Reveil 2023: Michelle Artherton broadcasts from Eden Valley Burial Ground

Michelle Atherton was invited to participate in Reveil 2023, a live 24hr global broadcast for World Dawn Chorus Day which took place 6-7 May. The broadcasts followed the sun’s rise across the planet for the period of one day. Michelle contributed a broadcast from Eden Valley Burial Ground, Kent, as part her Ecstatic Rot research investigating our relationships with transience, decomposition and recomposition as more-than-human activities.

Broadcast Stream: http://streams.soundtent.org/2023/streams/utc1_-82d0c6c8-2627-41d5-81b1-e6277c991a62

Reveil Broadcasts: http://soundtent.org/reveil/#/

For the broadcast Michelle used contact mics to record the sounds from below and above ground. The sounds from the soil included intermittent slurping, chiffing, gurgling, chirring, thrupping, slow grating, rasping, clicking, scratching, squelching, creaking and knocking, very loud knocks. These are difficulty to identify to the untrained ear, and remain rather enigmatic. They might have been from rain seeping into the ground, the clicks of root-munching larvae, rustling worms as they crawled through tunnels, plants roots taking in phylum & moving past soil and beetles communicating to each other. These underground vibrations mixed with early morning bird song and the occasional morning train.

The site of the broadcast was Eden Valley Woodland Burial Ground in Kent run by Amy and Martin House. The interments offered there follow environmental friendly processes whereby an un-embalmed body is laid to rest in a biodegradable coffin or shroud in a hand dug grave. Their aim is to return the nearly 14 acres of grassland back to its natural state of deciduous woodland. When someone is buried they, or friends or family can plant a tree on each plot, establishing a concentrated network of young trees. This planting happens next to an ancient woodland and in this way the new trees benefit from both the ecological networks above and below. Over time the new trees will be assimilated into and extend the reach of the ancient system.

The site is a member of the Natural Burial Association, run by the Natural Death Centre Charity, UK.

This broadcast comes during Michelle’s practice-based research residency Ecstatic Rot at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, East London, investigating our relationships with transience, decomposition and recomposition as more-than-human activities.