CIISA- ‘WE OWE OUR LIVES TO SOIL’
My experience of soil has been fascinating, a wold that I have never even thought about listening to until now. Through this process of listing to the soil in places that having meaning to me, I have been brought closer to this wonderfully complex ecosystem and am beginning to understand what my relationship with soil is. Through this unit I have come to realise what my ‘place’ in the world of sun might be. I think that direction in which my passion seem to be flowing towards is to be an environmental eco acoustic ecologist. Drawing from my fascination for the natural world or ecological activism and love of sonic anthropology it only seems right that I start to understand within my practice now what our relationship to the natural world is and how it works, how we effect it etc.
The relation between my this creative sound work and my essay ‘Debating the sonic ethics within field recordings’ I believe is this notion of eco activism within my work. Without understand the basis of life ,soil, how can I even begin to debate the ethics within field recordings. In order to understand the world of sound I have to begin to understand the natural world and the way it works. These recordings from the soil themselves elves are field recordings. Whilst writing this essay and carring on with my sun work I ova been constantly hcallangin myself within the sun I record as the essay exposes ethical issue that I may have not considered before.
This sound work started off as a way to expose the soil quality from different agricultural farms,This is something that I would like to take further in the future, alongside an essay eco-critically debating this topic with a deeper understanding. I started doing the essay about the sound of soil quality, but unsuccessfully I hadn’t realised how broad and complex this world is. There is so much biologically, sonically, ethically and ecologically to understand within this topic that I will continue my investigation when I have the ability to fully emerge myself within in.
This project was the first time I had every used a Geofon. As soon as I picked it up from uni I went straight home and put it into my garden. My first thought was ‘it docent work’. This process of recording has increased my ability to be a deep listener. Reorienting my initial idea about what I deemed worthy as a field recording because there wasn’t much sonic material within each take. I have learnt to deem all sound as worth and I have found anew appreciation for the smallest of sonic movements. An example of this which I have previously stated in my blog post about Eridge Deer Park, is when my friend listened to the soil as I was doing a take, he noted to me that he couldn’t hear anything, I told him to really really deeply listen, to forget what you think is sound and just listen for movement.
As a Geofon works by translating vibration into voltage I was faced with trying to understand sound that I didn’t necessarily think of sound as. Unlike your average field recordings of the birds for example the sound makes you feel a bubbling a squeak. This voltage allows you to understand how much is going on down below. When I first stared this project I was looking into farmers and sonic consultants who are using these machines they call a SAM (soil acoustic meter). This devices enables farmers to listen to their soil and understand what it needs in order to be healthier and produce healthier food etc. The device works by allowing you to hear the different invertebrates below the soil. This ranges from worms beetles, spiders and so so so many more minuscule creatures.
The differences between the 5 locations that I ended up taking soil recordings from were varied. I discovered that a grassier soil is nosier. For example in Dorset and Victoria Park where the grass was growing bright green and the spaces were flourishing with above ground life the soil seemed to be noisier meaning that there was more underground activity going on leading to the soil being healthier. When starting this project I didn’t think about to ask the idea to myself about how it is incredibly important if I am trying to make a point about soil quality as to where I stick the Geofon. As the soil types in each of these selected areas were all different, my point tin a way lessened in the sense of measuring them from an agricultural sense but on the other hand it enabled me to discover a broader sense of soil and what the quality is like in multiple soil types.
The way in which I have represented these recordings is very simple. The only adjustments I have done is to fade in and out each recording and add an eq ro each one due to the fact of the hiss that came from taking the recording. I wanted to take this hiss away to allow the lister to focus solely on just the sound of the soil. The way in which I placed each recordings are in sections. I based the format off of when I took the recordings as something throughout my work is a consistency with nature, moving together with the times instead of skewed the natural flow of the seasons. These recordings were taken over a 2-3 month time period. I started taking them when the buds on the trees begun to appear and finished when the leaves of the trees had re-emerged. So with this I begin the ‘track’ at Eridge Deer Park, bringing each soil recording to an end with a field recording of each location, onto the wildflower garden on the boarder of Wales, to a combination of Victoria Park and Brockley station community garden as both are a part of Energy Garden, the company that I am currently developing a blog with for their website about the sounds of the soil and immediate environment within the community garden spaces. Then I end with my home Dorset. I end here as this is where is started (where I was born) I find I often do this in my work, my sound always comes back to a sense of home and being.
When I was deciding what to tile this piece I originally had the idea of calling it ‘the sound of quality’. This came from my initial idea of debating sonically the different quality of soil in agricultural farms. I wanted to go to a conventional agricultural farm, organic farm and an organic farm. Due to my lack of time I realised that I wouldn’t have the ability to communicate with and visit each site, so I chose to focus of spaces which hold significance to me. Whilst delving into the project and writing up a statement about my work for the Brazier Park submission, I came to relalise that that my title should be ‘We owe our lives to soil’. Whilst doing the reading for my first idea of my essay I became consumed with how much we owe to soil and hoe much is dose for us. This title feels just and understandable.
I plan on realising these finds onto my own Soundcloud as a way of sharing this knowledge. I will post a small description of how where and why I took these recordings. I want to make them accessible for anyone to find. Accessibility within sound has become a large part of my practice as I find that the world of sound arts at times to be in ways un- understandable. We use a language that if you aren’t familiar with then there is no way of understanding. This is something I want to delve n possibly in the future. I believe that sun and sound arts should be accessible for all. I am currently trying to balance this with writing my essay (being critical analytical, using a sonic vocabulary and also being understandable).
This project will possibly also live on in the ‘Wilder community soil exhibition’, due to consideration an acceptance into the exhibition. I wanted to allow this work to be presented to viewers who may have never even heard of a Geofon or thought that it was possible to listen to soil. If my work gets accepted it was also be good learning for me to work with a community such a Brazier’s park as for my dissertation I am looking into working with a similar community in Forest Row, where I want to do a full sound of their biodynamic park. This project is an element of my dissertation, by understanding soil I can now come to this dissertation project with a broader understanding of their soil ecosystem and use the skills that I learn from this unit into the next.
When I was deciding what to tile this piece I originally had the idea of calling it ‘the sound of quality’. This came from my initial idea of debating sonically the different quality of soil in agricultural farms. I wanted to go to a conventional agricultural farm, organic farm and an organic farm. Due to my lack of time I realised that I wouldn’t have the ability to communicate with and visit each site, so I chose to focus of spaces which hold significance to me. Whilst delving into the project and writing up a statement about my work for the Brazier Park submission, I came to relalise that that my title should be ‘We owe our lives to soil’. Whilst doing the reading for my first idea of my essay I became consumed with how much we owe to soil and hoe much is dose for us. This title feels just and understandable.