Intelligent life on Hackney Marshes
An installation reproducing the feeling and sounds of being among a flock of crows on a deserted football pitch during the pandemic lockdown, becoming aware that they’re communicating in rich, intelligent, mysterious ways. This soundtrack accompanies an abstract/surrealist interactive visual that communicates endings and (perhaps) a new beginning.
Each morning I go for a run on Hackney Marshes as part of my Government-sanctioned 60 minutes daily exercise. Usually it's really busy, there are a staggering 50+ football pitches, but during the lockdown it's understandably very quiet. I noticed that there was always a large flock of crows on the abandoned pitches and that they were constantly talking to each other. So I've been trying to get in on the conversation - I walk straight through the flock, sometimes sitting down, and make crow-like noises. I always try to wear the same colour (bright blue, as I read that they see really well in this part of the spectrum), so they might more easily recognise me. Over the last 5 weeks I have done this pretty much every morning. I really feel that they recognise me now: i can get closer, they seem really curious and the sounds they make are slightly different. I get some strange looks from other people too, but that's ok. I have been overwhelmed by Haraway’s ideas on Multispecies Storytelling, how humans must search for kin among our fellow creatures as the world plunges into post-capitalist ruin). I decided to develop an installation, incorporating sound, visually, randomness and motion-sensitive interaction to explore my thoughts and feelings in these strange times.
I wanted to create an immersive piece that communicated some of the complex feelings I experienced: both the feelings of dystopia provoked by the lockdown, and the growing knowledge that here was a community of highly intelligent (but alien) creatures who were flourishing in the absence of humans. In short, it’s about the end of one world (the human) and the beginning of another (the crow). For the soundscape I used recordings of the crows (including some featuring me), and used these to build an ever-changing collage of crow conversations. But I also wanted to add another layer - the crows seemed to be flourishing in a landscape vacated by humans, so I took three notes of an E flat Major chord, Eb – G – Bb, I chose this chord as it’s the opening chord of the Wagner opera, Das Rheingold, when the world is spinning into existence - (it’s also a link to Norse mythology and the story of Wotan and his two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who flew around the world to gather news). I recorded it on my phone, using just double basses in Garageband to get a lower range as possible, adding an ominous feel, as befits world ending/beginning.
For the visual, I used footage I had made of a bowl of miso soup. As it cools, the thermal currents create mysterious clouds. I have long been fascinated by these shifting patterns, which to me resemble the gaseous atmosphere of an unknown moon. I thought it was a good expression of the terraforming nature of the crow conversations.
Taking these audio-visual assets, I wanted to assemble them simply, to create a meditative experience for the user. So I made a Max patch that would play the individual clips of crows in a way that varied order/volume, with the underlying drone. I also included the orchestral drone in this collage, to deepen the texture. I wanted to build in some interactivity to engage the user, so I made a simple video controller in the patch using the webcam to detect movement and speed up/slow down the video accordingly.
Reading:
Staying with the Trouble, Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Donna J. Haraway, 2015, Duke University Press. The Mushroom at the End of the World, (on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins). Anna Tsing. 2015, Princeton University Press. Alien Phenomenology, or What It's Like to Be a Thing. Ian Bogost, 2012, Minnesota University Press.