4.2.5 begin to hear
Prior to begin to hear my replicated walks had used the method of my walking the same route in the same geographical location over time so that my compositions presented movement over time and distance. begin to hear was the work in which I began to take a more conceptual approach to what was being replicated; here I was walking to the same place by virtue of it being the site of the same biological phenomenon, a breeding site (a cliff) of the same seabird (the kittiwake) with the same sound. Thus, replication is founded in the biological and sonic attributes of a place, rather than a geographical location.
Reminiscent of the walk, static, walk recordings of Búðahraun, I made recordings walking to, for 20 minutes at, and walking from, four different Kittiwake colonies.1 Three of the sites were at relatively remote sea cliffs, the fourth, whilst also a ‘cliff site’, was on the urban architecture of a city centre. The field recordings to, at, and returning from the colonies were presented in an eight-channel installation arranged as two groups of four speakers (below and right).2
One set of four was arranged in a shallow arc, at the same height, on stands, and facing the other four speakers. These were set at different heights along a set of white floating walls using a mix of stands and plinths, forming a metaphorical cliff; the four cliff speakers played the field recordings made at the kittiwake colonies, the four facing them played the field recordings of my walking to and from the colonies.
Each walk was also presented as a haibun written based on contemporaneous notes and presented as a three-leaf-folded A4-size pamphlet (below; top three outside, bottom three inside), and as a 25-card verse-set.3 I recorded my reading the haibun and this played as a looped recording through a separate MP3 player and a pair of headphones.
With the verse cards, reading from card to card is a physical and mental act of replication and movement made synchronous with my walking. However, the verse cards can be re-ordered. Although they start out in the order of the walks as I walked them, they can be shuffled and read singly in a different order, or dealt out to be read in any order, changing the time sequence from that within which they were created, reminiscent of moving forward and back around the speakers of an installation.
Kittiwake Triptych walkplacedistancetime
The first three walks were re-imagined as Kittiwake Triptych (No. 1: Skerwink, No. 2: Cullernose and No. 3: Dunstanburgh) and broadcast individually, in sequence, over three successive months as episodes of walkplacedistancetime. Each broadcast contained my recording of the appropriate haibun.
Kittiwake Triptych No. 1: Skerwink
Kittiwake Triptych No. 2: Cullernose
Kittiwake Triptych No. 3: Dunstanburgh
On to 4.2.6 seven days in June
On via Interlude 1
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