{"id":10896,"title":"ALL CONNECTED","description":"HERE'S part of a little soundtrack and video clip I made following a foraging trip with the Wild Almanac Collective, to a gorgeous pine forest in Kent. I created it by sampling a recording I took beside the stream there, which runs through the forest and out into a lake. I made a sub bass sound fr","content":"

Nov 13, 2024: <\/em><\/strong>

UPDATE on the blog below. <\/em><\/strong>

There have since been some developed versions of the original ALL CONNECTED artwork, as written about below.

They\u2019ve since been compiled into one collection, WATERWAYS, WAVES & ICE<\/u><\/a>

<\/p>

BY K-A-B - April 7, 2021<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>

I'VE just finished creating a new piece of artwork for a print, titled All Connected. The journey to its creation evolved from a growing fascination with the world's waterways.<\/p>

\"\"
<\/p>

This interest started when I made a little soundtrack and video clip following a foraging trip with the Wild Almanac Collective, to a gorgeous pine forest in Kent, in January 2020.<\/p>

I created it by sampling a recording I took beside the stream there, which runs through the forest and out into a lake. I made a sub bass sound from a sampled rush of water, meant to represent \u2018a pulse\u2019. Without earphones it gets a bit lost. \ud83c\udfa7 You might want to put them on\/in, if you have them.
<\/p>

All Connected soundtrack (c) (p) 2020 K-A-B \/Kelly Buckley Music (KBM)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

I spent a fair bit of time by that stream, magnetised not just by the hypnotic trickling of water, but the movement, where it was going. It got me wondering about its role within the ecosystem.<\/p>

The desire to create a \u2018pulse\u2019 sound came from the thought that all streams run like veins through the earth. That\u2019s what they look like from space. They are all connected via watersheds. A watershed is any body of land that flows downhill into a waterway. All watersheds fit together to form our land masses, huge or small. There are millions of watersheds in the world. The forests act as filters to streams, trapping natural pollutants like sediment, pesticides and bacteria. Trees work as natural sponges. Water from the soil enters the trees roots and is carried up the trunk all the way to the leaves. Trees also collect and filter rainfall, releasing it slowly into streams and rivers. Meanwhile the streams help protect against floods, recycle potentially-harmful nutrients, and provide food, refuge and habitat for many types of fish and other creatures and organisms.<\/p>

We need to look after our streams and waterways. Maintaining the health of our watersheds is vital to our ecology. Unhealthy watersheds that are being polluted from man made poisons - oil, paint and so on - affect nature, trees, wildlife, humans, aquatic life and reduces biodiversity. It ends up affecting the food chains.<\/p>

Aside from the food and life inside the water, much of nature\u2019s produce grows near to streams, such as watercress, wild garlic, fungi and slippery elm.<\/p>

In 2021, I bought myself a hydrophone, which is a mic which you can put into the water, to record what it sounds like from underneath.<\/p>

I took it to a local park where I live, where a brook runs through, eventually going out to the a river and then the North Sea. The brook was so shallow, and the water barely moving. It seemed stagnant and grotty, almost lifeless, so it was impossible for me to get a recording as I couldn't hear any movement at all. Eventually I hung the mic down over a dilapidated bridge, to a man made waterfall area, where I could at least hear the water rushing through.<\/p>

\"\"
You can listen to that hydrophone recording HERE<\/a>.<\/p>

The brook that I recorded is not in a particularly good state. Nappies, rubbish, other litter and rats were in abundance. It's sadly just one of many waterways in the same poor condition.<\/p>

A report in the Guardian newspaper in 2020 revealed that UK rivers are in a shocking state as all of them had failed pollution tests.<\/p>

A good way of seeing what the state of your local river is in, is to look at this digital watershed map by WWF https:\/\/www.wwf.org.uk\/uk-rivers-map<\/a><\/p>

The WWF is doing good work in campaigning to improve the state of our rivers and streams, although there is a worrying amount of work to be done!<\/p>

Just one of the types of streams it focuses on, are our Chalk Streams.<\/p>

The State of England\u2019s Chalk Streams report<\/a>\u00a0provides a health check for our chalk streams and reveals that over\u00a0three quarters of them are not in good health.<\/p>

The WWF says:<\/p>

\u201cSome of our most beautiful rivers are \u2018chalk streams\u2019. Their pure, clear, constant water from underground chalk aquifers and springs, flowing across flinty gravel beds, make them perfect sources of clean water \u2013 and ideal for lots of wild creatures to breed and thrive. We\u2019re lucky because the majority of the world\u2019s chalk streams are found in England.<\/p>

\"But far too many of our waterways have been overused and undervalued. Drained almost dry in places, and polluted in others. Less than a fifth of England\u2019s rivers are healthy, and climate change is putting more pressure on them. Our rivers need help.\u201d<\/p>

You can read more about chalk streams on the WWF site HERE<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>

All Connected - the artwork<\/u><\/em><\/strong>

Becoming fascinated by the importance of how we are 'all connected' to the waterways of the world, and visually how the waterways themselves are all connected, I started to look at lots of watershed maps. They really are beautiful. I'd like to note some particularly stunning maps by Robert Szucs, a GIS Analyst \/ Digital Cartographer from Hungary, who goes by the alias Grasshopper Geography<\/a>.<\/p>

It intrigues me too, how via aerial views, rivers look like branches or arteries. Human anatomy, capillaries, vascular systems and such like, can have such close resemblance to the patterns in nature.<\/p>

I knew I wanted to create my own digital artwork depicting the veiny forms of waterways. Using a map, I focused on an area in the UK from London out to Southend on Sea just up to where Thames estuary goes out to the North Sea. I manipulated the image, traced over it with digital pencils and pushed, developed and emphasised the root-like lines of the waterways.

The K-A-B All Connected print is the result. I liked the image the 'right way up' and turned so east becomes south. I have had it printed both ways on different style t-shirts.<\/p>

\"\"Look out for campaigns launched by trusts and charities that work to protect nature. Get involved and do you bit to help our planet. Put pressure on the government to do more.

\"\"

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