Enchanted lines of flight — an art practice study of avian phenomenology
(2025)
author(s): Jim Lloyd
published in: Research Catalogue
This practice-driven PhD developed a body of art in response to the question, ‘what is it like to be a bird?’ The motivation was towards ethical action in an ecologically damaged world.
Following Tim Ingold, the study sees the environment as a meshwork of multiple lines of becoming (or flight), along which the lives of creatures unfold and interconnect. In my detailed bird studies, my question acted as a lure towards a tantalising, but ultimately unreachable goal. In this way line of flights developed between me and birds, stimulating the creation of artworks. These aimed to enchant viewers and encourage a rethinking of the human/bird relationship.
I used multiple media and methods informing each other synergistically. Ultraviolet photography revealed a hidden world, visible to birds, hence questioning the hegemony of the human view. Attaching a video camera to my dog disclosed, not just a stream of images from a new perspective, but the life of a being inhabiting the world bodily, full of energy, desires, fears, and movement.
In the spirit of Donna Haraway’s speculative fabulations, I constructed a Birdsong-to-English translator. This produced intriguing phrases such as ‘future earth scream now!’, challenging the reductionist ‘fighting or flirting’ understanding of birdsong and reimagining the nature of human and animal language.
Building on extensive observations, field notes and recordings, I developed a range of creative writing, resulting in a radio play, a gallery installation, and a poetry pamphlet. In the culminating work, Harrier Diaries, I combined text, photography and drawings, juxtaposing subjective and objective views to highlight lines of flight between birds, their environment and the observer.
Despite aiming to know a bird’s view, I concluded that what matters is not knowing, but instead an intense wonder at the unknowable. I argue that this disposition is a vital prerequisites for ethical action.
The Solresol Birdsong Translator - Media for PhD submission
(2025)
author(s): Jim Lloyd
published in: Research Catalogue
Here are some examples of outputs of the Solresol Birsong Translator. This forms part of the work presented for a PhD at Newcastle University.
A device was built that ‘listens’ to birdsong and translates this into human speech utilising the obscure musical language Solresol (François Sudre, 1866). Birdsong is analysed and converted into musical notes (one octave in the scale of C Major: do-re-me-fa-sol-la-ti). These seven notes are grouped to form four-note ‘words’ that are looked-up in the Solresol-English dictionary. Each note also has a rainbow colour assigned to it. In a variety of configurations, the device can output the birdsong, notes, music, translated words, and colours. Text and MIDI (music) files can both be saved for further output or processing. The software can run in a variety of modes and on a variety of hardware, including PC and Raspberry Pi. It can make use of both live and recorded birdsong.
Future Earth Scream Now - The Solresol Birdsong Translator
(2021)
author(s): Jim Lloyd
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
In this exposition, we describe a ‘speculative fabulation’ on communication with birds. A device was built that ‘listens’ to birdsong and translates this into human speech utilising the obscure musical language Solresol (François Sudre, 1866). Birdsong is analysed and converted into musical notes (one octave in the scale of C Major: do-re-me-fa-sol-la-ti). These seven notes are grouped to form four-note ‘words’ that are looked-up in the Solresol-English dictionary. Each note also has a rainbow colour assigned to it. In a variety of configurations, the device can output the birdsong, notes, music, translated words, and colours. Text and MIDI (music) files can both be saved for further output or processing. The software can run in a variety of modes and on a variety of hardware, including PC and Raspberry Pi. It can make use of both live and recorded birdsong. The device and software are described, as well as several examples of its outputs, such as ‘auto-poetry’ and music. The presentation of the work and modes of engagement are described. The contextual significance is discussed in relation to claims about the practice as artistic research.
DJ Gentille Alouette
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Marianne VILLIÈRE
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
sound installation/performance -about missing birds
With a heavy sound system I diffuse a lost musicality as a sweet alert. There is a big gap between the installation and the fragility of the sound.
Alouette is one of the bird in France who is endangered species.
This performance was presented at CRAC19 Montbéliard, June 2021.
Representing Birdsong in Messiaen's Organ Music [Representing Birdsong in Messiaens Organ Music - 2020-05-15 09:13]
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): J.P.T. Lanooy
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Birdsong plays an important part within the complete oeuvre of Olivier Messiaen. In the majority of his works, he incorporated songs and calls of real-life birds. In this exposition, the accuracy of those bird incorporations is investigated through analyzing two birds of the 'Communion' of the 'Messe de la Pentecôte': the blackbird and nightingale, In other words, to what extent Messiaen's 'musical' birds correspond to their real-life counterparts? Besides, I have discussed how to represent those birds on a Dutch eighteenth-century organ and which compromises you have to make with regard to organ stops.
sound installation/performance -about missing birds With a heavy sound system I diffuse a lost musicality as a sweet alert. There is a big gap between the installation and the fragility of the sound. Alouette is one of the bird in France who is endangered species. This performance was presented at CRAC19 Montbéliard, June 2021.open exposition comments (0)