Friday November 6th, 06:56 – 07:01
180.0o to 192.9o
Wind N 1(gusting 1), T 5C (feels like 5C), 100% cloud cover
Dew drenched grass under thick dawn fog. Follow along the fence line. Main road cars pulse by. Meadow Pipit’s flick-bounce flight off into the mist.
A walk round Contención Island Thursday November 5th, 09:48 – 09:52
64.3o to 77.1o
Wind W 3 (gusting 4), T 10C (feels like 8C), 62% cloud cover
Crossing the street a great tit’s bounce-flight. Holly bush’s red berries.
Hello. A November lockdown – lockdown-2 … lockdown-lite – and again I have the question of an artistic response. So … having spent the spring lockdown creating Contención Island (https://martinpeccles.com/other-sound-works/the-42-walks-of-contencion-island/) I now plan to walk its edge, to walk the shoreline of the island and, in so doing, to also mark the days of lockdown.
With a compass in the middle of the island, I have measured 28 equal angles and, where each cuts the island rim produces 28 stretches of coastline – all of different lengths. I will walk one each day and, over 28 days, will build a walk around the entire island.
I will walk clockwise and the order in which I walk the sections will be determined by chance – building an island across time. Again, there will be recordings in sound, poetry and line all reported in a daily blog at https://martinpeccles.com . Todays is going up soon … I hope they provide some enjoyment.
Stay safe,
Following on the placing of the sound piece into radio aporee, I have now got the text, in book form, into a remotely, socially distanced, shareable form … for a slow reading experience.
Having edited the text and prepared the book (a 250 cm concertina fold) I have been waiting the opportunity to return to the place I walked to take the photographs of the book (the first time that I have been able to do this as previously the sites of my walking and writing have been remote and visited on one off occasions). It is interesting to create a visual image of something that is intended to be negotiated in a direct and physical way – I have to make a number of decisions on behalf of the reader and the intimacy of holding and reading the book is diminished – so, a (very) different work.
As an aside, it is interesting to reflect that I did the walks just before the March lockdown and am posting this just before the November one …
I’ve just added my contribution to the Landlinks project on to radio aporee at https://aporee.org/maps/projects/landlinks
If you’ve not come across radio aporee before, its a great way to explore the “sounds of the world”. Working as another way to think about landscape and located sound I’ve used it before for walking projects – https://aporee.org/maps/projects/callanaiswk
Have a listen; I hope you enjoy it.
I am delighted to say that my work “The 42 walks of Contención Island” has been shortlisted for the Sound Walk September 2020 Awards. You can see the full shortlist here – https://walklistencreate.org/2020/10/15/sound-walk-september-2020-awards-shortlist/.
Winners and honourable mentions will be announced in an online ceremony in mid-January.
International Dawn Chorus Day this year was on Sunday 3 May. This was during lockdown and during the time that I was making my lockdown walks, which have become The 42 walks of Contención Island [https://martinpeccles.com/other-sound-works/the-42-walks-of-contencion-island/ ] – more of which later. The walk I made on IDCD will be featuring in a Tyneside Sounds Society: Dawn Chorus Broadcastathon.
I’ll let Michael from The Tyneside Sounds Society, take up the story …
“The Tyneside Sounds Society invited people living in Tyneside and the north east of England to record the dawn chorus between 3am and 6am as part of a very special regional RecordAthon. Over 30 people took part, recording on phones, fancy bits of kit and also simple digital recording devices and microphones. People submitted over 13 hours of recordings; some long, some short – all fantastic! So what better way to present them then have an uninterrupted dusk till dawn BroadcastAthon on the amazing Star & Shadow Radio. Broadcast starts this Saturday 10pm and will finish around 11am the next day. I don’t expect you to stay up all night but it’ll be a nice chilled thing to go to bed and wake up to. You’ll also be able to listen to most of it via the Star & Shadow Radio showreel.”
You’ll be able to listen to it HERE >>> https://mixlr.com/star-shadow-radio <<<
06:42 – 07:28, wind NE 2 gusting 3, temp 8C (feels like 8)
A report on plans for coming out of lockdown is leaked to the BBC as Downing Street plays catch up over the membership and deliberations of SAGE.
to the eastern peninsuLa cross thE main sound along the gArdens a small monKey puzzle tree grows in a front garden a holly tree dome on a Stick pass through a Pulse of vehicles step into the green quIet ivy truNks sawn at the tree’s base pass a quarry Dimmed with shrubs the two runners dIstance-pass two ducks Stand on the edge of the weir move along above the burn’S flow a gatehouse roof tilEs missing a blackcap muMble-sings behind a wall along the Beat of the channel of sound the next train at pLatform two is for regent centre in the back-allEy plants grow in bins and buckets
04:19 – 05:04, wind NE 1 gusting 2, temp 7C (feels like 7)
An NHS doctor writes of government ‘lauding heroes’ whist watching them die without PPE.
around the soutH haven
a basement hum frOm a block of flats
light in the Windows of an early riser
over the dene the blackbirD sing
amongst three blackbirds A wren trills
tilled rows lie still in the gatheRing dawn
the crow’s call echoEs around the streets
the exuberant blasT of a wren
song ecHoes along the terraces
amongst the blackbirds a singlE song thrush sings
the streetlight goes off as daY approaches
04:36 – 05:18, wind W 3 gusting 4, temp 7C (feels like 5)
There is scepticism about the government claim to have met its ‘100,000 tests a day by the end of April’ target.
to the wesT coast through a dawn chorus in civil twilight the streEts are empty rolling waves of blackbird Song sweep by from far off the fainT shush of traffic a siren sings beneath an aIrcraft’s roar a scooter droNes by sparrows cheepinG and blackbird silhouettes’ blue tit sings in the gaThering dawn through the tIght sounds of a narrow canyon walk into the teMpo of a chaffinch song pigeons call as sunrisE approaches four minutes to Sunup
martin.p.eccles: walk time place sound 