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Toolkit: Planning and Producing Artworks In The Natural Environment
The four Living Symphonies installations that took place over summer 2014 were co-produced by Forestry Commission England and Sound And Music. The knowledge collectively developed over this 18-month process has been turned into a toolkit to assist artists and arts organisations in producing future outdoor works.
Planning and Producing Artworks In The Natural Environment details the complete process from early-stage planning through to installation and documentation. Many thanks to the teams at FCE and SAM that produced this document, whose tireless work was vital to the realisation of Living Symphonies.
from Toolkit: Planning and Producing Artworks In The Natural Environment
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Pointillist and Shifting — Thoughts on Living Symphonies
Writing from Dan Richards, who visited Living Symphonies at Thetford and Cannock Chase during the summer 2014 tour.
The first time I worked with James Bulley, we recorded a holloway; arriving in the Dorset hills in gold light, setting up the Stereo Shotgun Microphone (wide-field), the Soundman Binaurals — super cardioid. The figure 8 devices to log the green tree tunnel: Zoom H4, Zoom H2 — engaged and visited at intervals that night, crawling out our Jerry-built bivvy — half-cock, half sleeping, piled in a tent slumped down in the burrow, steeped in the sounds of the wind’s play above and the bird fuss, unseen, deep cow sounds — rumpled murmurs, distant bells. The chuff and whir of a tractor’s chug, gruff throb in the valley behind us… every few hours we’d rouse and sift for sounds, resetting, saving, muttering as we moved along the ancient sunken road, spun round with trees.
Next morning, we woke to a silvered world as the slow sun spun every spiderweb zinc and the frost fallen over the field in the night crunched under our bleary feet like so many Visa-cards swiping on windscreens. Wrapped Jodrell Bankers, we paced and listened, the far bells again, the cows stirring, cars on the A35 — all arrived sharp on the red eared air. Breath steaming, we stomped and hugged ourselves in the cold, as the day flamed and swelled about us burning off the rime and hush … but all that first fidelity, mussed and vivid, abides in the recordings James made and perhaps one day we’ll press them onto record — Transitions: A. Dusk to Night / B. Dawn to Day.
That would be a good thing.
That was how it began with James and I. I’d written and he arrived to record the space I’d writ. Now, ear;y summer, the rolls were reversed as I walked into his forest world and work — into The Brecks to immerse myself in a fern-lush bowl of hawthorn and papery ash, Scots pine, elm and sycamore. The day was wet beneath a low and spongy sky. The grasses in the dell weighed with raindrops, drip and patter on the rot-wood humus sprung beneath my feet.
Woven amidst the arbor, James, Daniel Jones and their unseen team had hidden a gauze of compositions drawn and entwined with the ecosystem here present — meshed sympathetic with the life of the place, spun from its nature — referential; referring back to the flora and fauna abiding about this Thetford jorum. The first of four ancient silvan sites with Fineshade, Cannock, Bedgebury to come.
Seven days at each.
Cannock Chase Installation Site
Far away, months before, James had been recording violinists — smithereen arachnid flinders — transcribing beasties as free-jazz note fits, brain spread thin with things to do; throwing weird compositional shapes to make a sense of myriad lifeforms: how should Sycamore go?
All this to be knitted so the music — pointillist and shifting — sits harmonious within a scape; drawing on and out the wonder already extant. So as to be sap not sapping: of a piece with the microcosmos — sapped as James sounds on the phone… bled by the deadlines bearing down: ‘weeks scoring all night, sessions all day and then a few days editing…’
Later on, in a Midlands dusk, sat beside a foil lake with cross geese, I listen to Daniel and James attempt to get ‘Owl’ working. Hearing them walkie talkie in the gloaming — panning Owl to left and right, running Owl schematics, hammering it out — I wonder whether anybody else is up to something similar… anywhere. At all.
Of all the woods in all the world, these doings must stand unique.
Clipboard. Photograph: Dan Richards
Next day the audience walk up the stone path from the lodge. In twilight, they enter the woods to stand or sit about the trees in various postures of contemplation. Some lean on trunks, some slump, some kneel… a child in a purple jacket runs round and round the silvered paths, flattened by innumerable feet over the days of the LS residency… the patter of her scampering feet of a piece with the myriad sounds scattered, thrown and sown in the mulch, wood, moss and canopy capillary space.
