The idea behind visualising bird vocalisations was to use these representations as a tool, to help identify bird species songs and calls.
The visuals for the project really started to come together after the successful capture of field recordings of native birds, from Swithland Wood and the response from these recordings to produce music compositions by Rishii (tabla) and Roopa (sitar).
At the start of this project I had a different ideas about what I wanted to create, but this has developed and shifted, as Ive received mentoring from Lyndall Phelps (visual artist) and Geoff Sample (birding expert and field recordist). Both have shared their extensive knowledge with me and provided advice to enable me to progress in the development of my practice. I think the most important piece of advice from Lyndall was to not forget about the ‘joy of making’ and to loose the need to justify my practice. Geoff suggested we scope out our location for recording sound a day in advance, to get an idea of the space, its wildlife and any urban sounds that may interrupt the recordings, plus some really useful tips on recording techniques and equipment.
The processes I use to create visual compositions involve a lot of research and documentation, usually from bird watching books, other artists and designers and from taking photographs from the environment where the field recordings were captured. Lots of listening back and drawing the sounds of birdsong and running short sections through a sonogram software to visualise the sound. This results in lots of drawings, mark making and ideas that end up being scanned into Photoshop and rearranged into many different compositions and then coloured digitally.
The Swithland Wood Recordings 