On a crisp afternoon at Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, dappled sunlight shines through the leaves and the greenhouse is filled with the sound of birdsong. Visitors are walking around the airy space, but there are no birds in sight.
This is an immersive ‘Hearing Birdsong’ sound installation, created by designer Tom Woods to mark World Hearing Day on 3 March. The installation uses birdsong recordings to raise awareness of hearing support and encourage residents to get their hearing checked in the safe surroundings of the garden.
The birdsong comes from beautiful handmade bird box speakers dotted around the greenhouse. As visitors walk around the installation, the speakers play the pre-recorded calls of five different birds, each of which have been compressed into frequencies that are often lost as people age through noise-induced hearing problems. If visitors have difficulty hearing any of the five birds that are displayed on the screen, they can opt to have their hearing checked by the trained staff on hand at the event.
The installation was inspired by the story of Angela, a member of the project’s first sample workshop. At the workshop, Angela told the story of her favourite forest walk: how she knew the route like the back of her hand, the pattern of the light in autumn, the density of the frozen earth in winter. But more than anything, she knew the little melodies of the birds that greeted her on her daily pilgrimage. But one day, the songs started fading.
There are currently 9 million people living in the UK with undiagnosed hearing loss. As Anna Lawrence-Jones of Imperial College explains: “Lots of people delay getting their hearing tested for lots of different reasons. I guess people think of hearing aids as very large with the batteries falling out. You might also associate them with your grandma’s hearing aids back 50 years ago.
“But actually, the NHS provides much smaller hearing aids now,” she says. “They’re often not battery powered and they’re much better quality.”
After losing the birdsong that she cherished on her walk, Angela took the first step to protect the sounds that she held most dear and booked herself in for a hearing test.
In turn, this story inspired a team made up of people from Dyson School of Design Engineering, the Institute of Global Health Innovation, NHS England and the community to band together to find a solution. And so the Hearing Birdsong project was born.
The finished product is a non-invasive installation inspired by nature to engage people with hearing loss and improve their access to diagnosis and treatment. It fits perfectly with this year’s theme of World Hearing Day – “hearing for life”. Hearing loss can remain undetected and untreated for a long time. But if identified early and treated effectively, those with hearing loss can continue to communicate with the world around them and have meaningful experiences in all aspects of their life.
Bríd, a frequent visitor to the garden, had not had a hearing test in a very long time, but was inspired to have a hearing test because of the installation. “I think that’s a really beautiful introduction to the actual idea of checking on hearing and protecting it,” she says. “It draws you into thinking about your hearing and what you really want to hear on a daily basis. It’s a very lovely installation.”
John, who has started to experience some age related hearing loss, was happy to have his hearing screened at the event. “I think the exhibition was interesting in the way it compresses sound for more people to hear even if they’ve got hearing problems,” he says.
“But what it accentuated was what you might be losing.”
Later in the week the installation will move to the Kingsland Shopping Centre (6 to 7 March from 11am to 6pm), where Hearing Birdsong hopes to reach a wide range of people from the local community. Visitors can enjoy a free hot drink, experience the sounds of British songbirds and reflect on the health of their hearing at the heart of our bustling city.
Visit https://www.hearingbirdsong.com/ for more information about the installation, which is funded by the UCL Centre for Co-production in Health Research.