Some of the music is Eno Apollo, other parts remind me of somnolent Four Tet, found sounds ‘becoming‘ — cotyledon variegation, half-heard voices, mechanical compost; a sonic cloud soup in the woodlot — hovering, knocking, passing, resolving, rolling, nagging, skulking unnoticed.
Sudden alteration, a resonant presence — spectral like a chill air pooled on a path.
Hive reverberations; ants, mites, spiders. Soft moths, sharp wasps, low worm squirm.
We spoke about it, of course; James, Dan and I. I’ve hours of conversation taped — all that work, the thought behind it. The build up, surveys, set up, breakdown, repetition, rubbed temples, madness, doubt and joy… but all of it is summed up in that night at Cannock Chase. Those people in that forest, engaged, engrossed, some visibly moved, stood about trees as if for the first time — the people opened out, the forest opened up anew, afresh. Afresh.
Dan Richards, 2014
Dan Richards was born in Wales in 1982.
He received a BA from The University of East Anglia and an MA from Norwich Arts School.
He is co-author of HOLLOWAY with Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood, published by Faber & Faber in 2013.
THE BEECHWOOD AIRSHIP INTERVIEWS, an investigation into the working methods and spaces of some of the greatest artists working today including Jenny Saville, Stewart Lee, Dame Judi Dench, Manic Street Preachers, and Jane Bown amongst others. The book is a manifesto about the importance of art for art’s sake, of learning and honing a craft, and getting your hands dirty.
CLIMBING DAYS, an exploration of the writing and climbing lives of his great great aunt and uncle Dorothy Pilley and I.A. Richards, is set to be published by Faber & Faber in 2015.
Dan has written for The Times, The Quietus, and Caught By The River.
He lives and works in Bath.
from Pointillist and Shifting — Thoughts on Living Symphonies
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A Personal Reflection by Christopher Brown
A personal reflection from Christopher Brown, an Art Therapist and Lecturer who visited Living Symphonies at all four sites during the summer 2014 tour of the work.
I came to Living Symphonies with minimal knowledge of the artists but some sense of an aesthetic from their website. I approached the Thetford Forest site with nervous excitement. As I followed the signs deeper into the forest faint sounds emerged and then, almost suddenly, I was upon it and invited in. It took me a while to settle, I was curious about where the sounds were coming from and what triggered the changing sequences. Some sounds were alien to me, some familiar, like fragments of contemporary classical music. As I slowed down and allowed my mind to listen and my eyes to see, the forest glade became a wondrous place. A feeling of awe developed, of being in tune with something other that was also felt to be part of me.
When I spoke to James he explained the conceptual underpinning, which made me aware of the magnitude of the piece’s ecological structure and simply blew my mind. I left feeling I had experienced something really rather special and couldn’t wait to tell friends what it was about. As I digested the experience, and read more on the website, I realized that I had only dipped my toe in the water of the piece.
On the eve of summer solstice I approached Fineshade Woods for a special twilight performance. I came with a friend and we joined a group of twenty or so people gathered for the event. I felt more relaxed this time and lying down quickly became immersed in a different experience. I felt I could hear the wood speaking to me through the musical elements. The low light and nocturnal sounds brought an edge of ancient fear and being in a group brought some fellowship of the shared experience. I seemed to move between hearing the wood and it’s ecosystem, and hearing a piece of contemporary music. On reflection, perhaps these two poles created some confusion in me as I felt there was something I could not reconcile about the experience. Nevertheless, I was developing a greater awareness of the piece but still didn’t know what it was, although I had some sense of being caught in an ‘aesthetic moment’ Bollas, 19871
]. Bollas suggests such moments ‘are registered through an experience in being, rather than mind, because they express that part of us where the experience of rapport with the other was the essence of life before words existed’ (p 32).
Living Symphonies. Photograph: Christopher Brown
By now I had the bit between my teeth and determined to go to all four sites. And so to Cannock Chase and a campsite in the heart of the forest some distance from the installation site. Having explored the area on foot and slept there I was already ‘in the zone’ by the time I walked into the site on a fine early morning in July. A different ecosystem this time and as a result the piece sounded different, for example I noticed there were less gongs and more strings. I quickly entered a meditative state of mind, eventually broken by the thought that I was listening to the forest coming alive in another dimension. It was as if I had been listening to the things themselves. I also became aware of an absence of any particular feeling within myself. Something felt different about the experience.
I met Daniel, who was interested in this difference. I thought it had something to do with the way my initial sense of awe seemed to diminish on repeated experiences of the piece. We discussed the nature of the composition and the tension between the imaginative and the concrete aspects. Daniel remembered experiences of the uncanny and the sublime arising from his listening experience of two precursor pieces and this was contrasted to the long and hard process of producing the piece then hearing it daily for a week at a time. Later, in a moment of reflection on the walk back to camp, I thought about the inevitable tendency to project something onto musical experience and in particular the role of ‘unconscious phantasy’ (Isaacs, 19482). It is unconscious phantasy that unknowingly gives richness to the meaning of experience through symbolization. The musical composition occupies a ‘transitional space’ (Winnicott, 19713) but is heard in the context of the physical forest and through the computer simulation of the ecosystem. In this way our attribution of meaning is tempered by the real. When listening do we inhabit an illusory, transitional space or do we become part of the forest? Such binary thinking is unresolvable other than by perpetuating the split. Perhaps what the piece requires of us is a more embodied response, encompassing the imaginary and the sensory, holding both.
Fungi. Photograph: Christopher Brown
With these thoughts in mind I arrived at Bedgebury Pinetum with another friend in tow. The site was located within a fantastic collection of pines from around the world and consisted of a small stand of trees with another more open area with shrubby planting. I went straight to the Giant Sequoia and lay down with my eyes closed. I was immediately struck by what seemed, to my ears, to be more rhythmic sequences and more low frequency percussion, which reminded me of ambient music. I suddenly felt overwhelmed with emotion but quite unaware of what had triggered this. It happened again a while later and it was only much later on returning home that I thought it might be linked to an experience of beauty, not just an aesthetic experience but an embodied one as well. Clearly, my approach to listening lying down with eyes closed is one that leads to a more inward experience, at one point I felt that I was the tree – literally inside it!
Giant Sequoia. Photograph: Christopher Brown
My friend took a different approach and sat on a log listening and observing the small group of people who gathered over the time he was there. He told me that he had a sense of a shared experience and being part of a group. This made me think about what kind of social activity does this piece seek to address? It opens up a sonic space, an immersive experience, which is environmental in its subject and its site-specific nature. However, the nature of electronic recording played through a 24 channel sound system produces sounds that, while located in the physical space of the forest site, are also heard in a virtual space that is imaginary. In my mind I linked the sounds to Minimalism and the generative ambient music of Brian Eno, but this piece is no mere soundscape as it has elements of classical symphonic structure. So what is it, what is this music for? It asks the listener to think. To think about the unseen aspects of what surrounds us and the inter-relatedness of things. It offers a space for meditation on the nature of the forest and uses imagination to create a space in your mind that connects to something primal.
Dew on Web. Photograph: Christopher Brown
It is art. It raises consciousness about the way the natural order of things has intrinsic value that transcends human values. Arne Naess (Wikipedia, 20144), who coined the term ‘Deep Ecology’, suggests that we humans can only attain realization of the self as part of an entire ecosphere. Living Symphonies makes this idea visible through sound.
Biography
Christopher Brown is an Art Therapist, Lecturer on the MA Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths, University of London and Editorial Board member of the open access electronic journal ATOL: Art Therapy OnLine
Bollas, C. (1987) ‘The shadow of the object. Psychoanalysis of the unthought known.’ London, Free Association Books. ↩
Isaacs, S. (1948) ‘The nature and function of phantasy’. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 29: 73-97. ↩
Winnicott, D.W. (1971) ‘Playing and Reality’ London, Tavistock Publications. ↩
http://ift.tt/1oJWKCi (accessed 17/9/2014) ↩
from A Personal Reflection by Christopher Brown
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Bedgebury: Twilight Walk
We’ll be hosting one final twilight walk at Bedgebury Pinetum this Friday, on the eve of the closing weekend of the Living Symphonies tour. Taking place between 6pm and 8pm on Friday 29th August, it will give listeners a rare chance to experience the piece as dusk falls, hearing the composition transform as daytime creatures dissipate and nocturnal animals emerge.
As always, the event is free to experience. If you’re coming by car, parking charges apply.
from Bedgebury: Twilight Walk
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Guest post: The ecological composition of Bedgebury
This is a guest post on the Living Symphonies journal, written by Luke Wallace of The Friends of Bedgebury Pinetum.
“It is well known that National Pinetum at Bedgebury is home to the most complete collection of conifers in world. However, not as well known is the diverse array of wildlife that can be found alongside this world-class botanical collection. The sheer diversity of animals, plants and fungi is due to the many habitat types present, from dry heathland and wildflower meadows through to mature forest and large water bodies. The Forestry Commission recognise the importance of such biodiversity and, therefore, manage the Pinetum for the indigenous wildlife, as well as the general public.
