Author Archives: martin.p.eccles

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About martin.p.eccles

My practice reflects the experience of my presence in and walking through natural environments. I use a range of methods (predominantly sound and text) to respond to time, distance and place in the landscape.

Day 44 Wednesday February 17th

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southwest inner 3 minutes
The Drive Moor Place Woodlands Oaklands
Moss dots the pitted tarmac  among the alleyway leaf litter
A single Blue Tit   and the distant calls of Jackdaws
A blackbird materialises atop a mahonia        drops into the 
 next garden
Five skeins of pinkfeet        about 150 birds   fly north calling

 

Day 43 Tuesday February 16th

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west outer 4 minutes
The Drive Westfield Drive Oakfield Road Kenton Road Elmfield Road
The road bounded by utility services roadworks     traffic stops 
 and starts
A boy on his bike       pedalling along in his superhero wellies
A man walks with two poles           a woman runs by

Day 40 Saturday February 13th

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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

 

 

Walking to the sounds of Contención Island

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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 –

https://martinpeccles.com/other-sound-works/walking-to-the-sounds-of-contencion-island/walking-to-the-sounds-days-1-to-7/