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Multispecies Mingling and the Art of Attentiveness
When Earth Speaks is an exhibition and performance by artist Miranda Whall which explores the intersection between art and science. It was conceived through a NERC funded cross-disciplinary research project: Making the invisible visible: Instrumenting and interpreting an upland landscape for climate change resilience led by Prof Mariecia Fraser from IBERS, Aberystwyth University, and developed through a subsequent NERC funded cross disciplinary research project: Multispecies Politics in Action led by Prof Milja Kurki, Interpol, Aberystwyth University.
When Earth Speaks draws upon a continuous data stream generated by a 12-sensor soil network installed for the Making the invisible visible project in the Cambrian Mountains, the Elenydd plateau, known as the Ffridd (the upland fringe) 600m approx.
When Earth Speaks: A Dirty Ensemble is an innovative and interdisciplinary performance that integrates science, nature, technology, and art to explore interconnectedness, and the relationship between humans and the natural world. Human and non-human performers, such as the mountain itself, the soil, sensors, data, musicians, a Butoh dancer, a visual artist, and robotics will collectively generate a multidimensional and immersive experience for both performers and the audience.
The data stream, broadcast live into the theatre from the Cambrian mountains, Mid Wales offers a unique real-time interaction with the natural environment. The emergent, dynamic, and unpredictable performance will evolve in real-time as the performers respond to the landscape, each other, the fluctuations and patterns of the data, the changes and rhythms of the earth, the soil ecosystem; interrelating micro and macro-organisms, air, water, minerals, organic matter, complex food webs, nutrient cycles, and feedback loops etc.
When Earth Speaks explores intersemiotic translations between numerical code and non- verbal language; visual art, music, and dance to offer new modes of representation and interpretation of an environmental scientific study. It offers a timely critique on how we understand and manage the complex entangled relationship between nature, scientific data, and humans, and how each element of this triad influences and is being influenced by the other. It prompts reflection on the often reductive and homogenizing narratives inherent to data collection, analysis, and representation, and how it is shaped by power dynamics, biases, and inequalities. The project serves as a catalyst for dialogue and action to ensure the sustainability and equity of both human and non-human entities within our entangled ecosystems.
Saturday 8th June 7.00pm – 9.00pm
£12.00 (£8.00 consessions)
Theatr y Werin, Aberystwyth Arts Centre
https://aberystwythartscentre.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173645939
Funded by LADA, (Live Art Development Agency)
My multiplicitous practice is one of getting close and being with, of becoming a creature of the mud, the matter and the flesh of the world, an exploration of our need to develop a decentered, non – hierarchical, more ethical and complex relationship to our environment and non–human others: plants, animals and technology simultaneously. Through a range of media I am exploring interspecies dynamics using a gentle, economical, transformative and socio- political practice.
Miranda Whall 2024