Eilís, Artistic Director of Extraordinary Bodies Young Artists, talks about keeping her creativity going through lockdown by learning to create audio content with Calling The Shots as part of the New Creatives programme. You can listen to her audio recording of the story just below or read it by scrolling down.
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Exploring Audio by Eilís Bevan-Davis
We all got a bit screen-obsessed didn’t we?
Watch the news at 5pm. Check the latest updates.
Spend the day zooming and slacking and video chatting.
See a bit of not-so-live theatre or some new, non-immersive, pretty inaccessible exploration into physical opera.
Just me?
I felt the need to just stop, actually. Slow down. Sit and look out of my window for an hour. Not do anything.
I’ve noticed the wildlife have crept up since I’ve moved the earth around a bit. Since we’ve become a nation of garden lovers. All the wildlife seem to have emerged.
Just me?
I got obsessed with compost for a while there. I watched it almost daily, fed it, turned it, gave it warmth and love and time. It was my warm, womb earth baby.
I also noticed the wildlife creep in. The birds come and wobble on branches and watch for the juicy worms in my earth baby. I watch too. They dance. The insects wiggle.
I listen too.
To the crackling of twigs in my wife’s bug hotel. She’s very proud of it. Her very first bug hotel. It’s buzzing and fizzing and crackling. If you listen very carefully and the wind is still.
Oh the wind. Hasn’t it been bloody roaring recently? I try to make it out. It shouts at me some days and tells me to back off.
So I do. I retreat inside and let it bounce off my window. I watch the noise through the double-glazing. And I am so very grateful for this house of ours. It keeps us safe when the wind starts getting on its high horse about something or another.
The thing I love about live theatre is how it helps us connect with ourselves a bit more and helps me to question the ways of humanity. The thing about lockdown is that that’s what I’ve been doing all the time. It’s what happens when I am with my compost heap. Or when I am quietly listening to the sounds inside our Fuchsia bush.
Last month I took part in the New Creatives training programme, run by Calling The Shots. I went with a focus on creating audio content.
That’s what Extraordinary Bodies Young Artists are going to do next. Create some nice audio projects. Songs, stories and fables and whatever else we want as a group.
I think the way lockdown has made us become hyper aware is the perfect state to listen, delicately. In the words of Mel Harris from SparkLab, who gave us an inspiring session on making audio work: “Tell stories from all the corners of the world”.
Well I think that is just what we will do then. Tell the story from our corner and invite you to come and listen to it. Well, not actually come. You can carry on in your own garden or out walking the dog or doing the dishes.
Put your headphones in and listen to our story and the sounds of our world.
Extraordinary Bodies Young Artists recently released their new digital piece created in collaboration with Biggerhouse Film and Harry Bassett, “This Town Of Ours”. They will be getting back to face-to-face sessions in a safe environment at the end of September. They are the next generation of radical artists to look out for and are supported by leading circus company Extraordinary Bodies, our collaboration with Cirque Bijou.
Follow our journey on social media and find out what comes out of us learning to create audio content:
