Exhibition

scientific support dept. & Bel Docherty

09 Oct 2026 - 07 Nov 2026

Tolbooth

This exhibition is a collaboration between scientific support dept. and digital artist Bel Docherty, exploring the myths of the wolf legend and mental health through modular synth sound design and projection mapping in one of Stirling’s famous landmarks.

‘Carnival Of The Wolf’ is an audio visual work that draws inspiration from the 9th century Viking threat to Stirling at its starting point and interweaves a portrait of contemporary mental health. After decades of increasing disconnection and individualism at both social and political levels, communities have frayed and political parties have fragmented whilst the UK feels increasingly lonely. The effects of these pressures have resulted in anxiety and depression at scale with little systemic support.

‘Carnival’ incorporates poetry by Stirling based craftsman and poet Harris Harrold, who’s practise is rooted in deep listening – particularly to young men who have few outlets for their struggles in a dis-united kingdom that has traded community for solitude and isolation. His words, a cry from the pit – human, raw and unadorned. What follows is the true architecture of the piece – the modular synth soundscape, initially cold and recursive, woven beneath fading echoes of Scottish festivals and pagan rites, remnants of a collective spirit now shattered, emerge treated pianos and meditative ambient guitars that invite curiosity, and perhaps ultimately, hope against the siege of loneliness in this stark and often uneasy composition.

Created and performed for Culture Night Stirling 2026, scientific support dept. & Bel Docherty exhibits at Tolbooth as part of Stirling Science Festival 2026.

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