Live stream: london_an_ear_to_river.mp3
Channelsea River
Blanc Sceol (Stephen Shiell & Hannah White)
Latitude: +51.53076530917495°
Longitude: +0.00038387703943598694°
On the roof of the community-built compost toilet on the banks of the Channelsea river in Newham, London, at the Long Wall Ecology Garden, set up by Stephen Shiell and Hannah White and part of Surge Cooperative. The river is capped close to the stream site creating a rare intertidal mud flat zone.
The compost toilet is a community build project to enable greater access to the Long Wall Ecology Garden, where Surge Cooperative hold a monthly eco gathering and special events to care for the river and it's surroundings. The toilet also exists as a place of conversation and creativity, a living archive housing many artifacts created through community events reflecting on the nature of waste and the river's history of pollution.
The soundscape will include a community of pigeons roosting under the bridge, other bird life in surrounding trees and hedges, mostly self seeded. Many people also use the path so possibly early morning joggers, cyclists, commuters. The background hum of the city can always be heard.
The streambox is initiated by artists Stephen Shiell and Hannah White, who are members of Surge Cooperative, and forms part of their ongoing research and collaboration with the cooperative on the Channelsea river and its surroundings, exploring methodologies of care and restoration for the river and its inhabitants.
Surge Cooperative is working to rejuvenate the Channelsea, and the wider tidal River Lea, with cooperative moorings and community engagement, proposing common actions with those connected to the river or local to the area, and encouraging collective efforts to protect and celebrate its rich natural heritage.
www.blancsceol.co.uk
www.surge.coop