Sphagnum moss, Bedgebury Pinetum
“Some of the more notable species that inhabit Bedgebury include Euphrasia Anglica, a tiny but beautiful flower which cannot be found outside the United Kingdom, the nationally rare Firecrest which breeds within the Pinetum in good numbers and the Brilliant Emerald dragonfly, a species which is considered to be nationally and locally endangered. Of course, there are many more interesting and notable organisms that call Bedgebury home. With a little exploration, it is astonishing what ecological secrets Bedgebury Pinetum has to offer.”
Gold Ringed Dragonfly, Bedgebury Pinetum
Firecrest, Bedgebury Pinetum
To find out more, visit the Friends of Bedgebury Pinetum website.
from Guest post: The ecological composition of Bedgebury
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Bedgebury Pinetum from the treetops
To install the speakers for Living Symphonies up to 20m high in the forest canopy, we brought in the expertise and aerial equipment of Extreme Powered Platforms. After installing the final speakers, they were kind enough to invite us onto their mobile platform to give us an amazing view from the treetops. It gives a unique vantage point onto the pinetum, seeing these vast towering trees from above.
Bedgebury Pinetum: Forest floor
Douglas Fir trunk from above
Bowers and Wilkins AM-1 in giant sequoia
Platform from above
Julian (Bedgebury Pinetum) and Nigel (Extreme Powered Platforms)
from Bedgebury Pinetum from the treetops
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It’s Nice That on Living Symphonies
The visual identity of Living Symphonies has always been a vital part of the work, working very closely with designer Patrick Fry whose vision has guided and directed its design from the outset. We’re thus delighted to have the piece’s visual identity celebrated by a writeup by excellent design blog It’s Nice That.
They speak to Patrick about the project’s developmental lineage, on working with Katie Scott to commission the beautiful drawings that illustrate the natural elements of the piece, and about the challenges of working in a range of media to traditional signage to interactive iPad visuals.
It’s an insightful read and features lots of nice documentation of the spectrum of graphic elements that Patrick and Katie have produced. Read it here: Behind the design of a musical forest installation with Patrick Fry.
Pat also answered a complementary series of questions in a separate interview with YCN.
from It’s Nice That on Living Symphonies
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Thetford Through a Misted Lens
Photography from Thetford Forest taken through a misted camera lens.
Canon 6D with 24-105mm f/1.4, May 2014.
from Thetford Through a Misted Lens
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Preparing for Bedgebury
Having said goodbye to Cannock Chase, we’re now beginning preparations in earnest for the final site of the Living Symphonies 2014 tour: at Bedgebury National Pinetum (Forestry Commission website). It’s an incredible location, a living archive of trees; read more about our Bedgebury ecology survey for a little insight into what we encountered.
With a range of flora far broader (and more global) than any of the previous sites, we’re looking forward to bringing Living Symphonies to Bedgebury as the tour’s closing location. For any London-based visitors who’d like to catch the piece in its final incarnation, we’re also offering another crowd-funded coach trip, on 31st August direct from the centre of the city.
from Preparing for Bedgebury
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Photo Surveys
During the site survey at each installation site, we photograph each metre square of the 600m2 area of the forest.
The photographs are stitched together by hand, creating a composite image that act as both a reference point and visual representation of the forest floor.
I. Thetford Forest
II. Fineshade Woods
III. Birches Valley, Cannock Chase
IV. Bedgebury Pinetum
from Photo Surveys
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Cannock – Twilight walk
This evening at Cannock Chase, we held a special twilight walk, in which the composition could be heard transforming as dusk fell and nocturnal species emerge. The wildlife here is quite different to that of the previous dusk walk in Fineshade: here, bats and frogs flitted their way through the descending murk, joined by the sporadic owl passing overhead.
Thank you to everybody who came down and made it a special night.
from Cannock – Twilight walk
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Super Sense meets Living Symphonies in Bedgebury
Super Sense in Cannock Chase
What happens in the woods when you’re not looking? What sound does the tree make when you’re not watching it? Want to find out? Led by Super Sense’s blind facilitator and coach Andy Shipley this 2 hour activity will combine the imersion of Andy’s “Super Sense” experience with the immersive spatial audio of Living Symphonies.
