Sylvan Sounds: Exploring the Acoustic Forest through Visual Fine Art Practice
Human-induced climate and ecological breakdown is radically changing the conditions of the surface of the earth, affecting the capacity for life to flourish. This thesis bears witness to that change, particularly within threatened forest landscapes. I aim to draw attention to the essential relationship between humans and trees by emphasising the magnificence, importance and vulnerability of the forest ecosystem.
I consider how listening to the sounds made by trees can reconnect humans to the forest, and how the combination of audio and visual can be used to enhance that connection. I use listening as a method for reengagement with the woodland environment and field recording to gather sounds of sylvan processes. I explore often inaudible and unnoticed sounds made by trees such as transpiration, decomposition and water saturation.
Study sites within UK forests have included: The Cairngorms National Park (Scotland), the Lake District (Cumbria), the Lizard Peninsula (Cornwall), Glen Affric (Scotland) with conservation group Trees for Life, and Blackheath Forest (Surrey) in partnership with Surrey Hills Arts.
Through sound visualisation I explore and analyse the field recordings in order to discover and reveal the hidden and unnoticed sonic depths of the sylvan forest. The resulting multi- sensory audio-visual artworks are used to direct attention and provide audiences with alternative avenues of engagement with, and perspective of trees, providing a catalyst for further dialogue regarding the importance of forests in the fragile time of the Anthropocene.
My work references contemporary theorists from the fields of ecological philosophy and audio theory – primarily the writings of Lispeth Lipari, Salomé Voegelin, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Timothy Morton and Donna Haraway. By synthesising these theories with my own forest listening and sound visualisation practice, I argue for multi-modal listening as a method for generating alternative perspectives that move towards considering the forest not as an ecosystem service (for the use and exploitation by humans) but as a complex living multiplicity of interconnected life forms and resonating, vibrant processes, worthy of attention, celebration and auditory focus.
This research aims to make a timely, original contribution to understanding and awareness of our relationship to, and dependency upon, the sylvan environment. Given our expanding knowledge of climate breakdown, research such as this comes at a time when reconnecting humans with our non-human companion species – the trees – has never been more critical. I seek to bring the forest to the listener, and the listener to the forest, in order to start a dialogue about our perception of these environments, the benefits they bring us, and to consider our symbiotic futures.
Key details
School, Centre or Area
Supervisors
Gallery
More about Liz K
Degrees
2017 – 2023 PhD Practice-based Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London
2008 – 2009 MA Visual Arts: Printmaking, Camberwell College of Art, London
2003 – 2006 BA (Hons) Visual Communication: Illustration, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh
Awards
2017 – Flourish Award for Excellence in Printmaking
2017 – Jackson's Art Prize
2015 – Neo Art Prize Intaglio Award
2014 – Spike Print Studio Award
2014 – Art Academy Award
2013 – Medway Fine Printmakers Prize
2009 – Bainbridge Contemporary Screen Print Studio Award
Funding
2018 – Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Techne PHD Scholarship
Exhibitions
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2020
Forest Listening. Limnerslease Woodland, Watts Artist Village, Surrey
2019
Forest Listening. Blackheath Forest, Surrey
2018 – 2019
The Circular Scores. Huddersfield Art Gallery, Huddersfield
2015
Scordatura. Bearspace Gallery, Deptford, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022
Unruly Encounters. Southwark Park Galleries, London
2021
What on Earth. The Koppel Project, TKP Exchange, Piccadilly Circus, London
2018
Oaks Editions. Riverside Gallery, Richmond, London
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair. Royal Arsenal Riverside, London
Nine Artists Peckham. The Thin House, Peckham, London
Flight Mode. Assembly Point, Peckham, London
2017
Mixing Signals. Kobi & Teal Gallery, Frome
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair. Royal Arsenal Riverside, London
National Original Print Exhibition. Bankside Gallery, London
Flourish Award 2017. West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Mirfield
Uncertainty Playground. London Design Festival, London College of Communication, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Royal Academy of Art, London
2016
International Print Biennale. Gallery North, Newcastle Upon Tyne
London Design Festival. London College of Communication, London
Multiplied Art Fair. Christie's, South Kensington, London
2015
Neo Art Prize. Gallery 27, Bolton
National Original Print Exhibition. Bankside Gallery, London
RCA Secrets. Royal College of Art, London & Art Dubai, Madinat, Dubai
2014
Don't Drink the Milk. TripSpace Projects, London
Neo Print Prize. Gallery 22, Bolton
Pushing Print: 5 Years On. The Pie Factory Gallery, Margate
Beyond Boundaries. Rochester Art Gallery, Rochester
Bainbridge Open. Embassy Tea Gallery, London
National Original Print Exhibition. Bankside Gallery, London
Print Informs. Mayor's Parlour Gallery, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Royal Academy of Art, London
2013
Discerning Eye. Mall Galleries, London
Pushing Print. Pie Factory Gallery, Margate
2012
RE Open. Bankside Gallery, London
8th British International Mini Print Exhibition. London Print Studio, London
2011
Bainbridge Open. Embassy Tea Gallery, London
Bite. Mall Galleries, London
Inside A Bubble. Medcalf Gallery, London
2010
Upside. Medcalf Gallery, London
BHVU Summer Exhibition. Basket House Village Universe, London
2009
2009 Golden Centaur Lithography Exhibition. Munich, Germany
2005
Young Scottish Illustrators. Collins Gallery, Glasgow
Publications
2021 – Larch Bark & Lock Down Ed. Polly Hember, Decorating Dissidence – #12 – Backstage Craft
2020 – I am listening to You Ed. John Hughes, Centre for the Geohumnities & the Department of geography, Royal Holloway, University of London
Research outputs
Audio Performances:
2020
Listening to Trees Podcast - Technecast
Listening to Sylvan Sounds – Listening event for the publication launch of I am Listening to You, broadcast live from Gunnersbury Triangle, London
Listening to Sylvan Sounds radio broadcast – Radiophrenia series Current Trends in Sound and Transmission Arts
2019
Listening to Sylvan Sounds Live sound event – Listening to Field, Body and Voice Summer School – Bude, Cornwall
Research Presentations & Workshops
2022
Seeing Sound – Symposium – Bath Spa University, Bath
2021
Ways of Listening to Forests for Critical Zones: Observatories for Earthly Politics Centre for Art & Media Karlsruhe, Germany
2020
Forest Listening – Watts Gallery & Artists’ Village, Surrey
New Materialism & Sustainable Cyanotypes – London Alternative Photography Collective, London
2019
Again & Again: Musical Repetition in Aesthetics, Analysis, and Experience – Symposium – City, University of London, Music Department
Conferences
2022
Seeing Sound – Symposium – Bath Spa University, Bath
2019
Again & Again: Musical Repetition in Aesthetics, Analysis, and Experience – Symposium – City, University of London, Music Department