VOCES ANIMANTIUM

A charm / a visual score / a set of speculative instructions, staging interlinguistic difference against interspecies difference. VOCES ANIMANTIUM attempts to mark a history of avian ‘voices’ entering and affecting Old and modern English language over time, against the actual presence of those creatures whose calls are ultimately untranscribable in any language. The methodical absurdity of this task is akin to a kind of magic.

The text was first performed and recorded with Maisie Newman and Elinor Lower in Leigh Woods, Bristol, September 2020.