Miranda Whall: When Earth Speaks

I will be continuing to develop my ongoing and evolving drawing performance When Earth Speaks and other related projects and the ongoing Soil Voices project.

When Earth Speaks was initially funded by the National Environmental Research Council (NERC) as part of an X Disciplinary Hopping Research Project: Planetary Multispecies Politics in Action led by Professor Milja Kurki, Aberystwyth University.

When Earth Speaks and other iterations, is an evolving and ongoing series of durational and relational drawing performances in which I will be translating raw data from various sources. In When Earth Speaks I am representing the high resolution soil sensor technology data beyond traditional statistics, so that the data might have a wider meaning and greater impact.

I am drawing and reciting a continuous stream of raw ‘dirty’ data emitted from an agri – sensor network installed in the Cambrian Mountains, West Wales. The 12 agri – sensors register and record the fluctuations in soil temperature and soil moisture every 15 minutes.

The earth doesn’t speak, so this ground-breaking technology enables scientists, land managers, investors, and stakeholders to listen to what the earth is telling them and how it needs to be managed and protected to sustain human, animal, vegetal, fungal and bacterial livelihoods as we move into more extreme and unpredictable weather conditions.

My drawing performance aims to translate and communicate the data to animate and inanimate audiences, on the basis that both human and non-humans have a common and vested interest in the condition of the earth. The drawings, which are surface accumulations of thousands of pen written numbers gathered over time become textured and opaque as the numbers settle on the paper, much like all of the mineral particles, organic materials, air, water and living organisms are compacted over time into earth. So far, I have performed When Earth Speaks to Humans in Aberystwyth Arts Centre, When Earth Speaks to Plants and AI in the Botany House, Aberystwyth University, and When Earth Speaks to Harp for Aberetwm Arts Festival at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.