Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Wildlife category.
Advanced wildlife sound recording course
27 May 2012
Last weekend I was taking sound recordings of wildlife at Whitwell Common and Foxley Wood in Norfolk. This was all part of the Advanced wildlife sound recording course organised by Wildeye.
The group of sound artists, gamers, composers, musicians and recordists set off into Foxley Wood at 2.30am on Sunday, with the aim to capture the sounds of the dawn chorus. We walked quickly together in the dark guided by a few head torches, splitting off into narrow corridors of trees to find our own spot to set up our equipment. I used a parabolic dish with NT55 Rode condenser microphone, using a Marantz PMD660.
Later on that day I captured the intimate and hidden sounds of Whitwell garden using a contact microphone (to pick up vibrations rather than air pressure) and a nearby lake, using a pair of hydrophones (under water microphones) to record the sounds of the under water creatures and plants. I did a few experiments with the contact microphones- wrapped them around a wire fence, let bugs walk across them, hung paper over the wire and let it flutter in the wind causing vibrations, but haven’t included the recordings as the results were too quiet.
The course was led by Chris Watson, one of the world’s leading wildlife sound recordists, known for working with the BBC. He has also released four solo award-winning albums of field recordings. Jez Riley French uses experimental field recording techniques, builds his own contact microphones, hydrophones and creates ‘intuitive compositions’ based around the notion of audible silence and stillness for soundscapes, music and performances.
Below are some sound recordings from the course, they are all raw tracks with no effects. Please excuse the odd creek and gurgle; I was holding the parabolic dish in all of the recordings (apart from those that where recorded using a hydrophone)- next time I shall use a tripod, and my stomach was gurgling in the dawn chorus tracks as we were up super early and I was hungry!
Dawn chorus with Roe Deer, 3.27 mins: A recording taken at Foxley Wood at approx 4.30am. I used a parabolic dish and aimed it at the edge of the wood, so that I could pick up a selection of birdsong and the sound of a male roe deer, rather than the overall ambience of the wood.
Dawn chorus with blue tit, 4.56 mins: This recording was taken shortly after the one above and features a particularly loud blue tit singing his heart out!
Wood pigeons in Whitwell Hall gardens, 6.56 mins: I’m really pleased with this recording as I had tried to record the sound of feral and wood pigeons in Leicester by the canal and had never really got a decent recording as it was so noisy and based near to the city centre. This was recorded in the car park at Whitwell Hall using a parabolic dish, NT55 microphone and the Marantz.
Hydrophone Norfolk lake, 5.42 mins: This was the last recording taken during the weekend, I hadn’t been able to hear any under water life and had almost given up, when I found a nice spot at the end of the trail (I’m guessing for fishing?) I cant identify what I heard but I have been told that the buzzing sound will be underwater insects and the bubbles will be plants giving off oxygen.
Vesch exhibition
28 April 2012
Egg 1
Egg 2
Egg 3
Egg 4
Within the last 3 months Ive been working on sound installations (with and without visual elements), to investigate the relationship between humankind and birds, and the cultural significance birds play to human societies.
I’m a keen bird watcher/listener, not so much a ‘binoculars around the neck type’, but someone who has developed knowledge of the birds in my area, and appreciates birdsong. My fascination for birds has led to meetings with bird watching groups, pigeon fanciers, pet shop owners and animal behavioural psychologists.
Text below taken from artist statement for the Vesch exhibition as part of the Leicester Lo-Fi photography group:
For this exhibition Stevens has taken the notion of ‘Vesch’ loosely translated as ‘an object with a human soul/spirit’ and chosen to produce a series of silver gelatin contact prints showing a chicken egg, which appears to be x-rayed.
In this series of photographs (taken using the iphone4), the egg shell has been burnt using a candle until completely covered with black ash (carbon) and then photographed at various stages; half burnt, fully burnt and then underwater.
‘Egg 3′ and ‘Egg 4′ are both suspended in water and appear to be transparent or to have a reflective surface. This effect is caused by the material becoming hydrophobic (water repellent) and the refraction of light creating the illusion of a mirror.
Visuals for Project Pigeon Watch
19 February 2012
Colour morphs (as part of project pigeon watch, 2011)
Courting Pigeons (as part of project pigeon watch, 2011)
Colour morphs (as part of project pigeon watch, 2011), is a sculpture that uses cable ties to represent the average number and colour of pigeons over a year.
I had many different ideas for a visual representation, including bar charts (using photographs taken during my observations of pigeons), paper beaks, plaster casts of pigeon feet (there’s a pair in my studio!), coloured strips of vinyl measuring the same distance of a pigeons wing span, repeat patterns to represent the shape and movement of bird flight and many more… but the cable tie sculpture was something that I was able to create instantly in my studio as a starting point to fuel other works.
Observing pigeons may not sound like the most interesting and exciting subject matter, but I’ve found it a great opportunity to connect with nature. Even though pigeons are an urban bird, domesticated by humans it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are less interesting and intelligent than other rare and beautiful birds. Through observing pigeons and meeting pigeon fanciers I’ve learnt that they are one of the most intelligent birds, with an important social and political history, (as messengers with excellent navigation skills and the capacity to learn), making them familiar with mankind, even if they are not as well-loved as they once were.
Courting Pigeons (as part of project pigeon watch, 2011) is a work in progress. Each plastic bag represents a pigeon and is filled with one pound of bird grit (the average weight of a pigeon). A selection of filled bags are positioned on top of each other (in courting positions) and some balanced on top of glass jars containing a liquid to represent crop milk (which is secreted by both male and female pigeons to feed their young). Im hoping to collect more jars and fill more plastic bags to a total of 79 to create an installation in my studio space.
Donna Nook Seals
19 November 2011
The Seals at Donna Nook are important to wildlife watchers around the UK and Europe, attracting 40,000 visitors to the Lincolnshire coast each year. More than half of the worlds grey seal population lives and breeds around the UK coast. The largest populations are found at Donna Nook in Lincolnshire, on the Farne Islands, the Cornish coast and Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland.
Despite a large group of visitors I was able to record the sound of the seals and their young, as they were positioned very close to the shore line, (females or ‘cows’ give birth between September and November). The equipment I used to capture the recordings was an omni-directional microphone and a parabolic dish, the dish was particularly helpful to focus and amplify the sounds of the seals in such a tourist- heavy environment. On the soundtrack (below) the sound of two male (bull) grey seals can be heard in an aggressive attack (bear in mind they are the largest mammals found in the UK), whilst the haunting cries of a seal pup yelps at its mother for more milk (they can drink up to 3 litres in a day). More than 1,000 seal pups have been born at Donna Nook this year.
Listen to Donna Nook seals 2011, approx 2 minutes
Exchange Bar art exhibition
17 November 2011
The artists at Wright Studio (based at Faircharm Industrial Estate, off Evelyn Drive), exhibited work created at the studio (including work in progress) at The Exchange Bar in Leicester… since then there have been discussions for the group to exhibit at the bar on a regular basis. As part of the exhibition I decided to exhibit Feeding Frenzy and Baguette Microphone.
