This session explores creative and technical insights from Still The Hours, an hour-long, site-specific immersive sound experience that transformed Hampton Court Palace in March 2025 through the haunting power of the female voice. The project connected audiences to the stories of women and girls across 400 years of palace history—told entirely through sound rather than live actors or visual spectacle.

Written by Claire Doherty and co-created with composer James Bulley, the piece combined over 150 elements, including protest field recordings, scripted dialogue, foley, and musical arrangements. Its non-linear dramaturgy, inspired by modernist literary forms and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, embraced fractured time, repeated inner thoughts, and unreliable narration.

With 65 female voices recorded in 3D audio and processed using impulse response data from the palace, the experience recreated authentic sonic environments via hidden multi-channel speakers and modified wireless headphones. The session reflects on collaborative writing, composing for deep immersion, and the pragmatics of working within sensitive historic sites.