half/life

A multi-channel sound installation for The British Museum World of Stonehenge exhibition.

The half/life sound installation is composed from field recordings made by Rose Ferraby around the site of the Seahenge timber circle on the North Norfolk coast.

I took Rose’s recordings of saltmarsh water, birds, sediment and wood and variously eroded and recomposed them into new sonic tones and textures. Seahenge was constructed in the early Bronze Age, and preserved by layers of silt until rediscovered in 1998.

The installation is intended to evoke the slow, sedimented processes of decomposition and decay on the site, flitting across scales of time, space and material. It is composed using techniques including granular synthesis and environmentally-altered tape loops, bringing processes of ecological chance and uncertainty into its production.

The installation is presented across multiple speakers ranging from the floor to the ceiling, creating a subtle sonic environment to experience the reconstruction of the Seahenge monument in the British Museum gallery.

Neil Wilkin, lead curator of The World of Stonehenge exhibition says:

“The half/life sound installation is a special and unique part of the world of Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum. It is unlike anything else ever staged within our special exhibitions, and we are thrilled to be hosting it. Rose Ferraby and Rob St John have created a piece of work that transports our visitors back, over 4,000 years, to a world very different to our own. Through the power of half/life, visitors feel deeply connected to the fascinating story of Seahenge, and the wonders of how ancient communities perceived their landscape, the natural world and the many mysteries of the cosmos. half/life is that rare thing: a contemporary work that channels the power of the deep past.”

The work forms part of Rose’s wider commission to bring atmosphere and narrative around Seahenge into the exhibition through art, including painting and film. It was part of the AHRC funded Icons of Power: Rethinking Symbols of Power at the Time of Stonehenge project, led by Prof Duncan Garrow (University of Reading) and Dr Neil Wilkin (British Museum).

Listen to a condensed stereo edit of the installation: