Farmlands: An environmental site specific event which occurred over 24th-26th August 2001. March, Cambridgeshire.
The project was supported by the School of Design & Communications Systems at Anglia Polytechnic University.
Below is the original write-up for the proposal. Audio and video documentation coming soon.
Here we hope to create a work which will be talking about the world, how we relate to it, how it relates to us and by that you. We have used the fenlands north of Cambridgeshire in collaboration with local sound artist Adrian Collup, as a place to work in and understand the audio and what it does to and in such a place, the location about two miles north of March by the banks of the river Nene, at the Anglia Water Filtration plant, Creek Road. Here the wind, the drains, water pumps, animal and birds, farming activity participate encoded through the concepts of ‘boundaries’, ‘politics’, ‘environmental’, ‘movement’, becoming part of the mix amplified and processed by the audio structures.
When active, Farmlands is placed and exists within an environment and relates to that site by the presence of the sounds placed there and the live ambiance of the location introduced to the audio mix and re-introduced back into the local environment, in continues loops. The original audio has been produced using three different sound structures.
Chris Mizsak has recorded USAF planes taking off and flying manoeuvres over Mildenhall air force base in Suffolk. Here, Chris is concerned about and dealing with the “resonance” of the sound waves as they are generated by the planes and enter into the local environment. The word resonance in this context has a meaning which is more than just the resonant qualities of the sound but also of place, politically, militarily and also intent which will impact upon the development of the work.
Tom Scott has recorded sounds from various sources including FX audio bites and created a structure involving rhythms, shifting patterns of frequencies and cultural activities held and expressed within the body of the sound, also feelings of the past, the present and future have found themselves in the work, ideas of duration, and a sense of geological time, those feelings have had an impact upon the development of the work.
Tony Scott’s contribution will be the discussions of the group expressed through recordings of the higher frequencies of bird song which will be incorporated into the work as an underlying foundation upon which Chris’s and Tom’s input can be interwoven.