Hello. I'm Hector MacInnes, a sound artist, musician and producer from the Isle of Skye, and working between the Scottish Highlands and the West Country. I work with spoken word, installation, text, composition, radio and speculative design among other things, often in collaboration with other artists and a diverse range of communities.
I have a socially engaged and research informed practice, with an interest in how sound intersects with, and influences, place, ethics and belonging.
I am an artist in residence with the Culture Collective, the Scottish Government's flagship response to arts during the pandemic. I am also a PhD student at CRiSAP (Creative Research Into Sound Arts Practice) at UAL, where I am undertaking practice-based research around the concept of the field, anthropocene rurality, and the New Weird.
| 2023 - [THE
DISOBEDIENT CHOIR] |
| With Sinéad Hargan. An ephemeral choir, based in The Bare Project's "People's Palace of Possibility", which will materialise in Lyth, Caithness during July and August 2023. Across three short rehearsals, choir members will use their voices to explore the way they respond to instruction, authority and belonging in the context of utopian fantasies. |
| 2023 - [DUALCHAS] |
| Quadrophonic sound work as part of an audiovisual installation which tells the story of the Dualchas architecture practice, and its situatedness in the landscape and culture of the West Highlands and Islands. Part of Dangerous Liaisons at La Biennale Architettura in Venice. Created with fim-maker Peter Marsden and writer Cal Flyn. |
| 2023 - [WE HAVE QUESTIONS] |
| With Cat Meighan. We Have Questions was a two-day
gathering of 18 arts practitioners exploring issues around
socially engaged practice in rural settings, including
risk aversion, queerness, climate relevance and tensions
between communities of place and of practice. A zine of
our collective questioning... coming soon! Part of my work with the Highland Culture Colective. |
| 2023 - [HIGHLAND
MEMORY SPACE] |
| An artist led public consultation into community responses to the pandemic and its legacies in Highland region. Together with Sinéad Hargan and Cat Meighan, we led sessions focusing on sense-memories of the pandemic, to work towards concepts for a memorial or other response in the public art sphere. |
| 2022/3 - [PFFT
ENSEMBLE] |
| A nebulous improvisers' ensemble using iPads, touchOSC
and MAX. Co-designed with inmates of HMP Inverness and
community groups, using a circular test-and-learn
approach. Part of my work with the Highland Culture Colective. |
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| 2022/3 - [THE
LISTENING ROOM] |
| An exploration of identity, voice and belonging in a mental health setting, through collective listening practices and radio-making. Part of my work with the Highland Culture Colective. |
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| 2022 - [ATTEND] |
| Installation, Inverness Creative Academy, Nov 2022: Highland Culture Collective artists Catriona Meighan and Hector MacInnes present a series of workshops and talks, share co-created work, and reflect on the meaning of their socially engaged practice. Part of the Highland Culture Colective. |
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| 2022 - [LESPIE
WINNACHIE'S LOOM] |
| Re-sounding a story of chaos and order, wildlife and weaving from the Tobar An Dualchais archive, created for the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme's 'Storytagging' project. |
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| 2021 - 2023 [CHANGING REALITIES] |
| |
| A series of short audio pieces, recording and
disseminating the experiences of parents and carers on low
incomes, first during the covid pandemic, and now during
the 2022 cost of living crisis. Some of these are available through Covid Realities, with visuals by Tom Flannery and Hannah Ellison. More recent examples, with captions by Alex Henshaw, are currently going out through the Refugee Council's socials. |
| |
| 2021 - [KIOSK] |
| A group exhibition of speculative souvenirs at An
Lanntair in Stornoway, built on the myth of the Bùth
MhicNeacail (Nicolson's Kiosk). The exhibition was
co-curated by Philippa C Thomas and myself and featured
artists & makers from across Scotland. |
| 2018 - [INNER
ARCHITECTURE] |
| |
| A response to the 1962 Pure Maths Exam, commissioned by
the National Library of Scotland for "Re-Sits",
celebrating the digitisation of their exam archive.
