Graeme Miller’s LINKED is an artistic response to the creation of the M11 Link Road in East London in the 90s which involved the demolition of 400 homes, including Miller’s own, amid dramatic and passionate protest. Launched in 2003, LINKED was originally commissioned by Museum of London and produced by Artsadmin.
LINKED has endured as perhaps the largest sonic installation and sculptural entity in London for 20 years. Since 2003 its transmitters have broadcast over a million times the voices of people who lived or worked in the area impacted by the road.
Along a 3-mile route between Hackney Marshes and Redbridge Roundabout, 20 analogue radio transmitters can be heard by anyone with a special receiver, revealing 60+ voices of people who once lived and worked in the area – resident families, road protestors, railway-workers, teachers, disco-goers, and artists from the substantial community living in houses destroyed by the road including several who are better known now – Cornelia Parker, John Smith, Jocelyn Pook, Gary Stevens, Christine Binnie. Together the assembly of voices evokes a cross-section of ordinary East London life.
FREE. No booking.
Pick-up point for radio receiver, headphones and map:
Leytonstone Library, 6 Church Lane, London E11 1HG
Pick-up available any time between 1pm and 6pm.
The full sound walk can take several hours to complete. You are more than welcome to listen to it in parts, and to return to it at your leisure. Maps given out at the pick-up point indicate accessible public toilets and recommendations for refreshment stops along the route. Headsets and receivers can be returned by freepost after doing the walk. Age recommendation 8+
CREDITS
LINKED was originally an Artsadmin project produced by Judith Knight and Mark Godber and commissioned by Museum of London in 2003. The making of LINKED was generously supported by Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund, London Boroughs Grants Committee part of the Association of London Government, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the London Boroughs of Redbridge and Waltham Forest. The restoration of LINKED (2022 – 2024) is supported by Arts Council England.
With thanks to all the many interviewees, production teams and friends involved in developing LINKED.
Researchers who developed the interview content for LINKED (2003): Lucy Cash, Myra Heller, Dan Saul, Michael Sherin, Helen Statman.
Production (2023/24): Steve Wald, Mike Harrison, Lydia Newman, Nikki Tomlinson
Images: Graeme Miller