musician. He has been studying graphics and communication at Central St Martins, London and School of Visual Arts, New York. As a member of Art Assassins at South London Gallery, he has collaborated with Tenderlonious, Erik van Lieshout, and Thomas Hirschhorn. Sam has worked with Soundcamp to develop graphic representations of sound and place.

Joint projects include The Acoustic Commons (acousticommons.net), a series of radio programmes for Resonance Extra, each accompanied by a drawing and a description. The Wave Farm residency will be a chance to extend this collaboration.