Ornitho(Eu)logy (2018)

Installation, bird house, leaves, sticks, speaker, media player, generative audio.

Audio excerpt.

A few years ago while rummaging through cassettes in a local op-shop I stumbled on what is still one of my favourite second-hand finds: a tape called ‘Bird Calls Of North Queensland Rainforests’ by A.C.M. Griffin and R.J. Swaby.

The cassette is a self-published collection of field recordings of individual birdcalls, alternating with narration (by an older lady, presumably Griffin or Swaby) of the bird’s common name. A list of each recording, as well as the bird’s scientific name was provided in the booklet.

After listening to the cassette, I wrote a letter to A.C.M. Griffin explaining how much I appreciated the recording. Sadly, the letter was returned a few weeks later with the recipients name crossed out, with the word ‘deceased’ written next to it.

This piece is dedicated firstly to A.C.M Griffin and R.J. Swaby, but more broadly to those unknown, humble ‘amateur’ scientists, who are out there every day contributing to the larger project by recording and documenting our world.