Baguette Microphone at the Exchange bar
Artist from Wright studios exhibit at the Exchange bar
Feeding Frenzy exhibited at the Exchange bar
Tumble at the Pigeon Wing
15 Oct 2011
Tumble, Multi-channel audio installation for racing pigeons by Matt Lewis
A great exhibition based on pigeon flight patterns by artist Matt Lewis at The Pigeon Wing, in the Guild House on Rollins Street, London. I met Matt who was kind enough to show me and fellow sound artist Esther around the exhibition and even took us onto the roof of the exhibition space to meet the pigeons responsible for creating his latest body of work.
Following his state side residency at Diapason, New York, Matt Lewis is producing a generative multi-channel audio installation for carrier pigeons. This project explores pigeon racing culture, multi-channel audio performance and notions of musical score.
Text from The Pigeon Wing Gallery: We currently have racing pigeons on The Pigeon Wing roof, Matt Lewis is training them ready for flights later this month. During the two weeks that the installation runs in the gallery space, the pigeons will be fitted with GPS tracking devices and released from various locations around city and will fly back to their loft above the gallery space. The flight routes – tracked by GPS – will form the musical structure of the piece, with the coordinates of their flight, airspeed and distance defining which audio material is triggered, all audio will be drawn from environmental recordings made from the gallery roof. The audio will be in multi-channel with 4.1 separate audio channels. Also displayed will be a visual score generated from the flight information, forming a composition of the birds’ performance in retrospect. This score will be performed by musicians on 15th Oct. In addition to the installation there will be screenings of documentaries on pigeon culture. This project was made possible with the support of Diapason Gallery, New York.
Project Pigeon talk at The New Art Gallery Walsall
3 Sept 2011
Alex and Ian from Project Pigeon invited me to talk about my art practice and my current projects inspired by pigeons, at The New Art Gallery Walsall. I spoke about my fascination with the group of feral pigeons at a canal in Leicester, Don’t Shoot the Messenger sound walk, Project Pigeon, an artist residency in France inspired by the Pigeon Post into Paris during the Franco Prussian War and the recent experiments with pigeons and nature print paper and a baguette microphone.
Project Pigeon will be organising a series of pigeon-related events over the coming weekends at the gallery including:
Sat 10 Sept, 11am – 5pm: An exhibition of over 50 breeds of pigeon.
Sat 17 Sept, 11am – 5pm: A free film screening of pigeon-related movies, including artist Lyndall Phelps’ ‘Pigeon Archive’, footage from a camera attached to a pigeon.
Sat 24 Sept, 11.30am – 4pm: An auction day of racing pigeons and a pigeon release from the gallery terrace at 3.30pm. See www.project-pigeon.co.uk for further info.
Baguette microphone
20 July 2011
The ha
lf-baked baguette worked as a perfect host for my NT55 Rode microphone. Previous recordings of pigeons at the canal had been distorted due to the loud sounds coming from the nearby factory and also the canal, in particular the weir.
The pigeons took a little coaxing, (there was already a pile of bread crumbs left by someone else to compete with!) to feed off the baguette microphone, but once they started it was a challenge to get them to stop and they quickly found the microphone.
I wanted to record the sounds of pigeons feeding and was inspired by Chris Watson, at a course organised by Wild Eye. He spoke about his time in the dessert recording the sound of vultures feeding off a dead zebra carcass and how he had successfully added a microphone to the skeleton.
I walk along the canal and see the pigeons everyday, if they have been left food they tear it apart, so it is more manageable to eat, by flinging it with their beaks, fighting off seagulls and other birds. I wanted to record this intimate sound, but what I got was a muffled recording. The hum of the factory, the occasional snort, squeak and wing flap from a pigeon, but mainly an aggressive pecking which sounded like an attack on the microphone. This wasn’t the best way to record pigeons feeding, the microphone had an omni-directional head on it, so no matter where the pigeon was feeding from, its ‘peck’ could be heard. Perhaps next time I need to use a clip tie microphone attached to the baguette or make a frame for it to sit in above the bread to be able to take a more realistic and clear recording.
Listen to baguette microphone approx 2.30 mins
Feeding Frenzy sun prints
17 July 2011
There’s a few ideas for projects involving pigeons, paint, sun print paper, bread, seed, fans, projections, whistles, monitors and video that I want to try out.
I drove to the canal to have a go at the sun print paper idea.
I wanted to use a different method to document feeding the pigeons, so I used sun print paper (or nature print paper). The paper is coated with light sensitive chemicals that react when exposed to light. When solid objects are placed on the paper, they block the light and turn white, while the paper around them remains blue. To encourage the pigeons to stand on the paper and essentially make their mark, I covered the paper with bread and seed. It wasn’t hard to encourage the pigeons to feed off the paper, as this is the same group of birds I usually feed every Wednesday for Project Pigeon Watch (gathering one year’s worth of data on pigeon colour morphs and courtship behaviour, to produce a sound composition). I drove to the canal so that I could use the boot of my car as a processing area. It had a tray of water that was used to ‘fix’ the image after approx 1 minute exposure to sunlight.
CAMAC artist residency in France
7 May 2011
I have spent a month at CAMAC (art, science, technology organisation), based in Marnay-sur-Seine, as part of an artist residency programme. As a result I have created 3 new sound installations, inspired by the pigeon post into Paris. Developed from a series of experimental studio works, all 3 sound installations were shown as part of the Open studio event at CAMAC on 28 April.
Marnay-sur-Seine is rural and remote and CAMAC is positioned with the River Seine on one side and a transport canal on the other. Every morning I was woken by a chorus of birds and the first chime of the day by the church bell. At dusk a chorus of frogs could be heard from the River Seine. Ive kept a blog to document my time at CAMAC and will use the new sound installations to fuel further work now that Im back in Leicester… all I need now is a studio space!
Canal cams
28 March 2011
*UPDATE: Unfortunately all 5 pinhole cameras were removed while I was away in France, so I was unable to capture any images from the cameras.
Ive made 5 pinhole cameras from beer cans and attached them to locations at the canal (near the Rally park), in Leicester. These ‘cameras’ contain photo paper which will capture an image (long exposure photograph), of all the activity at the canal between Sat 26 March – Sat 30 April. Take a look at Justin Quinnell’s website- he truly is the godfather when it comes to long exposure pinhole photography, some of his work has used pinhole to capture 6 month duration images.
As I will not be in Leicester to feed the pigeons (as part of Project Pigeon Watch), during April, this is one way to see what Ive missed. Fingers crossed the cameras will survive until I return!
Bird recording
27 March 2011
Attenborough Nature Reserve. Image by Simon Cruickshank
Since 2007, I have been making sound recordings using in-ear microphones to produce binaural audio walks and installations. Since March 2010, Ive been keen to use different methods of recording sound, particularly the sound of birds. With advice from Wildeye, Jez Riley and the Wildlife Sound Recording Society, I have purchased a parabolic dish from Telinga and a Rode NT55 compact condenser microphone. The parabolic dish acts as a focal point for sound to be captured by the microphone, it is such a powerful tool for recording bird song that it has been described as making the sound 10 times closer to the person recording the sound. It is a non- intrusive way of recording birds from a distance, without scaring them away. A parabolic dish is “an acoustical filter, approximately compensating for distance.”
Last weekend I went to several places to test out the recording equipment, including the Attenborough Nature Centre in Nottinghamshire, the canal in Leicester (Rally Park), Watermead Country Park and Bradgate Park.
Here’s some recordings from that weekend:
Attenborough Nature Reserve, with a train track nearby it can be quite noisy, but it was large enough to be able to record some decent bird songs/calls.
