Izzy Hadlum reflects on her Nest residency

For my Artist Residency at the Nest I was interested in exploring Environmental Sound Art, responding to the urban environment surrounding The Nest itself, alongside Coventry Canal. 

I was drawn towards exploring the interplay between nature and human constructions, and how the soundscape reflects this interplay, affecting how we feel towards sounds we are constantly surrounded by and often ‘tune-out.’ I was interested in exploring how landscape could be understood through sound and the concept of ‘Deep Listening’, a term coined by experimental musician Pauline Oliveros. I was further inspired by Oliveros’ writing on the distinction between ‘urban’ and ‘natural’ drone sounds, which strongly led my field recordings and listening focus.  

I planned to have a mix of daily walks along the canal which involved deep listening and field recording, as well as reflective time in the studio to read about concepts around environmental art, and to listen back to and reflect upon the field recordings. 

The studio space itself was a fantastic space to be free of distraction explore the creative head space.  I appreciated the very relaxed atmosphere embodied at Talking Birds – I never felt any pressure to meet anyone else’s expectations, other than my own, which was very liberating. 

I enjoy working with others to spark and bounce off ideas. This was greatly appreciated on the day I was allowed to collaborate with sound artist Ross Davidson. We used a variety of microphones, including ‘geofons’, hydrophones and contact mics to not only field record, but also ‘play the landscape’. I experimented ‘playing’ a metal fence post with a violin bow, with contact mics attached to the railings, exploring the idea of what an instrument really is and re-imagining the landscape as a place of play to be fully engaged with, rather than merely being passive recipients to the noises around us.

I would have liked to have more time to learn about the post-recording process, and perhaps more time to engage with the deeper technical work and software in music editing and composition construction. But I think this in itself could pre-occupy a whole other residency. 

I now have more confidence to try things out and see the playful side of creativity, to not be too het up on labels given to artistic practices,  to want to challenge myself more and to see inter-connectedness of different creative pursuits. For example,  I have used some video footage along the canal I took during the residency for a projection during a performance of my solo ‘Alys Rain’ folk music project.  

I also really value still having links to The Nest, and knowing it is there as an arts community I have been part of, and to feel inspired by their strong ethos towards ethical and supportive artistic practices.

Following the end of the residency, I was inspired to use some of my field recordings and ideas to form a proposal for the Night Garden Festival in August 2023, a micro one-day music and arts festival in an old garden centre on the outskirts of Manchester:

“Lying under a tree, or in a designated/appropriate space, there will be two spaces/mats to lie down on, with headphones and eye masks.  One is labelled ‘hum’  and one labelled ‘om’, with corresponding recordings. The recordings will be a mixture of these field recordings, narration and other vocals inspired by the writings of Pauline Oliveros on drone, exploring the contrast between urban ‘hum’ and the more natural ‘om’ drone and the idea of ‘deep listening.’ Deep listening can allow us to enter sound worlds that effect our everyday soundscapes, and yet we often unknowingly filter out due to competing sounds that vie for our attention in the urban environment”

To my delight my proposal was accepted. The whole process allowed me the opportunity to think about how sound art might be presented, engaged with and constructed on a ‘diy’ and low-budget basis. I also thought deeply about where it was presented – in the outdoors – and how this affected how it might be experienced. 

In November 2023 I was excited to be asked to perform at ‘Hatched at the Nest’, a show case of previous residents who had explored electronic sound art. This gave me the chance to think about how I could incorporate live elements in to the field recordings, using vocal layers, loops and harmonies to respond to urban and natural drone – an imagining of  a ‘resistance’  and ‘answering back’ to the urban soundscape.