COMMS FAIL (monologue)

Artist and writer Roy Claire Potter will perform a monologue version of the script from COMMS FAIL, an iterative multimodal artwork unfolding across 2026.

Performed live alongside Sound Particles (Anya) (2026) in Gallery 5, the monologue includes new material delivered in correspondence with the sonic performance of the sculptures.

Made from resonant willow and bioplastic, the Sound Particles hold transducers that vibrate audio signals through the resonant material, turning the woven seed pod-like structures into speakers. Between the pair, sonic-material exchanges take place.

Recorded amateur radio transmissions are played and echoed, along with sound experiments by project participant Jamie Gawronski, and extracts from composer Carmel Smickersgill's score for the original performance of COMMS FAIL in Liverpool earlier this summer.

Join us as Roy attempts to butt-in to the Sound Particles' pre-programmed conversation to tell the story of how the sun sent waves that electromagnetised all things and made a new form of communication possible.

About the artist

Roy Claire Potter is an artist writer who performs, exhibits and publishes. Across their multidisciplinary practice – spanning experimental writing, vocal performance, drawing, sound art and installation – they build stories from fragmented, intense images depicting moving bodies, domestic scenes or architectural settings. An interest in communication constraints, subtext and narrative sequencing shapes this work, which often explores complex group dynamics or the aftermath of violent events, sometimes with a wilful humour. They frequently collaborate with musicians and sound artists for radio and festival contexts.

COMMS FAIL is an Unlimited Partner Award 2025 commission with Liverpool Biennial, made possible by Arts Council England. Research and development was generously supported by an artist residency award with Art Explora, Paris at Cité Internationale des Arts.