Forest Listening
Forest Listening
By Liz K Miller
Forest Listening was a project that explored the essential relationship between humans and trees. For three months, Liz K Miller recorded the sound of rain beneath the sandy paths at Blackheath Forest, and from this sonic data created a visualisation in print.
The cyanotypes depicting the sounds were printed onto banners to create listening zones in Blackheath Forest in 2019 and Watts Gallery woodland in 2020.
The inspiration behind this project was Green Water, the moisture that cycles through plants, and the resulting art installation highlighted the complexity and fragility of these essential ecosystems, re-connecting humans with our non-human companion species – the trees.
Liz found the densely-wooded Surrey Hills to be the ideal location to consider our perception of the forest environment, the benefits it brings us, and the importance of our combined futures.
You can listen to the sounds and gain further insight to this project at the Forest Listening blog and the film below.
With thanks for additional support from:
Liz K Miller
Liz K Miller (b. 1983, Hexham) is a London-based artist and printmaker. She graduated from Edinburgh College of Art (BA), Camberwell College of Art (MA), and was a print fellow at the Royal Academy Schools (2013 to 2016). She was recently awarded an AHRC TECHNE scholarship to undertake a practice-lead PhD at the Royal College of Art, researching sound-visualization and eco-acoustics in forests. The work is sensory-immersive and aims to reflect upon our relationship to, and our dependency on, the woodland hydrological cycle by highlighting the complexity, fragility, and necessity of ‘green water’.
www.lizkmiller.com