Saturday 23rd May 2026, 18.50pm – 22.15 pm
whenpeatspeaks.eventbrite.co.uk
When Peat Speaks: A Boggy Gassy Bubbly Ensemble is a multisensory, multidisciplinary interspecies performance by artist Miranda Whall.
The performance will be staged at sunset on a degraded “Cinderella” peat bog in the Cambrian Mountains of West Wales. The bog is one of the GGR–Peat Demonstrator Project field sites, where scientists at Pwllpeiran Upland Research Centre are testing innovative methods for removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through accelerated peat restoration.
The ensemble features improv musicians John Butcher (saxophone), Matt Davis (trumpet), Angharad Davies (violin), Butoh dancer Yumino Seki, and visual artist Miranda Whall. The performance incorporates inflatable bubbles, an agri-sensor network, and multiple custom-made microcontrollers — “talkie boxes” — alongside the bog itself.
When Peat Speaks integrates expanded drawing, music, and dance with scientific data to offer a unique voice to peat — one of the most carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth. Often described as “black gold,” peatlands are an unsung hero in the climate crisis story: they have the potential to store vast amounts of carbon, yet when degraded they can also become significant sources of emissions.
Body-worn sensors and a soil-sensor network installed on the bog detect subtle electrical variations as the peat temperature, moisture, carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) levels and air humidity shift. These signals are converted into digital readings — sets of numbers — which, through the talkie boxes, become a spoken score: a pre-recorded vocalisation of the digits. In this way, the bog’s living processes can be heard in real time, transforming raw measurement into an emergent “bog voice.”
At twilight, the musicians and Butoh dancer will migrate across the peatland, improvising in response to the data stream, the shifting conditions of the ecosystem, the upland landscape, and to each other. Simultaneously, Whall will transcribe the live data onto the exterior surfaces of the bubbles in pen, inscribing the fluctuating readings as they are broadcast. In this elemental score, peat, air, time, electrical current, and breath converge. Peat will speak through centuries of carbon, decay, and memory; air will move invisibly within and around the bubbles; and time will be drawn in music, movement, and ink.
With special thanks to Prof Mariecia Fraser, Dr Neal Snooke, Dr Fred Labrosse, Prof Andrew Thomas, Dr Pete Todd, the staff at Pwllpeiran Upland Research Centre, and Ashley Calvert.
Funded by CO2RE — The Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub, Oxford University; Rural Futures Hub, Aberystwyth University;The Worlds We Want Hub, Aberystwyth University; and supported by ArtBomb UK.
A film by Gilly Booth (Hijack Film) will be released shortly after the event.
