Kate Paxman

I came to the Residency with a proposal to make a speculative sonic survey of the tidal flows of the lower reaches of the Mawddach Estuary, and to focus on developing my listening practices. I spent time gathering field recordings using a variety of microphones such as hydrophones, contact mics and binaural mics while attempting to sense the changing tidal energies and began each trip out with a self-instruction taken from a series of notations I have drafted as techniques for encouraging attentive and imaginative listening inspired by Pauline Oliveros' 'Anthology of Text Scores' (Oliveros and Pertl, 2013).
"you have to listen to everything all the time and remind yourself if you're not" (Oliveros)

This listening meditation, which invited deep listening to everything it is possible to hear (from the sounds of the community that is estuary, and imagined sounds, to my own thoughts and memories) became easier as the Residency progressed – my listening grew more sustained and less fractured or unfocused.

While spending slow time listening along the estuary edges, I became fascinated by the rippled patterns on the surface of the water, watching how hydrosphere and atmosphere touch, and wondering what the ripples could teach me about the temporal movements of tidal systems in our time of warming and expanding seas. Since the Residency ended, I have begun piecing together a sonic composition from the sounds I gathered, with a score drafted from the ripple patterns on the water at high tide, and on the sands and silts at low tide after the waters have withdrawn.

katepaxman · Foreshore Mawddach Estuary

What made this wonderful Residency even more special was sharing the two weeks with artist Emily Spivey. Talking about practice and processes and co-working in the studio was valuable and inspiring. It was a privilege to have such close insights into Emily’s methods and activities during our two weeks, and to talk through my own tentative, just-forming thinking, and I learned so much from our conversations. Thanks Emily x
 
Kate Paxman
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