THE harrowing story of life aboard an 18th century slave ship is told through the single sense of sound in a new installation at the Albert Dock.
The Dark, based on the lives of Liverpool sailors Edward Rushton and Captain John Newton, evokes an eerie atmosphere through voices echoing from the past.
Visitors step into a pitch black space, where they are free to move around as the soundtrack is broadcast through speakers surrounding the room.
Appalled by the conditions of the human cargo packed below decks, Rushton enlists the help of Quamina, an African slave-seaman who is renamed Kunle in the 15-minute performance, to pass them food and water.
"My background is in music education and I was very interested in how people listen. If they are placed in an entirely dark environment would it change or focus how they listen?" asks curator Gabi Braun, who created the project with her partner, Terry Braun.
"It's interesting to see how people react to being in there. Some people are rooted to the floor and others wander about. We even had a couple who did ballroom dancing in the middle," says Ian Midwood, one of the Capital of Culture volunteers staffing the installation.
Quamina drowned saving Rushton's life when the small boat they were in sank as they were pulling to shore.
Rushton went on to lobby George Washington against slavery and opened the country's first school for the blind in Liverpool, while Newton found God and is now better known for writing the hymn Amazing Grace than for his involvement in the slave trade.
The Dark is one of the first projects to be commissioned by Culture Online, an initiative from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport that aims to increase access to the arts.
