Click on image above to hear the sounds I captured for the National Trust at Ringstead.

This was a recent commission from the National Trust to capture the soundscapes of Ringstead. The NT issued these soundscapes on memory stick and according to Ben Dames, who mans the information vehicle for National Trust @jurassiccoastin they have proved very successful.

Recorded at Ringstead, Dorset. April 2011

Birds Squawking
This time of year the young Rooks are mobile and join the adults in big flocks to forage in pasture for leatherjackets and other food to fuel their growth. The car park field is especially popular for this. As well as rooks there are a few Crows and Magpie. The scratchy song of a Whitethroat with Chiffchaff and Pheasant can also be heard.

7:52 Birdsong
A selection of woodland birds including Chiffchaff, Woodpigeon, Chaffinch, Blackcap, Blackbird, Whitethroat and Wren – both the ticking alarm call and the startlingly loud song produced by such a small bird. (More about the other species in other recordings).

8:03 Near the pond in the Batch
The Willows and other scrub along with the water of the pond provide plenty of insects for food and thick cover for nesting. Singing of Blackcap, Blackbird, Chiffchaff and Wren can be heard along with Swallows overhead and the Moorhen on the pond. Also heard is the “chirring” contact call of a Whitethroat.

8:08 Roar of sea from hilltop
As well as the sea; Crows cawing, Magpie & Chiffchaff can be heard in the background. Male Pheasants showing off have been feeding in the Wheat fields nearby.

8:47 In the scrub near the beach
All the sounds of the Burning Cliff scrub. Over the sound of the waves there are Nightingales, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Wren and Whitethroat.

8:55 Near Ringstead beach
The thick scrub of Burning Cliff is ideal habitat for many bird species to nest  in safely. There is a Blackcap singing loudly in the ‘foreground’ a very rich,melodious but all too brief song. Nightingale is in the background, occasional scratchy song of the Whitethroat and a Wren joining in.

9:04 Birdsong at Ringstead
This is a really clear recording of a singing Nightingale, from the thick impenetrable scrub of Burning Cliff (the ideal habitat for the species). Chaffinch, Wren, and Blackcap in the background.

9:08 On the beach
Crunching along the shingle around the bay between Burning Cliff towards White Nothe.

9:10 The wind in the willows
A real reminder of hot summer days the Yellowhammers in the foreground are saying “a little bit of bread and no Cheeeese” as a gentle breeze rustles the leaves, with Blackbird, Rooks and Blackcap joining in.

9:17 Waves on the beach
A calm sunny day with the gentle waves lapping and sucking at the shingle.

9:44 Wind in the trees with cows
A Chiffchaff monotonously repeats its name very close by whilst another Blackcap more tunefully joins in, both these species belong to a group known as  ‘Leaf Warblers’. Rooks in the background.

10:17 Birdsong and bumblebee a mate down from the skies above.
Rooks start off but again we are very close in the thick scrub to a hidden male Nightingale endeavouring to attract

10:07 Erosion/landslips in the undercliff
On the rocky beach at the bottom of the Smugglers Path looking at the jumbled debris from the landslips of the undercliff.

10:11 Talking about the undercliff
We are about to tackle the steepest bit of the climb up to the top of the Smugglers path.

10:18 The sea is azure blue below us.
Walking along the Smugglers path below White Nothe, there is Chaffinch nearby.

Ringstead is owned & managed by the National Trust. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dorset

Explanation & text: Michael Clarke, Warden – National Trust West Dorset.

1. Downloads
   Ringstead soundtrack
2. Google Earth KML file of the route I recorded at Ringstead

View sonic bus tour in a larger map

This was the FINAL Our Working Lives event!

A unique, one-off, bus tour of Poole’s working landscape was organised. Where passengers got the chance to travel through time on a 1959 Routemaster bus for a mystery tour to hear a soundtrack of Poole’s working landscape. The tour took visitors to areas in Poole not usually visited by commercial tour packages. Snaking through Poole’s industrial estates, as well as other interesting features of Poole’s economic landscape. During the tour passengers could hear everyday people talk about their working life, about Poole history and how its infrastructure has developed. Mixed with life today and its possible economic future.

Download audio (right click on link, or Ctrl click on a Mac):
http://www.archive.org/download/SonicBusTourOfPoolesWorkingLandscape/coachTrip.mp3

Start at Poole Museum

1. Head west on The Quay toward Thames St
2. Turn right to stay on The Quay
3. Continue onto W Quay Rd/A350
4. Continue to follow W Quay Rd
5. W Quay Rd turns slightly left and becomes Holes Bay Rd/A350
6. At Holes Bay Roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Broadstone Way/A349
7. Slight left onto Cabot Ln

Route to Creekmoor industry estate

1. Turn right onto Balena Close
2. Turn right to stay on Balena Close

Nuffield industry estate

1. Starting from Cabot Ln/A349
2. Head northeast on Cabot Ln/A349 toward Technology Rd
3. Continue to follow A349
4. Turn right onto Waterloo Rd/A349
5. At A349, take the 1st exit onto Dorset Way heading to Bournemouth/A3049/Ringwood/A348/Christchurch/Nuffield/Newtown
6. Keep left at the fork
7. Turn right onto Morris Rd (Destination will be on the left)

Starting from Nuffield Rd

1. Head north on Nuffield Rd toward Hatch Pond Rd
2. Take the 1st left onto Hatch Pond Rd
3. Turn right onto Stinsford Rd
4. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto Canford Heath Rd/B3074
5. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto Adastral Rd
6. Keep left at the fork
7. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto the A3049 ramp
8. Merge onto A3049
9. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Old Wareham Rd
10. Slight left onto Yarrow Rd
    Go through 1 roundabout
11. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Mannings Heath Rd
    Go through 1 roundabout
12. At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto Ringwood Rd/B3068
    Go through 1 roundabout
13. Turn right onto Albion Close
    Destination will be on the left

Starting from Fancy Rd

1. Head southeast on Fancy Rd toward Old Wareham Rd
2. Turn right onto Old Wareham Rd
3. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto A3049 heading to Poole/A350/Dorchester/A35/Upton/Hamworthy
   /Nuffield/Fleet
4. Take the exit toward Nuffield/Creekmoor
5. At A349, take the 2nd exit onto Fleets Ln
6. Continue onto Stanley Green Rd
7. Turn right onto Sterte Rd
8. Take the 1st left onto Holes Bay Rd/A350
9. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto West St/A350 heading to Hamworthy
10. Turn left onto New Orchard
11. Turn right onto High St

and back to Poole Museum.

Seven maps were created in all and were the product of a course – Emotion Mapping – I helped devise in consultation with the art and media depart at the school.

The idea behind the ‘Emotion Map’ was as an embodied memory-trigger for recounting events that were personally significant for them. Our map would record the apparently trivial conversations and events of our everyday lives and allow us to see them all simultaneously. Together we’d explore interpretative and subjective aspects of mapmaking.

Small teams working collaboratively during their art class created these maps. They started by agreeing their teams and deciding on the area they would concentrate on mapping. Over the weeks they then drew, discussed what to include and the nature of a curve in the road and how best to represent a roundabout, they rubbed out, stuck things on and re-drew their maps. We met for 1 hour a day, every week for 5 weeks.

The children choose to map towns along the A38 (Ashburton, Heathfield, Newton Abbot, and Buckfastleigh); Exeter Rugby ground; Exeter Centre; Tesco’s; a Bike Trail; and Bovey Tracey.

Their maps were then digitised and re-drawn in Illustrator by myself. Where I altered things; adding details and amending fine points. I then designed a layout and look for the maps to tie them together. This digital file was then taking back to school for further fine tuning and approval by each group.

The goal of the course was for the children to work both individually and collectively in excavating narratives of people, places, events and artefacts, representing the emotions, opinions and desires of local people and then create their own maps from all of the information they’d collected. The course explored the interpretative and subjective aspects of mapmaking. Our map would record the apparently trivial conversations and events of our everyday lives and allow us to see them all simultaneously. Recounting events that were personally significant for them.

The children jumped into the project, coming up with ideas that I’d not enticpated like creating 3D maps. I had ideas about the kind of map we would create, but it all transmogrified into something else which turned out great. Making these maps with the children reminded me what fun it is to make maps

This project reflects the artist, Joe Stevens, strategy of engaging the social, cultural and natural histories of specific sites and territories. How I attempt to uncover the unique characteristics that determine a sense of place.

This work was informed and inspired by the magnificent blog at makingmaps.net – highly recommended reading.  “I’m particular interest in developing this work and engaging further in planning, urban history, urban geography, landscape architecture, participatory mapping and GIS, subversive cartography, counter-mapping, and psychogeography. Or anyone who enjoys creative mapping.”

Meet with daisi and  John Whitehead, John Bradford, Simon Ovens and Ed Tomlin from South Dartmoor Community College in Ashburton. We ran through some potential ideas that could be realised by the end of the summer term. Discussing how using creativity to make the local area and issues of society and citizenship come alive for young people, and how we can establish new and lasting connections between schools and their communities.

Two possible projects might happen. One would be to discover a new understanding of our past, present and future through research, conversation and survey’s comparing and contrasting opinions of those living and working in the region. This project combines art, history and anthropology for an investigative look at people, places, and stories and how they contribute to our collective understanding of who we are. The children will become detectives, searching out clues to the town’s past and present.

Together we will form a production team and produce a newspaper. Children take on roles, which they have to apply for. Editor, reporter, copywriter, photographer, production manager, art editor, illustrator, sound editor, web input.

We will document the environment using writing, sound and photography. We will then edit our research and combine this with autographical skills to create our newspaper.