Rosie Strickland
Artist Statement
Sonic Ecologies is the focus of my practice-led research and the topic for my PhD at Goldsmiths College. I work with land-scapes (space), sound and sound system design to create sound installations about the ecological crisis we are living through. My first work for Sonic Ecologies specifically dealt with the concept of ecological grief. This was the first time I had worked with sound as I found it to be a stirring and effective medium to communicate the complex issue of ecological grief, when we are numb to so many images of environmental violence.
This project emerged on my MA at Goldsmiths College, where I collaborated with soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause, working with a series of his field recordings that show the impact of climate change in California State Park. I called the project LOSS to reflect the sonic quality of the installation, and what is happening to the biodiversity of the region. The soundscape gets quieter over time, which reflects the loss of biodiversity in the park.
I also featured a field recording of a howling wolf from the British Library archive, and I designed a conceptual ‘wolf howling at the moon’ as a symbolic installation reflecting the grief I and many others feel at the ongoing loss of our biodiverse life support system. I designed a sound-responsive device using Arduino technology and simple sensors that turned a light on and off in response to the sound of the howling wolf.
I developed the Sonic Ecologies project further through a commission for Beyond the Border, Wales’ International Storytelling Festival. The work, titled Fragmented Landscapes, explored through sound and sonic synthesis the relationship between four quadrants of land: agriculture, ecology, time and humanity. I created a rewilding synth patch that activated technology as an actor in environmental solution-building.
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