Sarah: I’ve been close friends with Tracey since 1986. We’ve regularly kept in touch across the years and miles, and now we’re on opposite sides of the Atlantic. We’ve been trying for years to collaborate on a project, but somehow it never came off. We were trying to send physical things to each other without really knowing what to do with them ultimately. I feel the opportunity to do the sound piece has been the perfect solution to our collaborative inertia. Sound is not either of our regular creative mediums, so it freed us both up, I think.

I thought the idea of a virtual journey might work, without knowing how it might develop. I recorded random sounds here and there – out for walks, work, travelling. Tracey did the same, emailing printing machine sounds, walking, and driving. I really enjoyed capturing sounds spontaneously, not really knowing or worrying if they were useful or not, and hearing sounds from Tracey’s day to day life. The beauty of an iPhone voice memo. 

 So, it became our journeys combined. Tracey recorded her thoughts about me. I found this really moving. I sent her my response. We probably wouldn’t talk to each other like this face to face. I did the sound montaging on unfamiliar software, which was quite a challenge. In the end, I felt there needed to be something underpinning it all, and making tea was the thing. (We always drank gallons of tea together.) It’s a wishful cuppa together.

Tracey: Sarah and have been close friends since 1986 and are still close friends in 2020. We went to art college together and have kept in touch even though we lived in different parts of the UK, wrote letters to each other when we were both travelling around the globe, and are still in contact now I have moved to Canada . 

I really enjoyed making the sound project with Sarah and it has inspired us to continue to work collaboratively.  The internet, technology and wireless has made such projects obtainable. I’ve never made a sound recording before, so this was an interesting project, made easier with an iPhone and Sarah doing the editing! I made the little embroidery, and recorded the sounds of the machine. 

I liked the idea of the virtual cuppa, as when we do get to spend time together (which hasn’t been since 2016) tea features very heavily. I see more audio and visual collaborations in our future, using our phones. I would also like to promote the virtues of machine embroidery into the visual arts. I’d like our next project to based on physical art sent by the Royal Mail and Canada post.