Created in collaboration with singers from across the Isle
of Skye, the piece is an exploration of the circular ruins
of Dùn Beag - a stone age broch - as a site of maths,
music and indeterminacy. Meeting within its walls over the
course of 6 weeks, we played with distribution of harmony,
chanting, binary counting and improvisation to see what
might emerge from the questions in the exam. |
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| 2017 - [SUSPENSION AND
DISBELIEF] |
| |
| The imaginary history of the Hebridean Cable Transit
Company, retold in two exhibitions by Philippa C Thomas
and I. The first of these celebrated the company's 1950's
heyday and featured the complete restoration of gondola
#72 ("Effie"), the second explored the hubris and
submarine adventure that led to it's demise in the Sound
of Harris. |
| 2016 - [THE
INFORMANTS] |
| |
| As adults we often make sweeping predictions ourselves
and our world, when the people who live in those futures
are already here among us, albeit in child form. The
Informants presents edited and anonymised interview
content which is, in a playful way, an attempt to get them
to “report back” on what those futures are like. This
project had two iterations, one for the In Cahoots
conference at Sound Festival Aberdeen, and one for Atlas
Arts' "Travelling The Archive". |
| 2014 - [THE REPLICA HEARTH] |
| |
| A collaborative project with Kate McMorrine, exploring
the story of 'Eoghann the Yeti', a crofter who
mysteriously vanished into woodland on the Isle of Skye in
1984. The work centres around a reconstruction of
Eoghann's living room inside a shipping container, and a
museum/gift shop housing an exhaustive collection of
speculative academia. The exhibition was a journey through
his personal life and the contemporary history of his
community, but beneath it were clues to something more
sublime and unharnessed. |
| 2013 - [STORY'S END] |
| |
| Created with The Dead Man's Waltz, Story's End was a
collective performance exploring the role of death in
narrative. It involved film-maker Johnny Barrington,
visual artists Kate McMorrine, Cat Ingall and Mark
Weallans, and author/performer Hal Duncan. It was perormed
in different guises at the Glasgow Short Film Festival,
Death: A Festival For The Living at the Southbank Centre,
and as part of the Made In Scotland showcase at the
Edinburgh Fringe. |
| 2013 - [SPIN CYCLE] |
| |
| A multi-artist performance led by David Littler and
Jason Singh (Sampler/Cultureclash), with Anne Martin and
Deirdre Nelson, exploring circular movement through sound,
music, textiles and folk tales. Performed at Skye Bike
Fest and Cecil Sharpe House in Camden. |
| 2013 - [6.42am,
3 Dances for Children and Household Appliances] |
| |
| A piece of alternative chamber-trad, winner of the
inaugural Bennett Prize for Traditional Composition,
hosted at The Queen's Hall in Edinburgh in honour of the
seminal fiddler and producer Martyn Bennett. The excerpts
here are performed by Anna Massie, Mairearad Green, Rua
MacMillan, Iain Sandilands and Hamish Napier. |
2022 - Social Security Soundings Podcast (Producer)
2020 - Scotton Drive - Fasca (Producer)
2019 - Scotton Drive - Short Loop (Producer)
2019 - Ingrid Henderson & Iain MacFarlane - The Cockerel and
the Creel (Engineer)
2019 - Beware Of Trains - Let's Move To London (Mix Engineer)
2018 - Eilidh Shaw & Ross Martin - Birl-esque (Engineer,
Bass, Percussion)
2017 - Angus Nicolson Trio - Sealladh Àrd (Record Engineer)
2017 - Dàimh - Hebridean Sessions (Engineer)
2016 - Mairearad Green - Summer Isles album & tour (Vocals,
Percussion, Bass)
2013 - Williams - Atlantic Mind (Vocals)
2007 onwards - The Dead Man's Waltz (Vocals, Percussion, Guitar,
Co-Producer)
2005/6 - Mylo - Live Tour (Percussion)