SOIL
SOIL is an ongoing research project about soil nutrient levels within agricultural soils in the UK. The installation loops through the last three decades of soil nutrient data from England (1990 - 2021) and displays the fluctuating levels of nutrients through sound and light.
When the nutrients are imbalanced, the audio will sound out of sync and detuned through speeding up and slowing down each audio loop for each nutrient, thus making sense of the small movements of nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium and potassium; creating chaos and order. The restarting of the cycle is represented through a woodblock sound, heard every 2-3 minutes.
As a keen gardener, my interest in soil came from researching soil health and composting methods for healthy plant growth. My curiosities have led me to explore areas and ecological movements beyond my own garden, leading to the current research project SOIL that intends to connect people to the movement of earth through time by looking at the micro movements of its inhabitants.
