I want to experiment with mixing archives and shot footage to tell stories that are only loosely narrative in structure. One artist who does this is John Akromfah. I managed to watch his most famous work Vertigo Sea in London recently.

He was interviewed there about the creative process for his new installation at the British pavilion in the 2024 Venice Biennale. As he pondered the commission he said he thought a lot about the meaning of the space he was showing in, asking what are the phantoms from his perspective and how do you transform an iconic space to create a feeling of adding, not desecration. At some point, he said, the work in progress develops its own language through symbols, narratives, palettes for visuals and sound etc. But he chose to make the entrance to the show from basement to "get rid of imperial baggage of entrance".

He talked about the sonic being a big part of his work, because "sonic can dethrone the visual." In the Venice show he displays a quote from Pauline Oliveras: "Listen to everything until it all belongs together and you are part of it." He said these days he is more interested in "clothing archival in different garments." Perhaps looking for new language he says we currently try think too much of archive as time-based. So one room in the Venice pavilion uses sound archives and he fills the space with devices that these sounds might have been heard on, such as radios. These devices come with new stories and potential resonances.