Cassandra Mathew and Ally Johnson discuss their intervention 10 at Albany Road for Silent Cacophony 2013 It has been a huge learning curve working on the Silent Cacophony project for both of us. As we are both at the start of our artistic careers, it was a project that really gave us a chance to produce something original and thought provoking whilst retaining the sentiment of the occasion. Cassie initially started out wanting to do the project as a soloist as this is something that is normally comfortable for her as a musician. However, it became apparent that it would have far more significance as an event if she collaborated with another medium. And so approached the visual artist Ally Johnson. Our first idea was met with some contention as it was seen as too literal for the theme of the event. Upon reflection, it would have been more difficult to piece together as a performance so we were glad that we were asked to reconsider. A week or so passed and we eventually came to our final decision and submitted this for approval; white Zeppelin confetti exploding visually at the sound of 10 harmonics played on the guitar. Our intervention was entitled 10 At Albany Road in order to pay respect to the 10 victims deceased in World War I at this particular site. Over the space of 4 days, Ally cut out 4000 miniscule Zeppelins! One could say in hindsight that this in itself was part of the creative purpose of the event, as so much effort had been put into something that would simply be thrown away, much like the futility of war. We feel that our event went as well as could have been expected, as we were placed on a corner in full view of all the traffic that passed through. It was wonderful to see that some motorists were clearly taking an interest in what we were staging. One man stopped to watch the entire event and was very appreciative of the performance after we had finished. Even though there was only one person present for the whole duration, we feel like that was enough to make it entirely worthwhile. Indeed, if no one had stopped for the whole event it would still have been a success due to the fact that people in cars were noticing what we were doing and probably questioning it. This project has taught us that we can work across mediums and that despite a few minor setbacks, we were able to create something even more special than we had ever hoped. It was wonderful to work with such a close friend, particularly as this was the first occasion we have ever collaborated despite being best friends for more than a decade! This in turn made this occasion even more meaningful to us.
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