There’s This Gate In Eastbourne is an interactive sound art installation that translates a conversation between the non-human in the natural environment, with the aim to de-centre a commonly held anthropocentric colonial view of the landscape and offer an opportunity for synchronicity and cohabitation. The auditory layering of a 2-minute field recording and a music box restricted to a single note, aim to serve as a commentary on the richness that is lost when we understand our environment through a monosyllabic lens. The installation invites the viewer to become a musician and join a conversation in which they do not lead.

Underpinning this project were the key research questions: How does intention, function, and interaction determine the auditory outcome of an object? What is noise? When does noise become sound and melody? How can we de-centre the human in the study of spatial acoustics? Influenced by Pauline Oliveros, (1968) Some Sounds Observations in which she explores the act of deep listening in a shifting environment, in the initial research phase I observed my surrounding environment and became hyper-aware of the sounds of objects and elemental forces colliding around me. They formed a language which when heard without intention my brain filtered out. Sounds such as the clanging of a gate, the crunching of leaves and gravel under a moving bicycle wheel, the rubbing of a bicycle brake pad and a metal wheel and the tension of a bicycle wheel out of true in a wheel truing stand.

Taking my research into the natural environment, whilst rambling in the English Countryside along a less trodden bridleway nestled in a valley separating the Seven Sisters cliffs from the South Downs, I happened upon a whistling herding gate. The natural wind tunnel in this valley brought this piece of agricultural equipment alive in our understanding as a giant flute, opening a gateway into the rich, plentiful conversation between metal and wind. The relationship between sound, raw material, motion, the unpredictability of the natural environment and the defiance of an object to stick within the constraints of its intended use interested me as it took the gaze away from the human and brought to the forefront ecosystems outside of human perspective and language.