Holocene :: Leah Barclay and Tricia King

This work is part of a research project between Leah Barclay, Tricia King and Lyndon Davis exploring site-responsive photography, immersive soundscape and Indigenous knowledge. The work explores methods of seeing sound and hearing images through a locative media walk with photography and soundscapes.

This is the third iteration of Holocene - which responds to an immersive sound walk of the same name along the edge of the lake at Boreen Point for Floating Land 2021. The work references the current period of geologic time that corresponds with the global changes caused by human activities and technological revolutions. It explores the tensions present in UNESCO biosphere reserves, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges and contradictions of sustainable development.

The audience walked along the edge of the lake at dusk with their feet in the water wearing wireless headphones and listening to a live soundscape mix. The acoustic ecology focused around the Noosa Biosphere Reserve revealing invisible ecosystems we usually cannot hear including hydrophones deep in the everglades and microbats navigating the surface of the lake at dusk. The experience draws on the voices of traditional owners, including Lyndon Davis who is a key collaborator on this research.

For this locative experience, Leah has created a soundscape in response to Tricia's images from the original sound walk at Boreen Point and additionally imagery from their collaboration project Listening in the Wild - www.listeninginthewild.com