When Earth Speaks: Soil Voices Miranda Whall

When Earth Speaks: Soil Voices

Soil Voices

Soil Voices: a 24 hour live – stream performance

I lay in a pre- prepared self – dug 2ft ditch on the plateau managed by Pwllpeiran Upland Research Centre, known as the Ffridd (the upland fringe) at 600m approx. On the hour, every hour, over 24 hours, I attempted to vocalise the live and continuous numerical data stream from a newly installed sensor network. I received the data from the 12 agri -sensors through headphones via a specially built ‘talkie box’ connected to a computer processor. The data stream emitted from the soil sensors embedded in the ground around where I lay each communicated the soil moisture and soil temperature readings every fifteen minutes. Due to the firewire port in the ‘talkie box’ breaking I was no longer able to receive the data stream, so unfortunately the performance was cut short at 04.20am, rendering the performance 13 hours instead of 24.

Local and global audiences were invited to drop in an out of the 24 hour live- stream, in the hope that by being virtually up close and in the mountain with the soil and me for a few seconds or hours might generate a greater awareness and new perspectives – not only of the nuanced and fluctuating soil conditions, but of human and non-human entanglement, human and non – human interconnectedness, from an ecofeminist perspective.