Thoughts on an Unidentified Landscape – Acoustic Ecology 

The landscape of the West Pennines has always had a significant influence on my art and music. As a child walking in this rugged landscape I found it promoted a sense of well being through the act of exploration. This extreme terrain gives rise to a world on the edge of urban sprawl, becoming a place of calm and connectivity. During my adolescence in the early 90’s, I darted across the moorlands of Lancashire as part of the Northern rave scene. Setting up sound systems in and around Blackburn. A social experiment of mobility, bringing together people from different locations with similar ideologies. 

Presently, the landscape provides a rich plethora of inspiration in the form of field recordings and drawings gathered from hidden forests and dam walls. Emerging mobile technologies, assist to connect to rural space in ways never thought possible by recording and transmitting live electronic sounds directly into remote spaces. The process of collecting data of our artificial memories becomes an immersive experience in nature. 

Part of my audio-visual research investigates the dualism between nature and human phenomena encountered in the landscape. Forming part of acoustic ecology research. For example, Lamaload (2016) , a piece for eight screens and loudspeakers, turns a concrete dam wall into a conduit for sound reflected off its concave surface. Hidden Forest (2018) examines the use of technology in representing ecological concerns filmed in and around Macclesfield Forest, UK.

On top of the moorland of the West Pennines provides a fantastic view point over the North of England. As we observe the landscape, human interference is all too evident, the land is scarred by the extraction of mineral resources and extinct dwellings. Disused quarries, strange follies and forgotten industries provide backdrops for imaginary forays. The postindustrial remnants, left by our predecessors are scattered all across the land, etched into its surface for evermore.

It’s a landscape of extremes that draws on the senses in turn giving rise to mythology of strange tales. The expansive scale and depth of the space expands in all directions. The immersive experience of walking is the best way to experience the environment. Your senses are drawn to a shifting horizon line as the land undulates under foot. Feelings of excitement are mixed with apprehension to what lies over the next hill top. The freedom to roam along the pathways, not exactly knowing where one is going, being lost contrasts to the control of technological urban life.

Once on top of the moors we are acutely aware of the weather. The unhindered wind speeds across the expanse producing exotic tones, eerie voices and rattling sounds. The rain, often horizontal, creates a shroud of mystery and intrigue, of fictional forays of characters lost in the mist.

When night falls, sparkling lights appear from a distant metropolis. The rapid construction of high rises blocks divert light and weather patterns. Creating microclimates that suddenly strike us head wedged between the technocapitalism columns. 

At the edge of the West Pennines moorland the electric lights and the hum of the city recede. It’s here in the half-light where strange tales and sightings are exchanged that defy logical explanation. The headlights of motor vehicles scan the contours of the hillside revealing shadows of protruding outposts. The sound of a car engine is transformed by the acoustic properties of the natural landscape. Reflections of light from car headlights caress rocky outcrops, momentarily exposing surreal shapes. The diffusion of sound and light in the landscape creates imaginary and unrecognizable forms. Imaginary giant faces and body parts are contained in a moiré field of shifting light creating a mesmerizing sheen of 3 dimensional qualities. Up in the sky airplanes create light patterns often with no sense of vertical and horizontal direction. The phenomena of light diffusion confuses the distant viewer. Often these unidentified strange ‘lights in the sky’ appear when a light emitting phenomenon is malfunctioning or behaving in a peculiar way. Sometimes, the lights seem to hover, suspended in the sky. Are we bearing witness to alien craft that question the laws of perception?

A deconstruction of metaphysics occurs when things become more real due to being constantly present. The landscape and its mythology provides an imaginary backdrop for all of us to share.

Text by Dr. Mark Pilkington

Thought Universe Studio.

Copyright © Dr. Mark Pilkington 2024.