James Brady				       
www.jamesbrady.jux.com

Hydrography: Hilbre Island

Stereo sound, 6’13” / associated photographs and maps (2014)

Hydrography is an eco-acoustic sound installation (with accompanying visual material), which has emerged out of an ongoing research project on Hilbre Island. Underlying this artwork is scientific acoustic data, which has been provided by scientists at Britain’s National Oceanography Centre in Liverpool. The data evidences the ephemeral behavior of the coastal sands. It thus provides valuable information for studying the dynamic relationship between sea and land, commonly known (by oceanographers) as ‘coastal processes’. The analogue sonic drone is derived from periodic tidal sonar readings of underwater sediment (sand) activity at the head of the Dee Estuary, just off the edge of Hilbre Island. Integrated with this sonar are real-time field recordings (above and below water) of the seawater surrounding the island. Together they create an acoustic aesthetic unique to this special place.

Since 2010, collaborative elements of the Hydrography project have been exhibited in the UK at Liverpool John Moores University (Art and Design Academy), National Oceanography Centre, and Liverpool Biennial international festival of contemporary art.


Project context:

Hydrography is an ongoing creative exploration of the environment on and around Hilbre Island (a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest) and the head of the Dee Estuary on the Wirral Peninsula coast, North West England. The island is a wildlife nature reserve, home to a variety of rare species of flora and fauna. It is a particularly important estuarine site in Europe, renowned for its crucial position as a haven for migratory birds and its habitat for permanent populations of wading birds. Grey seals and species of dolphins and porpoises also live in the coastal waters around the island. Hilbre supports extensive areas of saltmarsh vegetation, embodying a succession from early pioneer vegetation colonizing intertidal flats through lower, middle and upper saltmarsh types to brackish and freshwater transitions at the top of the shore.

My research seeks to explore the environmental changes that have, and continue to shape this fragile, low-lying inter-tidal landscape, which will, within this century, become quickly more susceptible to the effects of sea level rise. This work includes observing human interactions with the littoral/liminal landscape (both literally and abstractly) through researching early 20th century building of the coastal defense infrastructure; the cartographic recording of the Wirral Peninsula since the early 17th century, and also the ecological surveys and archaeological studies of the coastline conducted since the late 19th century. Through an engagement with archives, an important part of the project aesthetic has been harnessed – the use of appropriated material, objet trouvé (such as historic maps) to support the narrative and, in some circumstances to be presented as art objects.

Hilbre Island is only accessible on-foot at low tide. It is an otherworldly place in constant flux and transition through the dynamic agency of water. My fieldwork expeditions out to this small, enigmatic sandstone island remain at the core of this project: these journeys embody a performative act of transitory experiences in a very temporal space. The use of photography, video, sound (field recordings) made on site, enable me to reflect and meditate on the contemporary, historic and deep time aspects of this place, revealing its ecology, geology and hydrological characteristics in unusual aesthetic ways. In most cases any material I collect and/or create, I regard as accumulatively, work-in-progress sketches, or studies.

A significant element of engagement with this site is through my interest in the research that the Coastal Observatory at the British National Oceanography Centre is conducting off the coast in the Irish Sea. This diverse and complex marine research facilitates a deeper understanding of the wider environment and consequently the evolution of the coastline's ecosystem and littoral zone.

In the Fall of 2013, the British Coal Authority announced it had awarded a UK-based energy company two licenses for Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) to take place on the Dee Estuary. The industrial process of UCG is closely associated with that of Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking). This is a proposal to exploit a coal seam beneath the sea/river bed where Hilbre Island is located and it has initiated a great deal of unrest amongst local residents. There is a growing community of citizen activists in the area who are opposed to the UCG plans and are campaigning to stop this fossil fuel energy extraction happening. If the UCG process takes place, the potential water pollution caused and its long-term effects to the fragile ecology of Hilbre Island and the estuarine environment could be disastrous.


HYDROGRAPHY: Hilbre Island

Sea birds

stream at Kentmere

song at Yoke Fell

evening dialogue

OBSIDIAN is an emerging collaboration between cousins, Tom and Jim Brady...
Tom Brady: guitar, bass, drums, co-production
Jim Brady: poetry, vocals, field recordings, drones, co-production
(this demo is a work in progress)

Tidekeeper