Walking piece details
This work examines distance, time, movement and place from replicated walks into the remote, coastal, Icelandic lava field of Búðahraun. It was originally broadcast as a radio show, Flux, on Resonance Extra – Flux explores themes of liminal space, temporality and boundaries, whether physical or theoretical. This exploration is carried out through field recording and sound design.
A ‘there-and-back’ route was walked twice, once at dawn and once at dusk; distance is both the distance of the walk and distance heard across the lava field. As well as the elapsed time of the walks themselves, time is present as the time of day but also the time between the walks – the time of a day – and, as the walks occurred on the summer solstice, the time of the year. Movement comes directly from my footfall, my embodied movement across the rock, but also from the comings and goings of the birds as they, and their calls, songs, and displays move over the lava field. Together these elements contribute to a sonic portrait of a place but they also create a space to allow a listener to hear a place of their own.