Marshy Substances

“Marshy Substances” explores the idea of “become-with” through the practice of listening during an artistic research residency at Memu Earth Lab Japan. Using a tiny floating recording studio, a fragile kayak, the marshlands around Taiki, Hokkaido are explored acoustically and performatively.

Due to the rapid introduction of western-style agriculture, the wetlands that characterise Hokkaido have shrunk massively over the last hundred years. Infrastructure has been planned and built along western lines, with little regard for the local ecosystem. Straightened and concreted streams, lonely dead-straight roads and abandoned farms bear witness to the massive human intervention in the course of progress and today’s rapid decay.

“Marshy Substances” searches for tiny traces to understand the complex landscape and history, and to make new connections over long distances under and above water. How can we restore the delicate ecological balance?