Attenborough 1: Approx 2 mins, Celebrating getting the new mic to work, blue tits, geese, horses, a wood pigeon flying past, magpie? and the water lapping at our feet.
Attenborough 2: Approx 1 min and my favourite recording from the day: Blue tits, geese, gulls and mallards!
Contact microphones pick up vibrations, rather than air pressure. Here is the sound of a contact microphone wrapped around a steel fence that is being pinged and slapped and also the placed on the throat area to pick up the vibrations of the voice box.
Steel smack and throat: Approx 1 min 30 secs
Canal in Leicester (Rally park), a bit dodgy but still one of my favourite places in Leicester. The recording was distorted because of the sound of the weir and the factory nearby. Ive not added the recording, as I can barely make out the sound of any wildlife, let alone the pigeons.
Watermead Country Park, a great place for bird watching and not bad for recording sound, although it is positioned next to a dual carriage way, so the sound of traffic can interfere with recordings. Recording coming soon.
Bradgate Park, the biggest park of all the above and the only one with wild deer and a dovecote. This is where I was able to record the sounds of the birds (and pigeons!) and a bee trying to push its way under the earth. Recording coming soon.
Wildlife Sound Recording Society
23 March 2011
I’m a member of the Wildlife Sound Recording Society. The Society welcomes anyone who is interested in or has an appreciation of the sounds made by wildlife. Ive joined to develop a network with other sound artists and to learn which sound recording equipment is best for recording birds.
Roger Charters (another member of WSRS), has had many years experience recording the sounds of wildlife. He invited me to his house to discuss my interests, share his experiences and pass on some helpful tips and advice on purchasing sound recording equipment. We went to a nature reserve nearby in Leamington Spa, I used Rogers directional mics (crossed over for a stereo effect) to record the sounds of the birds in the trees. The batteries on my Marantz recorder ran out, so below is a very short example of some of the recordings!
Camac artist residency
15 March 2011
Camac is an organisation in the rural village of Marnay-sur-Seine in France that hosts an artist residency programme, with the aim to bring together artists from all countries and disciplines in mid or advanced career stages.
I have been offered the opportunity to complete an artist residency at Camac, between 1 – 30 April 2011. To follow my progress and for more info please visit www.parispigeonpost.wordpress.com
The residency will be used as an opportunity for research and development into the pigeon post into Paris during 1870- 1871. As part of this investigation I will visit the 11 pigeon contraception houses and Post Museum based in Paris, as well as interview residents and those that continue to break the law by stealthily feeding pigeons at night when no one is looking. Previous research into pigeon intelligence, pigeon fancying and Project Pigeonwatch (a project started in Oct 2010 to capture data on feral pigeon numbers and colour morphs), will act as a catalyst for experimental work in the studio environment of Camac.
The residency will mark a development in my practice as a sound artist by using contact microphones (to record vibrations, for example- bird footsteps, rather than air pressure), hydrophones (to record under water sound) and a parabolic dish, specifically designed for capturing bird song and other wildlife.
Project Pigeon workshops
22 Feb 2011
Project Pigeon works with pigeons and people to bring about social change. Alexandra Lockett and Ian England do lots of things with their pigeons, such as run workshops, make musical performances, curate exhibitions and design and build city centre lofts.
I got in touch with Alex and Ian to find out more and visit the loft in Digbeth, Birmingham. The first Project Pigeon workshop was last Saturday and saw a group of us huddled together around the loft, out of the rain, drinking tea and discussing pigeons. Pigeon history, pigeon fancying, pigeon racing… and how to cheat.
Two pigeon racers from the club Alex and Ian had recently joined were discussing the numerous methods that can be used to make pigeons fly faster (or at least appear to fly faster), including putting the clock that times the pigeon into the fringe or oven (to slow down or speed up the time) to win a race. There were many other techniques to increase speed and the overall productivity of the racing pigeons, but what struck me the most was just how competitive pigeon racing is. Pigeon racing club members or committees can decide whether a new member can join based on their track record (for racing pigeons). If a new member is seen to be joining all the local clubs and winning too many prizes then they can be turned down for membership or the zone for which they live can be altered so that it doesn’t include them. This may seem unfair or even petty but this attitude is most likely due to the fact that its members are very dedicated and spend a lot of time caring for and training their pigeons. Some club members do it to win cash prizes, others do it to be involved with the social side.
If you are curious about pigeons and want to learn more come along to the workshops at Digbeth, (run by Alex and Ian- both lovely people!) from now until April on Fridays and Saturdays.
Pigeon intelligence
8 Feb 2011
Pigeons are intelligent. They have the ability to ‘home’ and take advantage of feeding opportunities within their environment to survive. The evidence is in the cities thriving pigeon population.
How do pigeons successfully find their way home? There are many explanations including the use of smell, memory, the sun, the roads, landmarks and the earths electromagnetic field, but there is still no hard evidence that one method is better than the other. Could it be that all the theories relating to pigeon navigation are correct, and that pigeons use a combination of (learnt) skills and instinct to guide them on their journey?
I met with lecturer and researcher Dr Mark Haselgrove from the Faculty of Science at Nottingham University, who believes that pigeons use more than one method to navigate.
My research examines the mechanisms and properties of learning in humans and non-human animals. I am particularly interested in understanding how animals attend to and represent stimuli within the world. Most of my research has employed techniques such as appetitive Pavlovian conditioning with rats, and autoshaping with pigeons.
Autoshaping (sometimes called “sign tracking”) is any of a variety of experimental procedures used to study classical conditioning in pigeons. In autoshaping, in contrast to shaping, food comes irrespective of the behavior of the pigeon. Therefore it can be seen as a method of learning, in this experiment a pigeon was placed in a box and presented with an image to respond to and receive food.
Mark Haswell and his colleagues have developed a theory that pigeons have a photographic memory, that can be used to assist with autoshaping. Mark explains that the pigeon can recall the memory of the image (visual stimuli), like a photograph and use to successfully overlay and match up both images.
Autoshaping experiments can include images, colour, words and symbols for example:
Triangle shape image= food
Circle shape image= no food
Card 1- peck
Card 2- do not peck
Pigeons are very good at distinguishing letters, shape and colour to peck at in order to receive food. However, they are not very good at realising abstract shapes, and do not respond as well to sound or smell.
The data I have been collecting from the pigeons at the canal started in Oct 2009, I intend to collect a years worth of data (on numbers and colour morph). During this time I would also like to explore learning and memory in pigeons, by using autoshaping to produce a series of experiments. There are a few ways I could do this- by changing the colour of my coats, by wearing different perfume, by using an object they can associate with being fed and not being fed and exploring the use of different tonal sounds. At the moment the pigeons at the canal associate my green coat and my iphone with being fed.
There are also imitation experiments, including Automatic imitation and Counter imitation.
Humans often engage in automatic imitation without even realising it, when the sight of a friend, relative or a colleague moving in a particular way elicits the same movement in the observer.
In an experiment, budgerigars had to peck or step upon a small button for food reward whilst watching video recordings of another budgerigar either pecking or stepping on the same button. The scientists split the birds into two groups — one in which they were rewarded for imitation, the other in which they were rewarded for counter-imitation.
B.F. Skinner was a American behaviorist, author, inventor, social philosopher and poet. Skinner invented the operant conditioning chamber, (seen above) innovated his own philosophy of science called Radical behaviorism and founded his own school of experimental research psychology—the experimental analysis of behavior.