Super Sense is an interactive workshop that enables participants to leave nonsense and common sense behind and switch to a deeper, more powerful level of awareness.
By giving your eyes a rest and allowing your non-visual senses a chance to do their stuff, you will have a deeper appreciation of the richness of the woodland and their unique unfolding soundscapes.
Who should come?
Anyone wishing to get up close and personal with nature in a different way.
Price £10 per person.
Book a place here.
Super Sense is a partnership project that Andy Shipley, a visually impaired facilitator and Coach has developed and trialled with TYF a Pembrokeshire based outdoor adventure company. Through Super Sense we aim to help people re-engage with their non-visual senses and develop more open, trusting relationships with those with whom they live and work.
from Super Sense meets Living Symphonies in Bedgebury
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Buy coach ticket to Living Symphonies Bedgebury
For the final edition of Living Symphonies, in the stunning surroundings of Bedgebury National Pinetum, Kent, we are operating a crowd-funded coach in conjunction with Nationwide Coaches.
The coach will travel direct from London Liverpool Street to the installation site in Bedgebury National Pinetum on Sunday 31 August 2014, with tickets priced at just £15 return. It’s significantly easier, cheaper and more fun than the train. Like a Kickstarter, it only runs if the coach books up, so please tell your friends!
Outwards: From London Liverpool Street at 10am
Return: From Bedgebury National Pinetum at 5pm
Places can be booked securely through Paypal (including credit and debit cards) here. If we don’t reach capacity, your payment will be refunded in full.
Please note that an email will be sent to the address associated with your Paypal account with full details of the pickup time and location. If you have not received this at least a few days before the event, please get in touch with further information. The coach can’t wait and missed tickets are not refundable, so don’t be late!
from Buy coach ticket to Living Symphonies Bedgebury
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Super Sense meets Living Symphonies on Sunday 27th July
Super Sense meets Living Symphonies
Join Super Sense on Sunday 27th July at 1.30pm in Cannock Chase Forest for a unique was to experience Living Symphonies
What happens in the woods when you’re not looking? What sound does the tree make when you’re not watching it? Want to find out? Led by Super Sense’s blind facilitator and coach Andy Shipley this 2 hour activity will combine the imersion of Andy’s “Super Sense” experience, with the melodious magic of Living Symphonies.
Super Sense is an interactive workshop that enables participants to leave nonsense and common sense behind and switch to a deeper, more powerful level of awareness.
By giving your eyes a rest and allowing your non-visual senses a chance to do their stuff, you will have a deeper appreciation of the richness of the woodland and their unique unfolding soundscapes.
Who should come?
Anyone wishing to get up close and personal with nature in a different way.
Price £10 per person
Super Sense is a partnership project that Andy Shipley, a visually impaired facilitator and Coach has developed and trialled with TYF a Pembrokeshire based outdoor adventure company. Through Super Sense we aim to help people re-engage with their non-visual senses and develop more open, trusting relationships with those with whom they live and work.
from Super Sense meets Living Symphonies on Sunday 27th July
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Special evening event at Cannock Chase Forest on Thursday 31st July
On Thursday 31 July you are invited to join us for a special free evening of Living Symphonies (car parking charges apply). Meet us at the Birches Valley Forest Centre at 7.30pm.
Come along and listen to the sounds of the forest as nocturnal species become active in the twilight. Experience the unique ecology of Cannock Chase Forest after dark and meet the artists behind the project. Please do wear sturdy footwear, bring a torch and an optional cushion or blanket to sit on!
from Special evening event at Cannock Chase Forest on Thursday 31st July
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Nature on Living Symphonies
Noah Baker from Nature, the international weekly journal of Science, came to visit us and explore how Living Symphonies works.
from Nature on Living Symphonies
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Fineshade: Summer Solstice Dusk Walk
For the first time on the Living Symphonies tour, we were thrilled to be able to offer Fineshade visitors the opportunity to visit the piece as twilight fell. A forest ecosystem changes dramatically as the cover of darkness begins to creep in; as songbirds return to their nests, furtive creatures such as woodmice, rabbits and deer begin to emerge into the open. The composition gradually alters to reflect these changes, altering its patterns to introduce the noctural animals.
The descending gloom simultaneously makes for a focused listening environment, fostering a renewed sense of immersion in the space.
The dusk walk coincided with the summer solstice, marking the longest day of the year. Even at 10pm, the last vestiges of light remained as we collectively left the forest for the night.
from Fineshade: Summer Solstice Dusk Walk
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