In August 2025, 1 peat bog, 8 soil sensors, 2 microcontrollers (talkie boxes), 1 turf of peat in a bag, 1 turf of peat in a box, 1 viola, 2 humans, 1 pen and 1 inflatable bubble formed A Boggy, Gassy, Bubbly Ensemble (Part One).
A soil sensor network installed on a degraded ‘Cinderella’ peat bog in the Cambrian Mountains, West Wales, translated the shifts in temperature, moisture, and gas within the peat into electrical signals. These signals were carried to a series of custom-built ‘talkie boxes’ where they were digitised and interpreted as streams of data. The data was sonified so that the living processes of the bog could be heard in real time—transforming raw measurements into a live, audible ‘bog voice’.
The data sonified real-time measurements from both inside and outside a 3.5-metre white inflatable bubble. Inside and outside the bubble, Benedict Taylor, composer and musician, improvised in response to the data, and outside the bubble, visual artist Miranda Whall, transcribed the data onto its exterior surface in pen.
In this multisensory, multispecies performance, peat, air, time, and breath formed the elemental score. Peat spoke through centuries of carbon, decay, and memory; air moved invisibly within the bubble; time was drawn in ink across the bubble’s surface; and breath was shared, held, and exchanged.
This film by hijack film, was filmed at the Pwllpeiran Upland Research Centre, one of the CO2RE GGR – Peat Demonstrator Project sites, where scientists are testing innovative methods for removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through accelerated peat restoration. The film presents a performance that integrates expanded drawing and music with scientific data to give a unique voice to peat – one of the most carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth.
Known as ‘black gold’, peat is the unsung hero in the climate crisis story. Peat not only has the potential to capture millions of tonnes of CO₂ per year through greenhouse gas removal (GGR) methods, but it also has the potential to release CO2., so the race is on to restore our carbon-rich wetlands to carbon sinks rather than carbon sources.
With special thanks to Ashley Calvert, Prof Mariecia Fraser, Dr Fred Labrosse, Dr Neal Snooke, Prof Andrew Thomas, Dr Pete Todd, and the staff at Pwllpeiran Upland Research Centre.
Funded by CO2RE – The Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub, Oxford University, Rural Futures Hub and The Worlds We Want Hub, Aberystwyth University.
Film direction and editing by Gilly Booth, sound performance and composition by Benedict Taylor, motion graphics by Paul Plowman, stills photography by Ashley Calvert
A hijack and Miranda Whall production 2025.
Below is the 7.54-minute film..
Photos by Ash Calvert and film stills by Gilly Booth, hijack film
Benedict Taylor
In May 2026, I will be inviting musicians Susana Santos Silva, Claire Bergerault and Camille Emaille (and possibly a Butoh dancer and another musician) to stage The Boggy Gassy Bubbly Ensemble (Part Two)
The ensemble will include: The peat bog, 8 soil sensors, 6 ‘Talkie Boxes’, 3 turves of peat in bags, 3 turves of peat in boxes, 1 trumpet, several percussion instruments, a human voice box, 7 humans, 1 pen and 3 inflatable bubbles.
This project will be supported by CO2RE – The Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub, Oxford University, and produced in collaboration with ArtBomb.
The film The Boggy Gassy Bubbly Ensemble (Part One and Two) by Gilly Booth, hijack film, will be available early June 2026.