Day 40 Saturday February 13th
southeast inner 11 minutes The Poplars High Street Little Moor Jesmond Dene Road Great North Road By a hawthorn and bramble hedge shelter from a cold south wind Traffic slows and speeds comes and goes A lone runner crosses the road above magpies follow their own map along treetops Footprints in the snow tracks into the bushes to a hole in the fence
Having now settled on how to put this work onto my website there are now four weeks of sounds –
https://martinpeccles.com/other-sound-works/contencion-island/walking-to-the-s…ontencion-island/
– all on the imaginary island and from locations chosen by chance … a very random lockdown …
The second week of the third lockdown …
a week of sparrows, starlings, sleet and snow …
I am slightly behind (in fact, 30 days behind) presenting my continuing, unfolding story of Contención Island. During the first lockdown I defined the island by virtue of my walking from my home. During the second lockdown I walked the shoreline of the island, an imagined coastline along the edge of the sea. So … in this, the third lockdown, I have been populating the island with sound. Dividing the island into quadrants based on the points of the compass and then dividing each quadrant into an inner and an outer zone I have used ‘chance procedures’ (random number generator for those of you with a quantitative bent) to sequence the quadrants, zone and duration of recording. Each day I walk the island to that day’s quadrant, and I record the sounds of the island.
Unlike the pre-defined 28-day lockdown in November I had (and have) no idea how long this will continue. I have been doing this for all of this lockdown – 30 days and counting – and have sufficient numbers for almost 14 weeks – I hope that I do not need them all!
I am now in the process of adding the sounds (and accompanying image and text) to my various web sites – I will catch up the first four weeks and then add them a week at a time.
You can find the first week of island sounds here –
Lockdown-2 has ended, and this stage of the work is complete.
You can find the work together here as a playlist or at https://martinpeccles.com/other-sound-works/a-walk-round-contencion-island/
A video of the maps is here – https://youtu.be/wQyWSlwLn-s
Wednesday December 2nd, 09:28 – 09:31
308.6o to 321.4o
Wind SW 3 (gusting 5), T 7C (feels like 4C), 75% cloud cover
Crows and pigeons stand watch sentinels in the tree tops postman nods hello “that’ll be int’restin” blares the man at his phone as he wheels his bike
Tuesday December 1st, 10:53 – 10:56
192.9o to 250.7o
Wind W 2 (gusting 4), T 3C (feels like 0C), 37% cloud cover
Walking through rank grass I’m wet from mid-calf down morning dew still heavy One lark’s rise is joined by two two more a quintet they circle away
Monday November 30th, 07:49 – 07:52
244.3o to 257.1o
Wind WSW 4 (gusting 6), T 8C (feels like 5C), 62% cloud cover
The wren materialises only when it is still in the emerging dawn The morning commute at the bus stop two masked schoolboys study their phones
Sunday November 29th, 08:56 – 08:59
25.7o to 38.6o
Wind W 1 (gusting 3), T 6C (feels like 6C), 100% cloud cover
Five blackbirds flow into through up and over hedge porch roof ridge gone Front gardens used as carparks or vegetable plots a dunnock sings Grey-cowled and white-eyed the jackdaws strut the pavement the mist is lifting
Saturday November 28th, 10:03 – 10:09
77.1o to 90.0o
Wind NW 1 (gusting 2), T 1C (feels like 0C), 50% cloud cover
Two mallards scoot out from the laurel stop and preen looking over a bridge Water frozen in the butt frost crisps the grass and whitens winter stalks Synchronized clatter of sticks sword dancers or perhaps a martial art
martin.p.eccles: walk time place sound 