For Shifting Lines (2021) we worked with the poet Mona Arshi, using voice, field recordings, video, photography and live data to create a multi-media installations, evoking the changing nature of Cley Marshes Nature Reserve and the North Norfolk coast.
Birdsong, wind in the reeds and distant waves entwine with the poet’s voice to create a polyphonic evocation of Cley in North Norfolk. It is as if the poems are rising out of the shoreline itself. We worked with sound artist Peter Cusack to record the sound of Cley, along with photographer Matthew Usher and composer Sandy Nuttgens.
Shifting Lines was built in Resolume, VJ-ing software, and the poems, sounds and video constantly shifted and changed in response the the softwares’ algorithms. A live feed from from a hide webcam on the Nature Reserve was also fed into the mix.
Shifting Lines was presented at Cley Marshes Visitor Centre during the Norfolk and Norwich Festival in May 2021, and at Norwich Science Festival in October 2021.
You can also experience Shifting Lines as a sound walk out on Cley Marshes and as an audio experience in your own home. Visit www.mutiny.org.uk/shifting-lines to listen at home and access the sound walk.
Shifting Lines is a Mutiny (Sophie Mellor, Simon Poulter and Marcus Romer) production commissioned by University of East Anglia as part of ‘Future and Form’ celebrating 50 years of their creative writing course.
Photographs copyright Matthew Usher.