B.F. Skinner trains two pigeons to perform a chain of behaviours for the classroom demonstration. As a result, pigeons engage in a competition, the so-called ‘Pigeon Ping Pong’ (narrated by B.F. Skinner).
I’m a pigeon fancier
4 Dec 2010
I’m a pigeon fancier in the making, that doesn’t mean I fancy pigeons in some perverted way, it just means that I appreciate and admire them. I like to watch them walk and fly and listen to them coo. As Gary Marsh, a pigeon fancier that owns a pet shop a stones throw away from my house would say ‘They chill you out’.
Gary Marsh with his flock of pigeons
Pigeons are really intelligent. There’s a reason the pigeon population continues to grow and this is because of the increasing amount of feeding opportunities available in the city and because pigeons have great memory and eye sight. If a food stand, restaurant or individual regularly discards food or directly feeds them, they will remember and come back again and again. Perched on the roof tops they can spot a feeding opportunity and because they are social creatures, they share this news with each other, that’s why pigeons usually come in flocks.
Gary has offered me some space to keep my own pigeons
So what has this got to do with art?
At the moment I’m not quite sure but I’m having fun.
Pigeons (especially the feral ones) are easy to spot, unlike other rarer birds on a bird watchers list, pigeon numbers are in abundance.
I’m collecting data every Wednesday morning on pigeon numbers and colour morphs and sharing this with a composer to experiment with producing a musical composition and also with a science lab in New York to support their ongoing research into why pigeons exist in so many colours.
Im attending National Pigeon Association shows in the East Midlands to pick the brains of the most committed pigeon fanciers I can find. I’ve been very lucky to discover that I don’t have to travel to see fancy pigeons, as Gary Marsh who owns a pet shop has a shed full of the things!
I’m off to France for an artist residency at CAMAC, an art, science and technology organisation in April 2011 and intend to use all the data and information gathered this year and leading up to April to support with the production of new work.
At the moment I feel that I want to deepen my knowledge of pigeon fancying and possibly go as far as keeping my own pigeons so that I can develop a relationship with them, to gather sound and video recordings to support the creation of an audio tour or installation. I would also like to explore the possibility of attaching messages, CCTV cameras and GPS tracking devices to pigeons, to build up a visual of where they choose to fly and try to understand how they navigate on long journeys.
More images for Project Pigeonwatch
Who are the pigeon fanciers?
4 Dec 2010
The National Pigeon Association is the governing body of Fancy Pigeons in Great Britain. The NPA caters for over 200 varieties of Fancy and Flying Pigeons. The NPA has a wide variety of fanciers from the very experienced exhibitor to the novice, and are very keen to introduce young people into a rewarding and not necessarily expensive hobby.
I expected the pigeon show in Newark and West Bridgford to be full of men aged between 40 and 60 and I was right. I’ve only been to two pigeon shows and spoken to around 12 people, but have been welcomed into the world of pigeon fancying with open arms.
I admire the men (and the few women) who dedicate their time to this traditional hobby. Its obvious that pigeon fancying requires a huge amount of commitment, with most fanciers getting involved as children and some having kept pigeons for up to as long as 65 years.
Most of the men here today would rather sleep with their pigeons than their wives, that’s how serious and dedicated they are about keeping pigeons! John Elsdon, President of the National Pigeon Association for Great Britain.
I’ve met some of those dedicated men (and women) at the National Pigeon Association (NPA) Championship shows in Newark and West Bridgford.
John Elsdon, President of the NPA
John Elsdon is the president of the NPA of GB.
I’ve kept pigeons for 65 years. I have 100 pigeons that I keep in my garden loft. Its an important part of my life, I wouldn’t like to work out the amount of hours I’ve put into it. I don’t just judge shows, I write for a magazine and I’ve done that for many years.
I raced in my early days for 7- 8 years, it was good fun but expensive. There is a racing pigeon club in every town of Britain and can result in winning very big prizes. Its a very thrilling thing to do, to race pigeons, I can say that because I’ve done it. As much as I love these fancy pigeons and showing them I cant say that they make my hair stand on end like it did when I had a pigeon flying 513 miles from the Shetlands to my home.
Christine Right, former secretary of the NPA
Christine Wright is the former secretary of the NPA, she is now retired, but still attends the shows to help out.
I keep Modea pigeons, I have about 80 and show them at the NPA Championship shows. We (Christine and her late husband) would judge each others birds. He was in to it first and then I followed. You get into the hobby together and you’re never stuck for anything to talk about. We used to have competitions with each other. I sometimes won, but he didn’t like it when I did ha ha haaa! I did enjoy it.
When I got the life membership award from the NPA, I was proud. If I win a class, I take the birds home and tell them how clever they are, because they have stood there all day and looked so proud and won.
David Barraclough, President of the Modea Pigeon club
David Barraclough is the President for the National Modea club.
I keep Modea pigeons, Im showing 73 today. I’ve currently got 5 on victory row (this means that he has 5 pigeons selected and one will win overall best in show). I first brought my wife a pair of pigeons for her 19th birthday in 1976. But she wasn’t interested. She allows me to continue, but as far as she is concerned they are flying rats. Its good in some ways, she has got her own interest and we get on with it.
I’ve only been racing pigeons for 3 years but came 14th out of 687. The pigeon had to fly 207 miles and won me £210. A racing pigeon is an athlete, you put in a similar food regime as you would an athlete.
Richard Greenwood, pigeon fancier and member of the NPA
Richard Greenwood is a member of the NPA and a keen pigeon fancier.
I have had pigeons for 55 years and been showing for 45 years. I have 400 croppers, both the Spanish and English types. I’ve been awarded best Norwich and Spanish cropper today at West Bridgford’s NPA show.
Its about showing and winning. Coming second doesn’t mean anything, you spend as much time as you need to with them. Its all about regularity. The more you put in, the more you get out.
I’ve been married 40 years, I get 100% support from my wife, it doesn’t always go down well. When your dedicated you need to be a bit selfish. Maybe I should have sometimes put it on the back burner but I haven’t.
Jill Fisher, Pigeon fancier and member of the NPA
Jill Fisher shows as part of J&D Fisher. The ‘D’ stands for David that’s my husband.
Today I’ve won 7 firsts including best in show racers and best opposite sex show racer. Its very time consuming. We have a loft in the garden that is 31 ft long by 14 ft wide with separate compartments. The birds are cleaned everyday, given a bath every week and given conditioning seeds to keep their feathers in good condition.
Im the brains behind them. I was brought up with pigeons. My father kept pigeons, I was daddy’s little girl and would come with him to shows. I kept my own pet pigeon and showed as a youngster. I stopped showing because of work commitments and then about 11 years ago I started again.
I think you have to be obsessed. You clean, choose, basket and drive to come to the shows with very little financial gain, but they bring so much enjoyment. Its both stressful and relaxing.
Graham Bates, member of NPA management committee
Graham Bates is a judge at today’s NPA in West Bridgford and is a member of the NPA management Committee.
I’ve been involved with pigeons since I was 13 years old (Im 40 now so that’s a long while!) I’ve had experience of racing and fancy pigeons.
I keep 200 pigeons, the blowing types, called pouters. They are the types that hold air in their crop, all pigeons make a cooing sound when the air roles around in the membrane.
