My dissertation project is currently really inspiring my ideas towards my own portfolio. I had originally thought about making an abstract piece of ‘music’ but it doesn’t really connect well with me. This is something I can always do and still do. I have been very much reading into environmental sound arts and the practices and practitioners within this field.
Dawn Scarfe and her project Bivvy Broadcasts really connected well with me and interested me. In the previous hand-in, I had thought about going to the woods and recording sounds with an old tape recorder to think about how a medium can change my way of recording if the manual process changes the listening on location.
I looked into Bivvy Broadcasts and found it really captivating, to be alone in nature with complete exposure, unlike a tent you are completely exposed to the elements. To set up a radio from 11pm to 7am when the dawn chorus begins. While listeners sit at home and tune in and listen to the sounds is something I might try.
This photo speaks volumes to me, the composition, the isolation the fear and the surrendering to nature. It really to me makes sense to reconnect with it. To just be amongst it in a simple way, a bivvy. For Dawn, this was part of a residency she had at Forestry Commission England.
She describes it like this,
Live nocturnal broadcasts from forests
11pm till 7am
Dawn is in a forest somewhere in England, streaming live ambient sound through the night while trying to sleep in a bivvy.
Her guerilla-style broadcasts are set up after dark using a small microphone and tenuous 4G connection.
By listening you can help keep vigil over her situation.
I’m still at an early stage and I really am considering at the first stage of my portfolio ideas to simply research artists and attempt their works, then to consider my own ideas from these themes, researches and practices.
I also found her pocket guide on bivvy broadcasts, and it explained a bit more about it. Almost a manifesto.
I feel that perhaps I can do the same but in a different location, or one in London. I was considering Epping forest or Brighton beach. I am longing to feel a reconnection with nature away from the capital city and explore other soundscapes. The live broadcasting to me seems like an animalistic urge from most humans of listening and having attentive sleeping. I will think about the equipment and if this is even possible seeing as it’s coming up to December.