KNOW NATURE (performed by Weaver) 7 min video; 5 x 7 min audio, 33" monitor; surround sound speaker system, mixer, lemon eucalyptus essential oil. 2025

My current artistic goal is to bring my poetic/philosophical writing to life via a digital persona. This project gave me the opportunity to begin to develop the sound element of this goal and to give birth to the embryonic version of the visual aspect of this digital persona that I call Weaver. I pitched the work as ‘a ritualistic cry for Nature in the form of a rhythmic soundscape performed with, and led by a digital avatar’. The Visual aspect of Weaver in their current form is a 3D visualisation of the sound of a bird that moves when triggered by sound. I like to think of this project as the birth of Weaver as this was the first time I have performed my words through them. 

One of the most meaningful things to me is the importance of not putting human thought above the intelligence of nature. I want to speculate on the possibility of a nature that is beyond our knowing, and that the potential for human evolution lies in this knowing. My research writings in this area feed my poetic writing, and 'know nature', the title of the chant performed by Weaver is an example of this.

The project required a good understanding of composition so while in development I took at Music Theory for Computer Musicians course and researched the use of AI and sound which opened a whole world of understanding about the structure of music. Using the spoken word piece as direction, I employed nine AI song generators using line breaks and punctuation in different ways to create phrase and breath markers and for melodic and rhythmic shifts, and via the use of alternative prompts I was able to ‘sing’ my lyrics in alternative melodies. I then employed AI stem separators to strip out the instruments so that I was left with the vocal only, and used AI vocal changers to create Weaver’s voice and the five responding chanters. I then cut and mixed these voices with the call of the Boobook Owl to form the call and response element of the work. For the installation of the work the electrical wiring for the 'speakers' was used to create a root-like sculpture emerging from the main source.