City of Threads is a 12-part immersive podcast series by PECo Theatre that invites you on a journey into the city of Bristol as experienced through the perspectives of its visually impaired citizens; a place of sensory delights, navigational intricacies, challenges, dangers and shared discoveries.
Each episode takes you on journeys into the city, in the company of the V.I. travellers who took them, challenging assumptions, revealing new understandings and ultimately asking us to reimagine how our cities are working for us all.
Immersive sound design transports you into the heart of the journey, enriching and transforming the listener’s own perceptions of the city through felt experience.
The journeys featured in the City of Threads podcast were all taken during PECo Theatre’s Arnolfini City Fellowship ‘Could This Be The Place’ in 2019 – 2020.
You can subscribe at Apple iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Audible, Google Podcasts and Podbean.
More info on the podcast and episodes transcripts go to;
Audio Logo:
Summary
Experience a taste of what’s to come with the City of Threads audio logo. Listen out for the sounds of canes, footsteps, guide dog harnesses and screen readers woven into the wider cityscape. Designed to communicate as much through sound as through vision.
TRAILER
Summary
In October 2019 a team of visually impaired and sighted artists and collaborators took journeys together into the city of Bristol with the aim of uncovering the usually unheard stories of visually impaired citizens and returning these stories to the heart of the city narrative.
WELCOME TO CITY OF THREADS
Welcome to City of Threads. In this short introductory episode you’ll hear a bit about what this podcast series is all about and meet some of the people who’ve made it and feature in the episodes.
Episode – We’re Going In
With co-hosts Lou Lifely and Fanny Eaton Hall
Summary
Meet Lou and her daughter Emily, and Holly and one of her oldest friends Ant as they all head off on the first of our city journeys. You’ll come across the perils’ of A boards, ‘maverick sight’, singing fountains and a very melodramatic cathedral organ. Featured theme; Neuroscience and the Sensory City.
Episode – We’re Going In – Immersive
Summary
Welcome to the City of Threads ‘We’re going in’ sister episode, where, through the magic of immersive sound, we’ll be taking you deeper into the heart of some of the places and moments in the journeys taken by Lou and Holly in their episode. Best listened to on headphones!
Episode – Is Anything Impossible
with co-hosts Alan Dyte and Nick Bignall
Summary
In an episode that spans seven decades of life in the city, you’ll meet John and Alan, lifelong friends, campaigners and Bristol boys, and Virginia, a harpsichordist and dedicated ‘stopper and looker’. Join them all on their city journeys by way of an elusive bacon bap, a nook on a bridge and some not-rocket science.
Featured theme; Inclusive Public Space.
Episode – Is Anything Impossible – Immersive
Summary
Welcome to the City of Threads ‘Is Anything Impossible’ sister episode, where, through the magic of immersive sound, we’ll be taking you deeper into the heart of some of the places and moments in the journeys taken by John, Alan and Virginia, in their episode. Best listened to on headphones!
Episode – You Either Get Hit by a Bike or You Don’t
with co-hosts Barrington Chambers and Chris Turner
Summary
In this episode you’ll meet Chris and his work colleague Linda, Barrington and new acquaintance Marcus and Anela with her travelling companion Katy, as they all take their journeys into the city. Expect bouncy cobbles and crumbling walls, echo-locating in alleyways, shopping addiction and tales of strange encounters. Featured theme; University and student days. For more info on the people, themes and places featured in the episode, including an episode transcript, go to: www.partexchangeco.org.uk
Episode – You Either Get Hit by a Bike or You Don’t – Immersive
Summary
Welcome to the City of Threads ‘You Either get Hit by a Bike or You Don’t’ sister episode, where, through the magic of immersive sound, we’ll be taking you deeper into the heart of some of the places and moments in the journeys taken by Chris Barrington and Anela, in their episode. Best listened to on headphones!
Episode – Gorilla on a Mini Moto
with co-hosts Nikki Durston and Jeff Daniels
Summary
In this episode you’ll meet Nikki and Jeff, and Marc and Clare with her guide dog Sparkle, as they all head off on their journeys into the city. Expect a Gorilla [of the title], a vanishing helicopter, the parting of the red seas of people and a drum kit on the way home. Featured theme; V.I. tech and the Digital City.
Episode – Gorilla on a Mini Moto – Immersive
Summary
Welcome to the City of Threads Gorilla on a Mini Moto sister episode, where, through the magic of immersive sound, we’ll be taking you deeper into the heart of some of the places and moments in the journeys taken by Nikki and Jeff in their episode. Best listened to on headphones!
Episode – Record Breaking Baby – Immersive
With co-hosts Emma Blackmore and Elanora Ferry
Summary
In the last of our main episodes you’ll meet Emma and Rosie who’ve just met over coffee, and Dougie and Andy, they perform improv together. As you follow them on their journeys into the city expect comedy and romance, toilet paper on shoes, seeing like Monet, and being your own hype man. Oh and a bloke on a horse named George, or is it Henry..?
Episode – Goodbye City of Threads
Summary
With all their journeys completed, our travellers return to Arnolfini, download their audio recordings and, over a cup of tea, reflect on their experiences of travelling together; what has stood out for them from taking their journey, what has changed for them as a result and then do a bit of day-dreaming about a future city that makes space for all…
Banner image at the top of the page is of the City of Threads podcast logo; fine red wiggly lines emanate out from the title words, tracing fragments of actual journeys taken in Bristol that feature in the podcast.
Arnolfini are proud to have partnered and support on this project with Peco Theatre through the City Fellowship work that was the source material for the podcast. Each journey in the podcast, begins and finishes at Arnolfini’s home in Bush House on Bristol’s harbourside.