Month: November 2022

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.

Since reading Environmental Sound Artists: In Their Own Words (2016) for my dissertation ideas of environmental sound arts as a practice has really been sticking with me. Last year for my hand in I recorded the Thames following in similar footsteps of Peter Cusack and his ideas on sonic journalism. I’ve been busy writing my dissertation and haven’t had much time to start, but I’ve been laying the foundations.

Today I decided to go on a field recording trip to warm up the engine that is my brain and explore my surroundings. I’m living in surrey queys next to the Thames and decided to go and field record around there with my Zoom H1N.

I began by almost conducting a sound walk towards my location of the recording. I simply listened and what stood out for me was the specialisation of the environment, the different sounds that are all fighting or layering on top of each other. I began recording without a goal, I wasn’t sure what these sounds would become or how they would eventually be used if they even do. I recorded the waves crashing against the river bed, the trees and my footsteps walking amongst the leaves.

I then continued further along and began hearing pouring water, I followed the sound and recorded a long take off around 5-10 minutes. I then opened the gate towards the sandy riverbed and began recording amongst the ruined section of the Thames. I found the repetition of water sounds having their own rhythms to interest me in the recordings. As well as the idea of a micro soundscape, especially within cities and the noise pollution. How are these sounds being masked by larger sounds?

I took some recordings of close and far away, water dropping and running, alongside waves crashing. I could hear planes and other sounds that were coming and going. The city had a rhythm. i then walked out to an abandoned dock and recorded the Thames up close, whilst the loud Uber boats passed. I also discovered a lot of rubbish that spoils the environment. I thought perhaps if I could come back and take some rubbish and convert it into an instrument? Now I’m going to experiment with the sounds I’ve recorded.