Exploring the Inner Ear of the Field
What is a Field?
Notes during field excursions on FieldArts, July 2022
Prior to the FieldArts Residency I did not delve too deep into the grander scale of what the field means. As a sound artist and field recordist I initally perceived the environment as a space in which I would perform listening exercises and to capture sounds from a specific non-human animal and the environment itself. However, I never engaged with the environment itself on a more intimate level. These notes, reflections, poems, audio materials, images and experiences I mention here are what reshaped my perception of the field.
#001
I depart Den Helder port toward Texel Island. The journey was smooth and straight to the destination. I remember my first time on a ferry. It was far from smooth. It was in 2011, I took the ferry from Holyhead, Wales across the Irish Sea and into the Dublin Port.
These two experiences exposed two environments for me. The trip across the Irish Sea was much more immersive. I remember vividly, as I stepped on to the deck I heard the loud roaring of the wind that took hold of my ears and felt it pushing my entire body to the point where I had to lean around 45 degrees forward to staybalise myself. The crashing of the waves against the ferry and having my face splashed by the remainder of it.
This current trip to Texel Island however was different. The calmness of the waters and low wind revealed something else. The ferry itself became present. Through its mechanical infrastructure and systems, you can hear and feel its entirity as it navigates its way through the North Sea. The humming and clanking of what sounds like large chains, pistons and motors.
I land on Texel. Greeted by some seaguls
Texel Port
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#002
NIOZ -The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research. As we walk through the hallways of the research centre there is a plethora of research papers and images of magnified algae, Gulnardia Striata being one of them, a museum of the microscopic, a show and tell of what exists within our oceans, beaches and water bodies. A reminder of the different scales which our world operates, I slowly decenter myself. A reminder that water is the elusive element which ties us all together.
Water circulates, continuously inmotion, on, below and above the earth, filling the gaps between riverbanks and continents. It is at once the vastness of an oceanic panorama and the diminutive detail of a single drop. It can be a completely dependent form, its shape determined not by the water itself, but by its container (a fish bowl, a glass). At other times it determines the shapes of its surrounds, carves new routes across flood plains. As such, water is tolerant and accommodating; it is a solvent that dissolves and holds other forms (like salt, microorganisms and biologicalmolecules) while still remaining water. Regardless of whether it falls as raindrops, turns to steam, condenses on glass, freezes or melts, it always returns to the same state and has the same fundamental properties.
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#003
I arrive at the northern part of the Island, The Sluffter. I was with Ifor and Charles, the car could not drive through closer to the shore so we had to walk. I didnt mind it, the sun was high je clouds were clear. Before getting to the water we had to walk around the marshy lands that were placed inbetween. This protected area was the breeding and feeding grounds of many ducks, gulls and waders birds. They were ever so present under the sounds of the northern winds. I could hear my favourite bird, the blacktailed godwit, amongst many others. The dunes that hide the distant ocean act as sound barriers against the wind and waves allowing the birds calls to be heard clearer.
The Slufter, lies between two dunes; the Muy and the Netherlands. It is an interesting formation of salt marsh positioned between two dikes that has creek systems that extend inland. As we walked through toward the mouth of Slufter, you can see the masses of Zuirkruil, a seaweed that can be harvested and eaten, which was what we did on the way back. Sea lavander covered the majority of the landscape, these beautiful purple flowers that honey bees can collect.
Ifor @ Texel Beach
Texel Dunes
Sea Lavander
I stand at the edge of the beach, looking out into the horizon of the north sea. The way the wind sounds almost merges in sync with the sounds of the waves crashing, it is a little bit hard to distinguish which is which. It feels like time stops here, there close to no visual or oral ques that suggest the passing of time, just the experience of immersion into the environment.
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#004
Wind, water, sand and beings
One of the Wadden islands that bring all of these together
Force of the invisible, wind
I feel it so intimately
I see it do so to others
Water, it's crisp to the touch and clear
Providing me the sight to see what lay beneath
The granular textures of minerals run through my toes
I feel them cling to my leg as I pass through them
Sand, here sometimes in prestene beige.
I stand in the black
Oozing its darkness, thick and odorous
Like an egg past its best by date
What we sought after, to listen for were unditectible
Yet for some, they were lucky enough to hear
For me the unfortunate one
I stand in the black sand and listen toward the ocean instead
Dead Crab and Razor Clams
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#005
Ijmuiden. The port of Amsterdam one of the busiest logistical ports in Europe. There were large cargo ships unloading and loading containers. I sit by the bank and observe. The large size of the cargo ships slow the movement of time somehow. I hear the motors of the ships mix with the sounds of the waves they create. A masking occurs; the motors of these ships, cranes that lift and move containers, the dragging of chains, the unique air horns of each vehicle, the soundscape of a busy port. It draws me away from the natural sounds of the elements.
The North Sea canal is brackish. Brak. A mixture of salty and fresh water, this canal is in constant battle to maintain a good balance between the two otherwise too much salty water in fresh water streams may be damaging to the ecosystem. A process known as Selectieve Onttrekking.
We are making our way to the middle of the North Sea canal, floating on the Koningin Emma, small touring boat. I listen both above and below the surface while we wait in the smallest sea lock of the port, the Zuidersluis. Above there is an earie atmosphere, a seemingly unpredictable and quiet energy hovers above this place. And below there is a mysterious world where orientation and scale are questioned. What is heard here are sounds of motors and possibly the mechanical workings of the Selective Onttrekking.
Selective Onttrekking Diagram
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Tata Steel
#006
I see large plumes of white smoke coming from chimneys in the distance. It comes from Tata steel, a metal manufacturing industry that resides in Ijmuiden. You do not hear much of the work that goes on, but it is a specticle to observe the scale of the facility. The smoke that exists the chimneys got me more curious. It turns out that dust is carried out from here, therefore being carried by the wind and landing nearby.
This dust covered the streets, homes, vehicles and infiltrated the bodies of those who live there.
Image: ROBIN UTRECHT/picture alliance
According to the RIVM, it is found that those who live near Tata Steel are often given more cardiovasular disease, high blood preasure, and diabetes medicines than those who live outside of IJmond region.
There is an ongoing criminal investigation for Tata Steel's "intentional and unlawful" waste practices.
Reports on Dust from Tata Steel
https://www.dw.com/en/tata-steel-hit-by-dutch-criminal-probe/a-60638497
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#007
Vislocatie - Fishing Location.
I explored outside of the Sea Locks and settled in the fishing location in the northern part of the port. Here I was also fishing, not to catch the fish but attempt to hear them.
These dark and murky waters
how uninviting you are
we attempt to catch what swim beneath
if there are any.
how unfortunate for those that get caught
this was not the nicest of places for your last moments
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#007
What the field has taught me is patience. The patience to let it show itself to me, while I could have spent my moments reading a book, listening to music or talking instead I listened, observed carefully and waited. As I waited, listened and observed at Texel and Ijmuiden I started noticing the different temporalities that occurred. At the Sluifter in Texel, time seemed to stop existing as the elements fully immersed me into the environment. Ijmuiden port presented itself with many time scales, from the slow burning wait outside of the sea lock on the Koningin Emma, to witnessing the passage of ships that go by and the workers on them that follow strict schedules to load and unload cargo.Â
The field is an interesting playground, a playground that I shared many experiences with and gained an insight into its inner ear. How it can operate and how it can sound. I found that through patience and careful observation with my senses, only then did the field present itself to me.
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Tessa Elisabeth Fluence↩
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