Take Flight: Bird Watching + Field Recording

Habitual Rituals: Take Flight: Listening + Field Recording, session 1
Stellaria Media (Lucinda Guy & Alice Armstrong) and bird experts David Campbell and Tom Emson

Following their work for XMTR Festival last year, which listened in to the micro repeated rituals of everyday life, Stellaria brings in the macro rituals of annual bird migration. This will be the first of three sessions to gather recordings and devise a collective live performance that pays attention to small, repeated actions and how they interact with seasonal timescales.

You are welcome to attend just this session and simply to hear and learn about the birds, attendance to sessions 2 and 3 are non-essential 🐦

The XMTR sessions that are all valid with your ticket will be:

1. Meadow Pipits and monuments: dawn listening and bird migration recording at ancient, species-rich Hastings Castle
2. Composition and choreography: recording small actions and devising a collective piece
3. Playback and performance: live performance incorporating repeated sounds and movements in multiple combinations.

This first session is the chance to observe and record a special migration of birds over Hastings happening specifically on this day at this time. Lucinda Guy and Alice Adams will be on hand to guide you through some deep listening to tune into this unique setting. They will show you how to use specialist field recording equipment to record both the sounds from above as well as the magic of the experience of gathering, observing and listening.

You could see and hear Meadow Pipits, Swallows and House Martins and potentially Hobby, Kestrel, Grey Heron, Great Spotted Woodpecker, White Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Tree Pipit, Linnet, Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Siskin. They will be just passing overhead. They all make distinctive flight calls as they go.

Bird specialists David Campbell and Tom Emson will guide us through what we see and hear as the migration passes.

Participants are invited to build an audio work over three distinct sessions or just enjoy this rare bird migration moment.

About our facilitators:

🐦 David Campbell runs Wildstarts Nature Ltd, a local birding tour company, and is the editor of Birdwatch magazine. He was been birding since he was seven years old and lives in Hastings near West Hill.

🕊️ Tom Emson is a local bird watching enthusiast and can be found on the West Hill most mornings with his camera pointing skywards.

🔊 Stellaria Media are based in South Devon and within two community radio stations, Soundart Radio (Totnes) and Skylark (Dartmoor). Our background as artists means we are always exploring, listening, responding and creating together with communities.