Indigo Leveson-Gower

About

‘Sonic Ecologies’ investigates how listening and artifice can create intimacy and aural knowledge in urban nature. The urban park has long been a representation of nature that is bent and shaped with human ideologies and politics. Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens rich social history and remediation from an area of housing back into its original park form means the nature here has been transplanted and created artificially. In the history of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens artifice and small architectural interventions were utilised to placate, adapt, and expand upon nature for the pleasure seekers enjoyment. This project reimagines this concept to animate and express stories of the contemporary ecology. Just as the urban nature was transplanted, soundscapes are transplanted from distant places and times into the garden. Spaces of listening are created throughout the garden, voicing particular plants history and knowledge. Powered through radio, a moving control room allows for the project to be expanded upon by future participants.

An example of story telling through sound is the 1.1 Prototype imaged on the left in Vauxhall pleasure gardens. This plays two sounds that tell stories of the ecology of Rosa Rugosa. The first sound is of a beach in China where rosa rugosa is native to the sand dunes. Rosa Rugosa, is currently declining in its native Sichaun China region due to habitats being destroyed. Next, a recording of a UK beach where Rosa Rugosa is now invasive due to its hardiness and salt resistance, and has undercut and destroyed local flora. Rosa Rugosa is also common in Britain’s gardens, planted for its attractive red flowers. This device requires the listener to lower their head to the plant to hear these sounds. Radio signals transmit through the park and are picked up and amplified by this device. The sounds reverberate in the metal cones creating a concentrated listening environment. The sound is shaped by the vibrations from the metal and the surroundings to create an artificial iteration of these soundscapes. The design’s geometric outline reflects the colours of the environment in its shiny metal façade. Blending in some ways to nature but expressing its artifice.

Each design element experiments with existing and artificial sounds creating a new ecological sonic space for Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.