I'm Dimple Patel and I'm an audio producer.
I tell stories in sound, for radio, podcasts and the arts

Projects

Radio . Podcasts . Audio Art

Sound Postcards : Parveenben's Shop

An immersive sound installation to be experienced in your own home. Through a set of postcards and your headphones, you will be transported into a house and fabric shop in Leicester.

'Parveenben's Shop' is the story of one woman's love for the craft of sewing, and the empowerment this skill brought her and her mother. Parveen, was a home dressmaker who eventually turned sewing for friends and neighbours from her tiny living room in a terraced house, into a thriving South Asian clothing business in Highfields, Leicester. The shop was called Fine Fashions but was known locally as 'Parveenben's shop' ('ben' meaning sister; a polite way to address a woman in Gujarati and Punjabi culture). Her daughter, Rifhat, grew up surrounded by sewing and fabric, which weaved its way into her own life. She tells this story through the images on the postcards, leading you into a soundscape and the house where it all began.

This project uses Audio Augmented Reality (AAR) with a visual element to create an immersive listening experience. You will need to download a free app onto your phone, and listen through your headphones, by walking around each postcard with your phone. The image on the postcard will trigger the audio to play, and you will hear the story and soundscape change as you move closer or further away from the postcard, inviting you to move and interact with the story and sounds in your own way. There postcards are a set of 5, with details of each image on the back. Each postcard has a different part of the story.

HOW TO LISTEN:
1. Get a set of the sound postcards for free. How? You can either:
- email me with your address to receive by post
- download and print your own from the link below
- pick up a set from the LCB Depot in Leicester until 24th Sept 2023

2. Download the free Sound Postcards app on your phone, available on Android and Apple.

3. Now you have the postcards and the app. For the best experience:

  • Place the postcards around a room so that you can walk up to them e.g. on tables or window sills. Space them out so that they are about 2 metres apart, if you can.

  • Look at the back of the postcards for details of the images and there is a chai recipe, if you want to make a tea to sip while you listen!

  • Put your headphones on

  • Open the app

  • Start at 'The House'

  • Point your phone at the image to hear the sound. What you hear will change as you move around each image. As you get closer to an image, you will hear Rifat's story, and as you move further away, you will hear the soundscape.

  • Don't put the postcards too close to each other as the different sounds will overlap. Play around with distance if the sounds merge.

  • Start at 'The House' then move around the others in any order you like.

This is a pilot project, so I would love to hear your feedback to improve future development. Get in touch!This project uses augmented audio reality (AAR), developed and supported by researchers from the University of Nottingham Live Experiential and Digital Diversification (LEADD:NG) research project.

About

I make narrative, documentary and issue-based programming and audio art. I was a BBC radio producer for 15 years, working in radio journalism and producing social action broadcast campaigns to inspire positive change. Now, as freelancer, my area of interests are social issues, culture, and heritage. I've worked with broadcasters, charities, museum's and cultural organisations.I have a curiosity for stories about human experiences, ordinary people and hidden places. Stories hold survival tools and threads within them which connect us all. I like to work on projects that open up conversations, make people feel heard, or simply, bring joy.

Contact

I'm always interested in hearing about new audio projects and open to commissions.

dimple@luminousproductions.co.uk