I am always trying to promote our hobby, its not everyone’s cup of tea as the public have a perception of pigeons as flying rats or rats with wings. Although pigeons can be very educational and change people’s perceptions. They all descend from the rock dove and people’s perceptions of doves are completely different to that of the pigeon.
Evan Murray, member of NPA management committee
Evan Murray started out as a pigeon fancier and for the last two years has been on the NPA management Committee. He is now a big part of the Nottingham shows and he now looks after the Blackpool show.
I’ve kept pigeons since I was 6 and kept for a total of around 48 years, so its been a life time hobby. I keep the blower breeds, but I’m more interested in the social side than the showing side. I did my showing as a young man.
Im an entertainer, everyone laughs at me because I kiss and cuddle everyone- women, kids, cats and dogs. Its part of the enjoyment, so people are made to feel welcome.
I met my wife through pigeons. I used to fly pigeons with her dad, so I can blame meeting my wife and being happily married for 37 years on falling in love with pigeons! Winning is nice, we all like to win, but its not the bee all and end all. That’s how I run my life, I try to be nice to everyone. Being well-known and well- liked to me is much more important.
Brian Brook, member of NPA management committee
Brian Brook is a member of the NPA management committee and ex President
I first became interested in pigeons as a child, when my sister gave me two Birmingham Rollers for my 6th birthday.Birmingham Roller pigeons fly up into the air and perform backward somersaults, the reasons for the rolling isn’t clear but some theories link the ‘performance’ as an epileptic fit.
Many fanciers have very supportive partners, my wife included, who is a judge, specialising in Chinese Owls (a type of fancy pigeon). I don’t know any of my fancier friends whose wife’s are totally dis- interested.
My proudest pigeon moment was winning the Doncaster show and getting best Chinese Owl three years in a row. I just love them, I just love birds. I love pigeons I’m not a rabbit man, my dad was. I’m a pigeon man always have been.
If I’m perfectly honest I think the pigeon fancier is dying out. If we were stood here in ten years, this conversation would not be taking place in the same way, I hope not, but I think that because I’ve seen the decline over the years.
More images for Project Pigeonwatch
Wednesday is feeding day
3 Nov 2010
Each Wednesday between 8.30am – 9.30am at the Rally Park, near the canal in Leicester I will thrown a small amount of bread for the pigeons and collect data on the following:
- The total number of pigeons
- The number of pigeons of each color morph (I will focus on 7 different colour morphs)
- The number of courting pigeons (and their colour)
I first started to collect data on Wed 13 Oct and will continue until 30 March 2011. Each month I will send this data to the Cornell Science Lab in NY, to support with their research into why pigeons exist in so many colours. I will also share the data with Alex Patterson, a young and very talented composer based in Nottingham, who will support with the composition and creation of a piece of music using the data by assigning each colour morph with a key (A – G). The composition will also take inspiration from the French composer and ornithologist Olivier Messiaen, who was inspired by bird song and Synesthesia, a neurological condition, in one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently coloured.
Colour morph/Key:
Red= A
Checkered= B
Spread= C
Blue bar= D
Red bar= E
White = F
Pied= G
Courting pigeons= two keys will be played together (depending on the colour) or substituted for a sharp/flat key
Data collected so far:
Wed 13 Oct 68 pigeons
Wed 13 Oct
Total number of pigeons= 68
Colour morphs:
Red= 11, Checkered=20, Spread= 12, Blue bar= 20,
Red bar= 2, White = 1, Pied= 2, Courting= 0
Wed 20 Oct 140 pigeons
Wed 20 Oct
Total number of pigeons= 140
Colour morphs:
Red= 10, Checkered= 43, Spread= 70, Blue bar= 6
Red bar= 2, White = 2, Pied= 7, Courting= 0
Wed 27 Oct 112 pigeons
Wed 27 Oct
Total number of pigeons= 112
Colour morphs:
Red= 8, Checkered= 61, Spread= 23, Blue bar= 13
Red bar= 1, White = 1, Pied= 5, Courting= 0
More images for Project Pigeonwatch
Why do pigeons exist in so many colours?
17 October 2010
Pigeons are all descended from the blue-bar Rock Pigeon, but over hundreds of years pigeons were selectively bred by humans for their colors, homing instincts, or racing abilities. As a result, captive flocks of different-colored pigeons were established all over the world. Eventually, captive birds escaped into the wild to become the feral, common pigeon flocks we see today.
Pigeons have never reverted to the colors of their wild relatives in the Mediterranean and beyond. No other feral animal has kept so many domestic colors for more than a few generations.
Scientists believe there are at least three possible explanations why there are so many colors of pigeons across the world:
- They don’t have many natural predators in cities.
- Food is abundant in cities.
- Assortative mating.
The data that I will collect will help the scientists at the Cornell lab in New York learn:
- why pigeons continue to exist in so many colors
- which color morphs pigeons prefer for mates
More images for Project Pigeonwatch
Project PigeonWatch
12 October 2010
I’m taking part in Project PigeonWatch for the Cornell lab of Ornithology in New York.
Project PigeonWatch is a citizen science project in which volunteers count pigeons and record the colours of courting pigeons. Pigeon watching can take place anywhere in the world where pigeons gather in flocks, are accustomed to being fed, and have close contact with people. The data reported back to scientists are crucial for this ongoing research, and pigeon watchers, in turn, learn about birds and how science and scientists work at the Cornell lab of Ornithology in NY.
The project helps people learn about the colouration and courtship behaviours of pigeons and tries to understand why pigeons exist in so many colours.
Rather than just gather data on how many pigeons I see and the variations in colour, I will create a map showing pigeon ‘hot-spots’ across Leicester city, capturing data using photography, video and sound recordings. One day a week, I will feed a group of pigeons that congregate by the canal side at the Rally Park, whilst also investigating where other flocks of pigeons gather for regular feeding opportunities across the city, including interviews with the people that feed them.
Learn more about the Cornell lab of Ornithology are why they are encouraging volunteers to count the different colour morphs and recording the colours of courting pigeons in many different cities to support scientific research. More images for Project Pigeonwatch
Developing Bread Suit
12 October 2010
In June 2010, I put on a boiler suit, taped bread to it and let feral pigeons feed of me because I wanted to gather the sounds of the pigeons feeding, using in- ear microphones to produce binaural audio recordings for a sound walk for Wirksworth Festival.
Since this initial event I have started to pin point where pigeons feed within Leicester city and will now be taking part in Project PigeonWatch (to collect data on pigeon courtship and colouration) with the Cornell lab of Ornithology in NY as a volunteer, but also looking for locations in which to feed pigeons using the ‘bread suit’, working in collaboration with Stephen Lynch photography to produce a series of images for video and stop frame animation works.
Keeping zebra finches
12 October 2010
French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot first solo exhibition in the UK at the Barbican, takes the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of 40 zebra finches, furnished with bass guitars and Gibson Les Paul electric guitars as perches, and cymbals as feeders containing water and seeds. As the birds go about their routine activities, plucking strings and pecking cymbals, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a random and captivating live soundscape.
The above exhibition and the fact that finches played an important role in the inception of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, inspired me to get my own finches.
