familiar strange
Familiar Strange is a project exploring how sound walks can transform everyday perception.
It develops a process for creating playful/poetic sound journeys that merge fact & fiction and prompt playful interactions with the environment, helping people rediscover and reimagine places they thought they already knew.
Through workshops, community participants are invited to create their own short sound walks,
drawing on personal experience, local knowledge or imagined histories.
This walk is part of Hybrids, a series of co-created art events in Crawley and Brighton that promote an appreciation of diversity and difference.
Hybrids is directed by Guyan Porter.
CRAWLEY: How to TAKE THE JOURNEY
This is a self-guided sound walk through central Crawley. It lasts for 37 minutes and is appropriate for ages 14+.
It can be done anytime between
9am–6pm (Mon–Sat), or 10:30am–4:30pm on SundaysYou can stream the track via the player in the next section, which also has navigation cues - clicking on the photo will take you to that point.
or you can download the track via the button (below)
You will need headphones for the full experience
START: outside ‘Slice Box’ at 3a Broadwalk, Crawley RH10 1HJ. (what3words: error.windy.coherent)
Once you press play, you’ll hear instructions that guide you to the end.
WALK AT A GENTLE PACE
At certain points, you will be asked to pause the track, such as when crossing roads. Just restart it when you are ready.
Some elements of the route may have changed since the time of recording…
Familiar Strange: Crawley
Press play at the start of the walk. If you lose your place, tap the nearest image below to rejoin the audio at that point.
0:00 — SLICEBOX
2:37 — THE BIG TREE
4:21 — I LOVE CHIKITOS
6:37 — THE SCULPTURE
10:03 — ENTRANCE TO CHURCH WALK
13:32 — CHURCH DOORS
19:20 — CHURCH WALK SIGN
23:46 — ENTRANCE TO COUNTY MALL
27:23 — NORTH 1 CAR PARK
31:50 — ENTRANCE TO PARK
I’d love to know what you think, so please do leave feedback in the form below. You can also leave your contact details if you’d like to be informed of more tours or workshops (see more info about workshops at the bottom of the page)
And if you enjoyed the experience, any donations would be much appreciated and will go to support the Hybrids project.
Please use the button below.
Many thanks for taking part. Matt Rudkin
how was it for you?
Workshops
Alongside creating my own sound walks, I am developing and testing workshop models that enable participants to create their own audio pieces using simple tools—often just smartphones—and accessible editing methods.
These sessions involve creative writing, sound recording and audio composition, and invite participants to respond to their surroundings through personal experience, local knowledge or imagined histories.
The workshops are designed to be accessible, playful and collaborative, and are suitable for ages 12+.
A key aim is to develop an ongoing, co-creative process, where different participants contribute their own sound walks to a shared environment. In this way, over time they might form a network of interconnected sound walks, shaped by different perspectives within the same environment—where multiple routes, voices and ways of noticing can coexist and overlap.
A listener might begin on one walk and encounter a point where paths diverge—choosing to continue along a different route created by someone else.
In this way, Familiar Strange proposes a place not as fixed or singular, but as something layered, shared and continually reimagined.
If you’re interested in workshops or future projects, please get in touch.