Transmissions
Edgeland
Hayley Suviste (UK 2021)
Hayley Suviste (UK 2020)
24 min
As Manchester’s streets and skyline are warped by the ever-accelerating process of urban renewal, the city’s edgelands and green spaces are at risk of being swallowed by waves of property development. Not only does this raise questions about the ecology of the city, as carbon sinks are flattened and wildlife is displaced, but it speaks to broader trends pushing urban residents away from shared space, community and local identity.
This project shines a light on these spaces and the activists, academics, and local people who have taken up the daunting fight against corporate interests in the city in the name of biodiversity, urban ecology and community wellbeing. As we are faced with crises of both environment and mental health, the role of public green spaces has become ever more crucial in the eyes of those who enjoy, nurture, and maintain them
Hayley Suviste is a sound artist and composer based in Manchester (UK). She works with field recordings, archival material, electronic hardware, and live instrumentation to create long-form compositions, sonic installations, and multimedia art projects. Inspired by folk traditions and oral histories, Hayley is interested in the role of sound and voice in constructing and reproducing cultural identities and socio-historical narratives and how new compositional technologies can engage communities with overlooked stories about their environments.
Produced by Hayley Suviste
Commsioned by HCMF
The Root Of The Matter: Woodland
Mae-Li Evens for Reduced Listening (UK 2022)
Mae-Li Evans for Reduced Listening (UK 2022)
32min Episode 4 of 5
Our lives are intrinsically entangled with the plant world: through the food we eat, the medicines we use, and the spaces we inhabit. In this five-part series, writer and maker JC Niala explores what the plant world has to teach us about being human. Join JC in conversation with growers, scientists, writers and activists on a journey through five different landscapes, from the familiarity of the garden to the seemingly hostile wasteland. We’ll take a closer look at the entanglements and stories underpinning the plant world to understand how plants can provide a lens on human health, history and belonging.
We think of forests and woodlands as wild spaces where we can lose ourselves in nature. They also provide us with a wealth of resources such as food, building materials and medicines. But they are also globally under threat of destruction. In this episode, JC Niala delves into the contradictions in our relationship with woodlands, and explores different ways we can think about them, if we are to use and protect them more wisely.
Lead Producer Alannah Chance
Produced by Mae-Li Evans
Music and sound design by Alice Boyd
The Root of the Matter’ is a Reduced Listening production for Wellcome Collection.
Listen to the series
The Fifth Siren: Water
Fill Productions (IT / UK 2021)
FILL Productions (IT/UK 2021)
22 min Episode 1 of 6
When the high tide reaches Venice, four sirens are sounded to warn the population of the incoming danger. Each one of them represents a growing level of emergency, the level of the rising water. Yet there is no sound after the last siren. In 2019, when the storm hit the city, nothing could have prepared Venetians for the level of destruction it was going to bring.
On the 13th of November 2019 an exceptionally high tide hits Venice, creating damage the city has not seen before. People’s homes and shops are destroyed, the power cuts off and the city plunges into a dark, desperate night, trying to rescue what it can. Could this have been foreseen? Are weather anomalies really an exception, or perhaps just something that’s going to happen more and more often? As the world stands watching, we wonder: is this only a cautionary tale for Venice, or for the world?
Written and Produced by Marco Magini, Paolo Nelli, Giorgia Tolfo, Maddalena Vatti
Sound design by Alex Robertson
Narrator: Emily Naylor
Support by Italian Cultural Institute London
Listen to the series
Edgeland
Hayley Suviste (UK 2021)
Hayley Suviste (UK 2020)
24 min
As Manchester’s streets and skyline are warped by the ever-accelerating process of urban renewal, the city’s edgelands and green spaces are at risk of being swallowed by waves of property development. Not only does this raise questions about the ecology of the city, as carbon sinks are flattened and wildlife is displaced, but it speaks to broader trends pushing urban residents away from shared space, community and local identity.
This project shines a light on these spaces and the activists, academics, and local people who have taken up the daunting fight against corporate interests in the city in the name of biodiversity, urban ecology and community wellbeing. As we are faced with crises of both environment and mental health, the role of public green spaces has become ever more crucial in the eyes of those who enjoy, nurture, and maintain them
Hayley Suviste is a sound artist and composer based in Manchester (UK). She works with field recordings, archival material, electronic hardware, and live instrumentation to create long-form compositions, sonic installations, and multimedia art projects. Inspired by folk traditions and oral histories, Hayley is interested in the role of sound and voice in constructing and reproducing cultural identities and socio-historical narratives and how new compositional technologies can engage communities with overlooked stories about their environments.
Produced by Hayley Suviste
Commsioned by HCMF
Riskland: Ep1 Tragedy
Aubrey Calaway (US 2021)
Produced by Aubrey Calaway (US 2021)
27 min / Episode 1 of 3
Riskland is a three part podcast documenting the impact of climate change on a small community in Pucayacu in Ecuador. Cyclical flooding from a nearby river means that they are on the edge of disaster.
In this episode the community of Pucayacu must play the game of disaster. A prophecy is foretold, a family uncovers an invisible threat, and a local leader recounts a multigenerational story of unfulfilled promises.
Written and hosted by Aubrey Calaway for Earth Refuge