I’ve had two male zebra finches since April 2010. They sit in their cage in my bedroom and are let out to investigate about 4 times a week, so much so that they have commandeered my bedroom light as their own. They regularly perch on my bedroom light and try to make a nest using torn up strips of newspaper from their cage- so far they have failed miserably. They also like to have a game of dares where each bird will fly as close to the window as possible (without hitting it) and fly back to the light… they also like to have flying routines or patterns where they fly from a light to the top of the wardrobe to my dressing table and then to the clock- starting again, whilst racing each other and knocking things over.
These birds are originally from central Australia and make the sound of a squeaky toy, so make a perfectly annoying alarm clock as soon as the sun comes up.
They are fascinating to watch and their calls are very infectious, often with friends repeating a song back to them. Finches find it emotionally rewarding to sing to female finches. After I purchased these two finches (still nameless but with many suggestions- daffy and squeak being amongst the list), I went back to the pet shop to record the remaining finches- which just happened to be two female finches. I played the recording back to the male finches to see what there reaction would be and to see if they would sing back to the recording.
Im not sure if I will ever know if this was an emotionally rewarding experience for the finches or just a form of torture? However, since the recordings were played to the finches they have been preparing the house that they sleep in at night by tearing newspaper and making a comfortable nesting area. The two males have also established their position- with one as the ‘hunter- gatherer’, in this case the one that tears the newspaper and makes the nest and gets to eat first and the other which also happens to be slightly smaller in size has taken on the less dominant role, spending his time close to the house/nest and following the dominant male when let out of the cage.
I will document their behaviour via video, photography and sound recordings.
Flock
13 September 2010
Flock is an origami bird installation consisting of 300 white swans, ducks and pigeons. It was installed with the support of the young curators on Friday 10 September and exhibited as part of Wirksworth Festival on Sat 11 and 12 September, 12.30- 4.30pm at Wirksworth teaching pool. A soundtrack accompanied the installation, created from several binaural audio recordings taken from Watermead Country Park in Leicestershire at 4am, when attending a dawn chorus to celebrate the return of hundreds of migratory birds.
The young curators made origami birds to float into the water and also decided where some of the birds would go, and helped attach to the wall and changing room as part of the installation.
Listen to flock
The birds were nailed into the wooden beams running across the ceiling and into the wall, window sills and changing rooms. Visitors were invited to make their own origami bird to launch into the pool and were also able to swim amongst the birds. The exhibition had around 240 visitors of all ages.
A selection of visitor comments:
I think that it is really fun!
I like the sounds.
Love it- George
Adam and Jack.
I think that it is very clever.
Its good- Josh.
I like it- Phoebe
Free/Serenity and good fun.
This was brilliant- Emily
Flock- origami bird installation with soundtrack
15 August
This weekend I met with the Wirksworth young curators; they want to commission me to produce a piece of art for the teaching pool in Wirksworth. I will put together a proposal and start to experiment with ideas and materials, keeping the group informed of any progression along the way… I’m thinking video projection, sound, origami birds, balloons, umbrellas and night time swimming!
This is a really exciting and rare opportunity for me to experiment with something other than sound, or to work with sound and another medium, such as video and sculpture.
The folding starts here...
Wirksworth teaching pool
A tiny 10m x 5m x 1m
Pigeon perceptions
30 June 2010
So its the final day of the WEA Bird watching course in Nottingham and I want to know the groups viewpoint on feral and wood pigeons. For starters feral pigeons aren’t even on the twitchers list of species as they don’t count, because they are not considered a pure breed and are a domesticated species.
The group are in agreement that the constant monotonous coo of the wood pigeon drives them potty!
Christine, works in the Lace Market in Nottingham and regularly hears the coo of a group of feral pigeons mating and nesting in the roof of the building opposite. When she was in the middle of her theses a wood pigeon sat on the roof of her house cooing constantly, it drove her crackers… so her husband got a broom with a tea towel on the end to try to scare it off… but it just flew back and carried on cooing!
Janet is annoyed that pigeons eat expensive bird feed and scare off other smaller birds and has noticed that roosting spikes have been added to Cotgrave shopping precinct to keep pigeons away, due to the damage they cause to buildings. Janet felt so strongly about pigeons as a nuisance that she said: If I ever see pigeon on the menu I always order it, in the hope that its the annoying pigeon from my garden!
Jenny used to rear wood pigeons for the RSPB, and has said that they aren’t as aggressive as some birds. Jenny doesn’t really mind pigeons, even though she does get a lot of them in her garden. I think its funny when they do their courting dances and puff out their chests.
And the good bits… pigeons tend to hoover up unwanted food and they are quite pretty.
Thanks to Christine Southerland, Jean Cook and Janet Fernley.
Don’t Shoot the Messenger at Wirksworth Festival
17 June 2010
Don’t Shoot the Messenger is a series of guided binaural audio walks, created specifically for different cities and towns based on the notion of a birds viewpoint of the landscape, looking down from the roof tops.
As part of the Don’t Shoot the Messenger project, I will produce a binaural audio walk for Wirksworth Festival to take place in September 2010. A separate blog to document my time in the town and meetings with residents will be added to www.wirksworthfestivalsoundwalk.wordpress
Bread suit
11 June 2010
As part of the Don’t Shoot the Messenger Project (see earlier blog entry here), I decided to gather further recordings of feral pigeons at the canal (Evansweir) that runs through the Rally Park in Leicester. This is the place where I was first inspired to look more closely at the wildlife that lives within the surrounding area, to learn more about their behaviour through bird watching courses, and to incorporate birdsong and calls into the creation of soundscapes.
To gather the best binaural audio recordings of feral pigeons, I had to be able to get as close to them as possible… so here is what I did.
Wearing an overall and using tape to attach bread to my arms, legs and body, I made my way down to the canal, hoping that the pigeons would feed off me.
I was all ready to go, I had my recording equipment ready, my in- ear microphones turned on, googles on (just in case a beak came to close to my eye!) As I edged closer to walk into the centre of the group of pigeons… they flew away and then looked at me oddly as if it were a trick. So I sat down, but still they weren’t very keen, so I threw some bread around me and a few shuffled closer. Then I laid down and before I knew it was surrounded by pigeons, pecking bread off my legs and arms and jumping on top of me, cooing madly.
The above is a short sample of the recordings taken at Leicester canal for entitled Bread suit for Don’t Shoot the Messenger
Please listen via stereo headphones. Approx 1 min
Big Tidy Up for birds in Leicester canal
22 May 2010
Big Tidy Up volunteers, Photograph by Alex Hannam Leicester Mercury
As a sound artist creating site specific walks and installations, I am inspired by my surroundings and have recently discovered a passion for wild life, in particular birds, identifying and learning birdsongs. The canal is home to a range of birds; Coots, Mute Swans, Moorhens, Canadian geese, Herons, Mallards and Wood Pigeons.
I wanted to find out how I could help to clean the canal and whose responsibility it was to keep it clean.
It turns out that the Leicester City Council have a department that is responsible for clearing the canal of rubbish at certain times of the year. My query was passed onto the Riverside Rangers and a date was set to clean the canal.
The initial idea to clean the canal was inspired during a regular journey through the Rally Park, to the train station. Walking past the canal (Evans Weir) that runs along the Rally Park in Leicester, It’s hard to not notice the large pockets of rubbish accumulating at the edge of the canal and in particular trapped within the basin. It is obvious that the canal has been neglected and used as a dumping ground for litter and unwanted objects for years. Not only is the canal at some points unsightly but the smell in the summer is over powering.
