image / music
“Tweet” has gained a new meaning in recent years. Originally we would associate this English word with the chirping of birds, but nowadays we more quickly relate it to the social network Twitter. In Twittering Machines, British author Kathy Hinde explores the new double meaning behind the word “tweet” and how technological communication has threatened the original meaning, just as humans have threatened the habitats of birds.
On stage, a vinyl with a morse code version of the poem Ode to Nightingale by John Keat plays. At the same time, a software listens to this poem in morse code and interprets it back to text. During the performance, the beeps and blips of the code are joined by music boxes, toys that imitate birds, and other objects manipulated live by the artist. Analogue films of birds and their habitats are interwoven with the text and sounds and, through physical and chemical methods, are transformed to represent habitat destruction and climate change, which confuses the seasons and threatens different bird species.
Kathy Hinde is an audio-visual artist who seeks to cultivate a strong connection with other species and ecological systems on planet Earth. She develops installations and performances and often works with other professionals and scientists. In 2020, she was awarded an Ivor Novello Composer Award, with the piece Twittering Machines, which opens gnration’s 2023 programme.
