Concept
Scotscapes is an immersive, audio-visual time capsule incorporating film, poetry and Ambisonic sound.
The narrative follows our character behind the lens, isolated from the modern world and seeking reconnection through their unique, local environment, reflecting on its past and spaces through time. We begin in Winter with our surroundings still and desolate, conjuring ghostly sound-remnants from the past. Our character journeys through nature’s reawakening in Spring and discovers renewed hope and connection in the midst of Summer’s final flourishes.
Context
I was first fascinated by the relationship between space and sound when I carried out a location recording at Inchindown oil tanks in 2018 and subsequently at Hamilton Mausoleum. With lockdown, I have become increasingly fervent to local sounds surrounding Strathkelvin Railway Path, its bridges and glen. This area possesses unique acoustics or “soundmarks”, which can connect us to our environs. (Schafer, 1994, p.10). Tuning into my local environment, I contemplated our fluid connection to social and political constructs, our natural history and society’s recent regression from the post-industrial soundscape to a more rural one. (Ibid, chapter 5, no page number). In this vein, Scotscapes stands as a record of Strathkelvin’s rural soundscape, translating the area’s multifaceted issues and weaving these threads together creatively through sound. (Eno, YouTube, 2013).
I took inspiration from a range of creative works, including archival film, ‘From Scotland With Love’, which documents Scotland’s past with images of people, music and sound design. (BBC, 2020). Scotscapes certainly parallels ‘soundmarks’; an art trail of Aldborough utilising field recordings from archaeological sites and composed musical elements. (soundmarks, 2020). Archival works play a crucial role, preserving the “soundmarks” of communities, which may otherwise be lost through time and climate change. Online audio prompt challenge, ‘Comptomber’ – run by audio engineer, Marisa Ewing-Moody – also motivated me to respond aurally to two, distinct creative stimuli in Scotscapes: film and poetry.
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