As part of this clean up I registered the event under The Big Tidy Up website, in the hope that this activity would raise awareness of the importance of our green spaces and wild life, but to also make the public aware that there are ways in which they can help out.
The Big Tidy Up team initially planned to clean the canal from Abbey Park to the Rally Park, but because the water was so full of rubbish, we decided to do a more through job within the Abbey park area. The team worked for 4 hours to collect 30 bags of rubbish and a list of objects that were too large to put into bags, including: 1 shopping trolley, 1 car bumper, several large pieces of plywood, 3 wooden pallets, 1 road sign, 1 callagas bottle, 1 pram, 1 children’s electric powered bike and 6 car tyres!
The Big Tidy up team featured in the Leicester Mercury (Tuesday 25 May p12) and I had an interview with BBC Radio Leicester.
For more photographs from the Big Tidy Up canal clean up please go to the official Big Tidy Up website.
International Dawn Chorus day
19 May 2010
It’s 4am on Sunday 16 May and I’ve just arrived at Watermead Country Park, to listen to the infamous dawn chorus. At this time of year the sound of birdsong is spectacular and at its loudest. It is also a chance to celebrate the return of migratory birds and to decipher bird song from the many alarm, contact and mating calls.
The recordings from the dawn chorus were used as part of a origami bird installation entitled Flock, the birds were installed at a teaching pool in Wirksworth for Wirksworth Festival 2010.
Listen to Flock
A swan with her cygnets at Watermead Country Park
Garden birds and caged finches
13 April- 18 May
Ive joined a bird watching course- Enjoying birding with others in Nottingham, led by Christopher Hall from New Horizons.
The emphasis of this course will be on the enjoyment of birds and nature by encouraging course members of all levels to discover the local area, and to identify the birds, which use the different habitats. Outdoor coaching on the identification of birds by sight and song will be taught and the group will have the opportunity to practise there skills with the aid of a telescope under supervision. At the end of each meeting the group will compile a list of birds identified.
So far the group have met at the following places: Wollaton Park, Trent Meadows and Nottingham Canal Local Nature Reserve, Cossall. The course has made me more aware of my surroundings and at every opportunity Im trying to identify birds and birdsong.
I’m also a member of the RSPB, to help protect reserves for nature and to support the research into problems facing birds and our environment. I attend talks by local bird watching groups, including the RSPB Loughborough group and the Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithology Society (LROS). I was inspired by a recent talk by Nigel Slater, an enthusiastic local amateur who gave a fascinating presentation on bird identification to help the RSPB Lboro group develop their knowledge of the wide range of bird calls and song.
A House sparrow or a Wren? in the guttering of a house opposite my parents house
Two young starlings in the garden
Wood pigeon feeding in the garden
My zebra finches- a little easier to spot and still unnamed!
Time outside the cage
Evan’s Weir bird watching
10 May 2010
Yellow (albino) pigeon at Evan's Weir near to the Rally Park
A coot with her babies in the canal at the Rally Park
Research into Ornithology
14 April 2010
The areas of ornithology (a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds), that I find fascinating is bird intelligence; in particular, instinct and learning. I hope to use these areas of interest as a catalyst to experiment and inspire new soundscapes and initiatives.
Research areas:
Don’t shoot the messenger: To compare and contrast the cultural and historical references of the pigeon, in particular their use as a messenger during World War II, with today’s role as a nuisance looking for feeding opportunities within the city.
Bird Brain: To observe the behaviour of birds within rural areas and the city to develop an understanding of the complex nature of bird calls, including how calls are learnt, committed to memory, adapted and invented.
To investigate how bird calls (including non- locatable alarm calls) can be used to establish an early warning system and protect families, other bird colonies and mammals.
Don’t shoot the messenger
9 April 2010
The pigeon is probably one of the most common birds seen as an unwelcome visitor within the heart of the city. The pigeon is a sociable bird, roosting in groups on the edge of buildings, making unstable nests in nearby trees and buildings. It would seem that the role of the pigeon is now redundant, when compared to the historic role and identity it held as a symbol of gods and goddesses, messengers, pets, sport, food and even as a war hero.
Most of us are unaware that pigeons are considered to be one of the most intelligent birds on the planet with pigeons being able to undertake tasks previously thought to be the sole preserve of humans and primates. The pigeon has also been found to pass the ‘mirror test’ (being able to recognise its reflection in a mirror). A 10- year study carried out by Oxford University concluded that pigeons use roads and freeways to navigate, in some cases even changing direction at freeway junctions.
Don’t Shoot the Messenger statement (for a sound walk)
To produce a site specific, downloadable binaural audio sound walk, inspired by the adaptation of one of the most common ‘city birds’- the feral pigeon. ’City birds’ is the terminology given to species, always ready to exploit a potential food source or a suitable nesting site. The walk will take the form of a tour guide based on the exploration of public space, including spaces where pigeons nest and roost. The walk will address the notion of the pigeon as vermin and celebrate the important roles throughout history.
The soundscape will be constructed (via in-ear microphones), using layers of recordings including ambient sounds of the city, with directional instructions and a narrative. Visual aids (reverse graffiti or high tack waterproof vinyl’s) will accompany the soundscape, to enable the listener to re-trace my footsteps. Using theories of psychogeography, the narrative will explore my own experience of the city as well as local residents and commuters and the notion of a pigeon’s perspective looking down onto the city.
The soundscape will engage residents of the city, including the bird watching community within the East Midlands, (of which I am a member of several groups) to build an accurate representation of the birds living within the city. It will also raise awareness of the cultural and historical references of the surrounding environment, using precise three- dimensional sound to create an experience of physical immediacy and complexity, offering the listener a multitude of sensations, leaving them unable to distinguish between what is ‘live’ sound and what is recorded. This method of immersion means that I am able to take pedestrians off their predictable paths, giving them a new awareness of their surroundings.
Pigeons at the canal in Leicester
Pigeons in town square in Leicester
Roosting spikes on building in town centre, Leicester
Pets at Home store with a feral pigeon cheekily nicking some bird feed
Bird watching
28 March 2010
My experience of nature goes back to when I was about 8 years old, when I had many encounters with very ill or dead animals. The dead animals were buried by my friends and I, using twigs, mowed grass, mud, stones and dandelions in a secret location (the neighbours large garden) at the end of my street. The ill animals, including a rabbit, frog, two baby sparrows, a starling and a tree full of caterpillars didn’t end well either… so when I was asked what I wanted to be when I was older, I choose the artist option rather than to be a vet.
As a sound artist, creating site specific soundscapes, I find inspiration from my surroundings and have been inspired by the bird songs that I hear in the city, the park and my garden.
I have recently joined a WEA bird watching course in Nottingham and became a member the RSPB (Royal Society for the protection of birds) and LROS (Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithology Society). The bird watching course is designed to develop skills in being able to identify local birds (birdsong and behaviour) and distinguish between resident birds and winter visitors and to competently use a field guide and identify bird watching locations within the East Midlands.
To encourage birds into my garden I have added three bird feeders and plan to add a fourth which will have a built in wireless CCTV camera, so that I am able to closely observe the birds and record their movements. So far I have spotted a wood pigeon who comes to feed at least three times a week… and the black cat from next door.
