A Burst of Birdsong
For May’s session we're going on a field trip! We're going to be exploring the subject of birdsong out on a gentle walk in Richmond Park. Please do join us.
The session will last around 1.5 - 2 hours and be a mixture of discussion and strollings. Hopefully we will hear a medley of spring birdsong, possibly including meadow pipits; stonechats; woodpeckers and maybe even little owls if they’re not feeling too shy.
We’re interested in exploring the cultures and imperatives expressed through avian song and, in turn, the human response to these sounds.
We’ve gathered together a selection of music and art pieces to act as potential ways into these topics. They include an album of wild bird song by Cosmo Sheldrake; an artistic exploration of the commonalities in birds and humans by artist Marcus Coates; a podcast by Future Ecologies that contextualises the evolution of birdsong; and a piece by Daisy Ginsberg that explores the possibilities of AI-generated birdsong.
Details About The Event
We will meet at Richmond Gate entrance to Richmond Park at 2pm. Everyone is very welcome to join and no prior knowledge is required. We are interested in everyone’s emotional, sensual and intellectual response to the works and the experience of being out in the landscape.
We aim for the events to be inclusive, low-pressure, light, gentle, holding and enlivening.
Please try to listen to all the pieces below before you attend the event but, if you don't have time, please don’t worry at all, and please come along anyway, as there’s always plenty to talk about!
The full list of works to listen to and look at will be sent through with the confirmation email upon booking.
And we also send through full details of everything you need to know about what to wear and how to get there etc before the day.
Refunds/Cancellations: We're not able to offer any refunds unfortunately. The event will go ahead rain or shine, and will only be cancelled in the case of high winds or other dangerous conditions.
Please do get in touch with us on morethanhumanbookclub@gmail.com if you have any questions, otherwise we'll look forward to seeing you out there on the land for our first official field trip!
More about The Book Club
The More-Than-Human Book Club is a group that meets at The Barbican Library and online to talk about more-than-human experiences, wildness and nature writing in its broadest sense. In the past year we’ve covered everything from poetry and sculpture to surrealist nature films. We hoped to create a place of sanctuary, exploration and discovery, somewhere that community can be found and connections can be forged. We aim to mutually inspire, enrich and vitalise. If you are interested in wildness, literature, ecology, science, art and/or ideas, please do join us, we’d love to have you there!
Its co-founders, hosts and curators are:
Olivia “Lilly” Edward. Lilly is a writer who specialises in nature and the environment. For the last two years she has been running nature writing events and panel discussions at the Royal Geographical Society, and she continues to review and write regularly for their magazine. She volunteers as a ranger in Richmond Park and is endlessly enthralled by the natural world and its web of ecological relationships.
Rhona Eve Clews. Rhona is an Artist, Healer and Ecologist. Rhona has a background in Psychology and Photography, holds an MFA in Fine Art from Slade School of Fine Art and teaches independently and for Slade Summer School. Drawing upon her past of growing up a hippie she works across writing, photography, performance and filmmaking, aiming to expand them into somatic, eco-feminist practices and contribute to wider ecological ethics of care.
Credits: The title image depicting a singing bird and two human figures is an untitled woodcut by Michael Rothenstein, a painter who became one of Britain’s most experimental woodcut artists during the 1950s and 60s.
