Sea Songs is a sound art project inspired by North Yorkshire’s marine heritage and wildlife and takes the form of two audio walks – one in Scarborough and one in Whitby. The project is created by sound artist Rob Mackay and students from Scarborough Sixth Form.
Download the Echoes app (Google Play or App Store) for a GPS-triggered sound walk around Scarborough and Whitby. Your phone will guide you to locations around the coast where you can listen to newly created audio works relating to the marine environment.
How to participate
Visit https://explore.echoes.xyz to download the Echoes app and search for ‘Sea Songs Soundwalk Scarborough’ or ‘Sea Songs Soundwalk Whitby’.
The Scarborough walk starts from the Scarborough Spa and the Whitby walk starts at the Whitby Pavilion.
The final sound piece
Sound artist Rob Mackay has created a sound piece, weaving together a rich collage of recordings made by both him and the students involved in the project. It attempts to evoke a deep connection to the more-than-human world we inhabit and invites us to open our ears to the strange and often unheard soundscape that exists just metres from the shoreline.
A description of the sound piece by Robin Mackay:
“The piece opens with the ghostly wailing of grey seals, perhaps evoking the memories of mariners’ tales of mermaids and selkie. We then move to a rock pool on the beach at South Bay where we can hear the release of oxygen bubbles as some seaweed photosynthesises, revealing the often hidden sound of this process.
We’re then introduced to human voices, but from the listening perspective of the rockpool. The piece then transitions to the howling din of a jetski recorded underwater which then moves to the constant hum of a boat engine, reminding us of our entangled and often invasive relationship with our environment.
Through this morass of sound comes the unmistakable clicking sound of bottlenose dolphins as they communicate and echolocate underwater.
This sound develops into a sound edit made by workshop participant Alfie Johnson who weaves in a breathlike sound from the sea, reminding us of our genetic heritage with these ocean mammals.
The sound piece ends with the crackling texture of snapping shrimp as they stun their prey with the powerful sound waves produced by their oversized pincers.”
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Artist Rob Mackay on the Sea Songs boat trip recording sounds.© Jamie Muir -
Harbour porpoise off the Yorkshire coast© Stuart Baines -
Project participant, artist and advisors recording sounds from a rockpool© Jamie Muir -
Grey seals can be seen off the coast of Scarborough© Stuart Baines -
Young people from Scarboorugh Sixth Form take part in the workshop© Jamie Muir
Behind the scenes
Young people from Scarborough Sixth Form were guided by sound artist and acoustic ecologist Rob Mackay to create a series of sound artworks collaboratively. The young people went on a beach walk and a boat trip to create field recordings of marine mammals and their underwater environment, including the sounds of seals and a pod of dolphins.
They learned about artistic and scientific approaches to acoustic ecology and practical techniques to create a soundscape composition, and gained knowledge about the importance of marine conservation and the role art can play in understanding climate change.
