Composer and Music and Audio Technology Lecturer Dr Jackie Walduck has created Medway Sonic Hand-Washing Experience, a public artwork commissioned by Medway Council as part of their post-Covid Safe Return campaign, The Rainbow Effect.  The work is a sound-trail of 15 short Hand-washing compositions by Jackie, her colleague Richard Lightman, Kent Alumnus Logan Ellis and other Medway-based artists.

These are accessed via specially designed Hand Hygiene posters installed in bathrooms around the Borough – in libraries, leisure centres, the Brook Theatre and cafes and bars along Rochester High Street.  The posters contain QR codes which, when  scanned on a  phone, take the listener is taken to 20 seconds of sonic pleasure to ensure a clean wash, and more importantly, sufficient time for soap to break down the Coronavirus cell membrane.  Jackie collaborated with Dr Vladimir Gubala from Medway School of Pharmacy to create a voice-over explaining the action of surfactants on cell membranes on two of the tracks.

The sound trail creates an engaging and varied hand-washing experience, and with poster graphics based on glass sculptures by Roberta Mason, offers an alternative to conventional public health messaging.

The Borough-wide Rainbow Effect campaign was launched on 31 March 2021, and artworks will stay in place around Medway at least until June.  Further details can be found on the Medway council website and this Council press release.