Culminating in four sell-out public performances at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) in March 2015, the project has involved 120 children aged eight to 12 from Leith Walk Primary School.
Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, has described Watching as “one of a kind. A thrilling exploration of sleep science [which] promises to demonstrate the real impact that art can have on public health”.
The latest in a series of ground-breaking collaborations
Funded by the Wellcome Trust, Watching is the second collaboration between composer Dee Isaacs (Edinburgh College of Art) and librettist Katharine Craik (Oxford Brookes University).
Like their earlier project, The Quicken Tree, and Dee's later work, Conference of the Birds, it has involved close collaboration with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in the staging of full-scale, outdoor, promenade performances.
Many of the same arts and theatre professionals as worked on earlier projects have returned to the team for Watching, which also involves students from the Music in the Community programme at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA).
The partnership with Leith Walk Primary School has already resulted in another project, Postcards from Our World, which culminated in two new promenade performances in March 2016.
In December 2016, Dee Isaacs and 13 students from Music in the Community take Watching to The Gambia for a performance with 100 children from Deeper Life Primary School.