Wireless CCTV Bird box
Wood pigeon feeding from bird table
Greedy cat
Walk to work…
I find inspiration in my surroundings and have found the walk from my home to Leicester train station inspiring due to the range of wildlife living in the Grand Union Canal. I feel I have developed a relationship with the area, its birds and walkers through documenting moments in time using photography, binaural recordings and as scribbled notes, remembering brief encounters and short conversations with walkers, cyclists, commuters and nature lovers.
Its easy to stick the ipod on to encourage a fast walking pace and make that 8.54 am train (and most days I do), but recently I have felt increasingly connected to the area, slowing my pace and walking close to the edge of the canal to identify certain breeds and observe their behaviour. I have felt the need to experience the environment both visually and aurally instead of blocking out the natural soundscape. I have identified five types of bird; these are the Mute Swan, Feral Pigeon, Coot, Canada Goose and Mallard (duck).
The sociable pigeon
The chatty mallard
The tame swan
The nervous coot
The waddling goose
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot
19 March 2010
Curve art is a series of site- specific commissions created for The Curve (based in the Barbican Gallery) by contemporary artists. The latest commission for The Curve is by French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, a trained musician and composer, creating works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways.
His first solo exhibition in the UK, takes the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of 40 zebra finches, furnished with bass guitars and Gibson Les Paul electric guitars as perches, and cymbals as feeders containing water and seeds. As the birds go about their routine activities, plucking strings and pecking cymbals, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a random and captivating live soundscape. The sounds are amplified to resonate throughout the gallery.
Carefully pulling back the metal chain curtain draped across the entrance, I wander into a dark passage way of flickering video imagery featuring close-ups of hands playing electric guitars. Rather than hearing the sound of the guitars playing I hear a humming drone produced by the amplification of the video signal.
As I walk into the light and into the main installation space, I expect to be confronted with a noisy composition of birds and people talking and moving around the space, instead I can only hear the occasional squeak from finches bouncing from one instrument to the next. The installation was at full capacity, so had around 25 visitors, silently stood in small groups, huddled around instruments, patiently watching with expectant smiles to see how the birds would interact with the instruments.
Moving slowly around the small islands of sand sprouting cymbals and guitars to follow birds and find new ones, my movements within the space were affecting the movements of the birds, thus contributing to the live soundscape. I sat with other visitors around the edge of the installation and waited for birds to perch on an instrument close to me, observing the reactions of new visitors and listening to excited whispers as one bird startles another and they both move along the fretboard creating a random chance composition. The immersive live experience was both surreal and uplifting.
The artist Celeste Boursier-Mougenot said this: “My actions aim at giving structure to flows of activity whose input I do not determine, but whose resulting form is my objective.” And the wonderful thing about this “resulting form” is that no visit is ever the same. Because people are walking around all the time, the birds react; they move away from you, pick up a twig and start bashing it on the “A” string.
Lucy Jones, Culture blogs editor for the telegraph described the installation as ‘an oubliette of magic and fantasy in the concrete jungle of the Barbican… the best gig/art experience OF MY LIFE.’
Check out Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s installation at the Barbican Gallery on until 23 May 2010.
For further information and to watch a video of the installation please click here.
Commute
6 February 2010
For a while now, I have been thinking about what I will do when my job comes to comes to an end on March 31st. For a split second I panicked and thought about re-applying for my job or securing another job to start on 1st April. Like many practitioners, I work full time (in the creative sector) and try to squeeze my practice around work, so being made redundant was probably the perfect opportunity for me to focus on what I really want to do… I don’t have a clear idea what this is yet but I have lots of little ideas that are slowly coming together to form what I hope will be a year long research and development project.
I’ve started to think about how the change of routine and structure that my current job brings, will effect my usual working week. Im going to miss walking through the park, past the canal and over the bridge to Leicester train station. Arriving into Nottingham, looking to my right, over the bridge and seeing ‘D’ happily sat feeding the birds or taking a swig from a Fosters can. Walking quickly, almost jogging across the city, listening to a song I’ve heard over and over through my itouch, trying to beat the traffic lights, so I can make my way to the office without stopping. Racing through the Broadmarsh Centre and being hit by the smell of a horrendous burger and hot dog vendor, a man selling pots of sweetcorn and the sickly sweet smell of gigantic brightly coloured confectionary, guaranteed to make your eyes water and raise your blood sugar level to an alarming rate. I will even miss grabbing my lunch from Boots and being greeted by the lady with the red hair and cheery eyes, and talking to her about the day so far, weekend plans and that my hair has changed colour (again) for the amount of time it takes for her to put my lunch through the till.
There are many things that I will miss, but nothing can beat the feeling that I have now- a mixture of excitement for all the possibilities that will come with having time to investigate areas of my practice that I have only briefly examined so far… and the fear of not doing anything constructive with my time, the fear of having too much time and too many things to think about and being indecisive.
East Midlands trains, Leicester to Nottingham, about £140 per month
Meeting with ‘D’
December 24 2009
Today I met the man that I’ve seen almost everyday (on my way to work) sitting on the same bench by the River Trent.
I had wrote about seeing him further down my blog during August- October 2009, when I was gathering recordings from the River Trent (Nottingham) and River Soar (Leicester).
It’s Christmas Eve, so feeling festive and a tad whimsical I thought it would be a good idea for me to change my usual routine of power walking my way through town and be late for work.
I had to remind myself to grab a mince pie and a cup of coffee, I’m not particularly fond of either but I thought that the man on the bench might be interested.
As usual, I made sure that my recorder and microphones were working and was all set up and ready to go…it does sometimes feel a bit sneaky recording conversations with people when they are unaware of it.
The man has a name and it begins with a ‘D’, he lives in a care home in Nottingham, but used to live and work in London and Manchester in a seal foundation factory and more interestingly as a doorman for Playboy and for a punk rock club in Manchester. He feeds the ducks everyday, chain smokes, drinks Fosters and when it rains he sits in the crown court. His wish (which he shared with me, without any prompting) is to plant a tree in Hyde Park or St James Park in London to leave behind some kind of legacy.
The 'gay' duck that started our conversation
Please listen to Meeting with ‘D’ using stereo headphones. Approx 7 mins long.
Wollaton Hall Gardens and Deer park, Nottingham
May 2008
The binaural audio recorded at this site includes the environment inside Wollaton Hall, including the staff and visitors and sounds from the park area, including people playing games and traffic.
When recording binaural audio, it can be frustrating when great sounds are not recorded and documented, for example: an elderly couple arguing as they walked towards me and a couple shouting at a dog who had stolen part of their picnic! However, for me the whole process of recording binaural audio is about trying to silently observe the surrounding environment, but this can be a challenge when you desperately want to comment on your surroundings, laugh or sneeze!
Please listen to Wollaton Hall and Deer Park via stereo headphones. Approx 2 minutes
Stuffed animal heads inside Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Hall
Monkey Forest
April 2008
Trentham in Stoke-on-Trent has a monkey reserve containing one hundred and forty Barbary Macaque monkeys.
The binaural recording was a little disappointing because the monkeys didn’t make any sounds at all, although I did capture the tour guide giving a talk, as well as a video explaining how the monkeys survive the harsh British winters and the general ambiance of the place (birds singing and rivers flowing). With this soundscape I believe the best part of the audio to describe the experience was from the gasps and shouts of excitement from the children.
*Please listen to Monkey Forest via stereo headphones. Approx 3 mins
Monkey Forest, Stoke on Trent
