This was taped at the exhibition“The Songs We Sing, Camden,” a group of participants, including students in Elizabeth Demaray’s Conceptual Art class, gathered for a happening in the Stedman Gallery in early December to record this live, group birdcall, titled “The Song Cycle.” Conducted by Stefán Örn Arnarson, co-curator of the “Sounds of Camden” exhibition, “The Songs Cycle” was a completely unrehearsed, three-part performance aiming to create a new form of orchestrated soundscape.
This is In the first movement of this three part performance. Arnarson taught the participants basic conductor movements and instructed them to make their birdcalls whenever they felt that it was appropriate during the performance. Click here for the audio recording of the two-minute interlude.
“I pondered just what it would be like for humans to lack companion species after this century's 'massive species die-off'" states Demaray, whose artwork concerns the interface between the built and natural environments. “I concluded that humans may soon have to create fictive environments in order to experience a sense of calm and beauty.”


The Song Cycle, Camden, movement #1

This was taped at the exhibition“The Songs We Sing, Camden,” a group of participants, including students in Elizabeth Demaray’s Conceptual Art class, gathered for a happening in the Stedman Gallery in early December to record this live, group birdcall, titled “The Song Cycle.” Conducted by Stefán Örn Arnarson, co-curator of the “Sounds of Camden” exhibition, “The Songs Cycle” was a completely unrehearsed, three-part performance aiming to create a new form of orchestrated soundscape.
In this second movement, Arnarson conducted the assemblage to make individual birdcalls and different choirs of birds calling at different times. Although this section is conducted, this is still a spontaneous, completely unrehearsed performance, with the conductor navigating this completely new assemblage of human animal calls.

massive_species_die_off, human_bird_calls, the_songs_we_sing, Songs_We_Sing_Camden


The Song Cycle, Camden, movement #2

This was taped at the exhibition“The Songs We Sing, Camden,” a group of participants, including students in Elizabeth Demaray’s Conceptual Art class, gathered for a happening in the Stedman Gallery in early December to record this live, group birdcall, titled “The Song Cycle.” Conducted by Stefán Örn Arnarson, co-curator of the “Sounds of Camden” exhibition, “The Songs Cycle” was a completely unrehearsed, three-part performance aiming to create a new form of orchestrated soundscape.
In this final movement, Arnarson and Demaray asked the group of 23 performers to physically move, to walk around the soundstage until they found other birds in or close to their species via simply listening to their calls. The performers thus migrated around the stage until they were able to find their own kind or flock. Click here for the audio recording.
“Just making animal noises is a tough thing to do; we've been trained our whole lives to make culturally acceptable speech type sounds,” says Demaray. “From a social perspective, gathering as a group and making non-human noise was an unusual experience.”
At the conclusion of the performance, an audio recording was sent to the DigiHuman Lab at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, where it was analyzed using software that can gauge habitat biodiversity via animal sounds.
massive_species_die_off, human_bird_calls, the_songs_we_sing, Songs_We_Sing_Camden
