BROKEN RECORD (Éin Uisce)

Middle Street
Friday Sept 13 to Sunday 15

Wildlife sound recordist Séan Royane
Photo credit: Chris Maddaloni 

BROKEN RECORD is a Galway City Council commissioned audio composition which is a collaboration between visual artist Mark Clare https://www.markclare.net/abouthttps://www.markclare.net/about   and ornithologist and wildlife sound recordist Seán Ronayne (See Bird Song Documentary https://www.rte.ie/culture/2024/0522/1450635-birdsong-watch-a-preview-of-the-stunning-new-documentary/ )

 

It is a low-energy, portable, artwork that highlights that we are now living through the sixth mass species extinction, due to climate change and habitat loss, and their multitiered effects on our local biodiversity.  It is an alluring composition, consisting of multilayered recordings from the 29 species of coastal birds, listed on the Irish AMBER and RED Lists of Endangered Bird species. The individual soundtracks interplay with, and across each other, to create an audio representation and give voice to our endangered species. Operating off rechargeable batteries, affords the presentation a limited lifespan. This component of the work highlights the need to reconsider our approach to our energy consumption, an extremely important factor driving the Nature & Climate Crisis that we are currently facing. At a time of global energy insecurity this component of the work highlights an important dilemma for our future generations.

 

This project is developed in collaboration with visual artist Mark Clare, ornithologist Seán Ronayne, and electrical engineers Aness Al-Qawlaq and Daniel Alvarez Carreno