La pelouse spacieuse d’un parc est-londonien, atteignant 37 degrés Celsius, se transforme en vide aride. par Jay Richardsonlundi 18 juillet 2022 Le bruissement sec des feuilles mortes se fait entendre partout. Elles se dispersent au parc, sur la rue que je prends en route pour le train, dans les caniveaux, et sur les allées. L’air… Continue reading Cassant et sec: Londres dans la vague de chaleur
Author: Jay Richardson
A southern English forest in pictures and sounds
For all the stories and statistics, woods can become distant from everyday life. Micheldever Wood is a mixed broadleaf-conifer woodland in Hampshire that contains many of the signature characteristics of a British forest.
Why do we need data sonification?
Data sonification is data display using any sound that isn’t speech, offering new and inclusive ways to interact with d
London flood locations in pictures
As much as we tried to capture the shock of last year’s events in Halfway to Atlantis: Remembering the 2021 London floods, there wasn’t space to explore the surroundings of each flood location. This photo series gives them a little more context from other angles, and from nearby streets. As we wrote in the anniversary… Continue reading London flood locations in pictures
Floodlines: Rain sounds recomposed
Rain makes some of the world’s best-loved sounds. They’re even better coming from a giant plywood recorder.
Halfway to Atlantis: Remembering the 2021 London floods
One year on from some of London’s most severe surface flooding, comparative photography can help us trace the cycle of shock, cleanup, and forgetting that surrounds environmental disasters.
London’s heat wave in sounds and pictures
Outside an electrical box with an active air vent to stay functional at 37 degrees. Several planes fly overhead, and around 1’12” you can hear a dry branch chrashing to the ground and dispersing a flock of pigeons. Vans and cyclists pass and you can also hear the incredibly dry ground underfoot.
July 2022 in sounds and pictures
Public space is contested visually and sonically17th July 2022 The soundscape is a vital refuge for protesters15th July 2022 Returning the gaze of police surveillance13th July 2022 Even before the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill began threatening protest rights, a red van with the license plate LB21 YNG began turning up at police-attended events… Continue reading July 2022 in sounds and pictures
Brittle and dry: London in the heat wave
At 37 degrees, the airy lawns of an East London park have dried into arid emptiness amidst a potentially lethal heat wave. by Jay RichardsonMonday 18th July 2022 Everywhere is the dry rustle of dead leaves. They’re not just in the park, but on my street on the way to the train, and in the… Continue reading Brittle and dry: London in the heat wave
Protest isn’t noise
When you describe the sounds of protest as “noise” you deny its democratic function—and admit how much it bothers you.
UK rainfall variability: It never rains but it pours
Rainfall might be stable from year to year, but the story is very different day to day. by Jay RichardsonWednesday 29th June 2022 In an era of disastrous storms and constant fear over coastal defences and flooding, you might expect rainfall to show reliable, multi-decade, climate-influenced patterns. Or at least to swing wildly, as seasonal… Continue reading UK rainfall variability: It never rains but it pours
A field guide to open secrets
Getting to know a place takes time, even with methods like a randomised sound survey. It also takes the courage to throw away your map.
A robin’s song to hurt your ears
A tiny robin’s song in the dawn chorus approaches frequencies at the limits of human hearing.
Singing ‘chiffchaff’ by numbers
There’s much more to a chiffchaff than meets the ear.
Silence and chaos and birds in between
A dawn chorus contains so much joyful chaos: that’s what makes it a chorus. For pure density of sound, most green spaces at dawn in springtime could give Piccadilly Circus a run for its money.
Tall tree, loud robin
What makes new recordings worthwhile is that they can tell us about our environment by showing how birds interact with it. With that in mind, today’s birdsongification features the humble robin.
Marsham Street’s parliament of trees
A London Plane tree stands outside the Home Office building on Marsham Street during protests against the government’s new asylum policy.
Cherry blossom, Highbury Fields
Highbury Fields was bought for a public park in 1885 while various speculators developed the surrounding area into housing. Most of the park’s avenues are lined with London Plane trees.
Plane seed pods, King’s Cross
Planes are actually quite easy to grow from seed if you’re so inclined, and resists pests and diseases much better than sycamores.
Birch, Clissold Park
by Jay RichardsonWednesday 13th April 2022 Birches probably appeared amongst the first trees in the UK after the last ice age: they spread quickly and grow well in a wide range of soils, including heathland and moorland. They improve biodiversity when mixed into conifer plantations, which now contribute most new woodland planting in the UK.… Continue reading Birch, Clissold Park
Cherry blossom, Islington
by Jay RichardsonTuesday 12th April 2022 Warmer spring temperatures are shifting blossoms several weeks earlier than they used to be, so they’re already out during late spring frosts and sustain severe damage. Clissold Park’s blossoms were out nearly a month early this year. Losing blossoms to the late spring frost devastates fruit yields, like apricots… Continue reading Cherry blossom, Islington
Rain turns the world into a drum
Not even laser imaging can tell you as much about your material surroundings as rain can.
Remembering a crisis in sound
Street recordings from the UK’s first coronavirus lockdown tell a tale of quietness, crisis, and the presence of absence.
Forests go up, forests go down, but mostly down
New woodland is an essential climate mitigation tool. So where is it?
House price to wage ratio: Wealth fails to trickle down
Median house prices in England and Wales are now almost nine times the average salary, bringing the house price to wage ratio to an historic extreme.
Traffic isn’t noise
The way we hear traffic sounds reveals what we think of as worth hearing.
Thoughts on climate, feelings on safety
“It doesn’t feel great to live on a cloud while the rest of the world goes under”: the feelings under the surface of climate safety
London floods: On microphones and water
As rain spills into destruction during the summer 2021 London floods, the violence and disruption is getting louder.
The unique and mysterious life of a London city park
It doesn’t look like a wild ecosystem, but point your ears at this London park and you might be surprised.
The curious sound of the void
There’s a river here, but not the kind of watery soundscape that you might have expected.
Think older people have no stakes in the climate crisis? Think again.
Those paying the largest energy bills have the most to gain from a fast renewable energy rollout.