When Earth Speaks to..
When Earth Speaks to..
When Earth Speaks to Harp
I was invited to do When Earth Speaks for the COP/A element of Aberetwm ‘A place based, people led happening to mark the 50th anniversary of Aberywtwyth Arts Centre 3rd – 8th May 2023, Aberystwyth’, directed by artist and creative director Marc Rees. The COP/A takeover was an event comprising of art works, films, performances, talks and dance in and around the Arts Centre on Monday 8th May.
I did ‘When Earth Speaks to Harp’ for the COP/A Aberetwm on 8th May 2023 with Kay Kay Samantha Davies
Kay, an artist and musician allocated the ‘dirty data’ – the numbers I was reciting and drawing to notation, so for example the number 1 to ‘C’, 2 to ‘D’, 3 to ‘E’ and so on, so for example 9.3412837 became D,E,F,C,D,C,E,B, on the harp, all set to my vocal tones translated to key chord D’mjr F♯, C♯.
It was another step in the development of this work, mentally and physically challenging and not quite there yet but there was a wonderful synergy between my voice and the notes on the harp, we generated a kind of airy bubble in the centre of the very busy and loud Great Hall Foyer of the Arts Centre. The performance created an insistent, intense, slow and gentle rhythm, either as an illegible (maybe annoying) background noise to the people who were chatting in the cafe, or for those that sat with the work for a few minutes or some time – a more meaningful conversation between the earth and its relentless string of digits and the plucked, pulled, pushed and stoked strings of a harp. But at the heart of the exchange was of course a disconnect.
Kay and I drifted in and out of consciousness, sometimes aware of each other and others times not, sometimes aware of the room and other times not. The tender and reciprocal encounter lasted for 6 hours.
Photos by Mike Varney, 2023
When Earth Speaks to Plants
Photos and film by Mike Varney and Ashley Calvert
When Earth Speaks to Humans
Over four days I migrated around the Arts Centre setting the drawing table up in a different location each day. I set out to draw the data emitted from 12 Agri- sensors over the month of October. The Agri – sensor network registers and records the imperceptible fluctuations in soil temperature and soil moisture every 15 minutes, continuously. The finished drawing, once finished, will contain 3,968 numbers, (27, 776 digits approx.) emitted over 744 hours (31 days). The performance times and dates: were 9.30am – 4.30pm, Wednesday 15th, Thursday 16th, Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd March.
Photos and film by Mike Varney and Ashley Calvert, 2023