A COLLABORATION spanning art, sound and archaeology explores the rich history of a quiet North Yorkshire town.

Beneath the quiet streets and farmland of the village of Aldborough lies the Roman town of Isurium Brigantum.

Recent work by the Aldborough Roman Town Project has revealed that it was a town of great importance in the Roman north – a key trading point and busy hub.

This year, a collaboration has explored and documented Aldborough’s hidden sub-surface landscape, leading to an art exhibition and sound installation and a series of public events in August.

Soundmarks is a collaboration between Dr Rose Ferraby and Rob St John, funded by Arts Council England. An exhibition of their work will be held at The Shed, Aldborough, from Saturday, August 24, and Saturday, August 31.

A free ‘art trail’ will be launched alongside the exhibition, allowing the public to navigate eight Soundmark sites through the village. Each Soundmark is located on an important Roman site – such as the Forum, amphitheatre and river – and will be accessed either using a free interactive mobile app, or using a paper map distributed through the village.

At each Soundmark, visitors can view Rose’s visual work and listen to Rob’s sound work, each interpreting the character and history of the site. The Soundmark trail – which takes around an hour to walk – is designed to encourage people to explore Aldborough’s unique landscape, and to gain new perspectives on its rich Roman history.

At The Shed, visitors can view Rose’s original visual works and listen to an ambient sound piece created by Rob using the sounds of Aldborough, and produced using compositional cues from archaeological techniques, datasets and maps.

Rose and Rob will run a series of free workshops on September 28 and 29, 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm, when the public can learn drawing and sound recording techniques to create their own ‘creative place portraits’ of Aldborough.

Two guest speakers, Dr Lesley McFadyen, an archaeologist from Birkbeck, University of London, and Dr Jos Smith, an environmental landscape writer from the University of East Anglia, will give talks on Saturday, August 31, 7-9pm, alongside an artist question-and-answer. An artist book documenting the soundmarks collaboration – containing a download of Rob’s sound installation piece – will be available to purchase.

Soundmarks is funded by Arts Council England, and is carried out in partnership with English Heritage, the Friends of Roman Aldborough, and Aldborough Roman Town Project.

The exhibition is open Saturday, August 24, to Saturday, August 31, 10am-5pm (Saturday to Monday), and noon-5pm (Tuesday to Friday). Entry is free. There is a private viewing on Friday, August 23; email for details.

See the webite at www.soundmarks.co.uk for more details.