Index

An invitation to listen — not an explanation.

Two dogs running across the frozen lake at sunset, footprints trailing behind them toward the low winter sun
EXPLORERS — DOGS RUNNING AT SUNSET, BASS LAKE

CHAPTER IX — SEED BANK

What waits beneath the frost line.

Not everything is meant to be finished in the season it is imagined.

A seed bank stores what is viable but not yet planted. These are the works in progress: some waiting on weather, some on a collaborator, some on a technique that does not exist yet. They are recorded here so that dormancy is understood as a stage of the practice rather than an absence of one.

The photographs below were all made during my tour of the Canadian Soil Information Service (CanSIS) and the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, in the summer of 2025.

  1. SoilScapes photograph from the Flickr journal

    SEED 01

    Winter Duet

    Dormant — awaiting first freeze

    A two-voice piece for frozen ground and a single live instrument.

  2. SoilScapes photograph from the Flickr journal

    SEED 02

    Soil Piano

    PROTOTYPE — MAPPING SPACE TO PITCH

    An instrument where soil horizons across multiple territories are assigned a key and can sign together. Depth maps to pitch, moisture to sustain, temperature to timbre.

  3. Hands sorting through a bin of shells and organic matter during a hands-on soil session

    SEED 03

    Community Performances

    Germinating — seasonal, site-led

    Gatherings held at the beds where the audience is also the ensemble. Sharing of creative analog experiences. Many elements coming together to form something unique and in the moment.

  4. Vertical soil monoliths mounted in a row along a wall

    SEED 04

    Sonic Sculptures - Imagination Stations

    In design — environmental installations

    Standing outdoor listening posts placed along a walking route. Each station is a small sculpture that holds a hydrophone, a geophone or a resonant chamber, inviting a visitor to stop and give the ground a few minutes of attention.

  5. SoilScapes photograph from the Flickr journal

    SEED 05

    Collaborations

    Open — correspondence underway

    Ongoing conversations with musicians, carpenters, soil scientists, gardeners and archivists. Some are letters, some are afternoons spent listening together. Each one changes the shape of the work before it is made.

  6. SoilScapes photograph from the Flickr journal

    SEED 06

    Sketches and Prototypes

    Continuous — the working drawer

    Notebook pages, soil recipes, circuit drafts, failed enclosures and half-built rigs. The compost of the practice: most of it will not become a piece and everything that does begins here.

CONDITIONS FOR GERMINATION

Each of these needs something the practice does not yet have: a colder month, a second pair of hands, a quieter room and more time.

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