October 5, 2023 • 30 mins
Welcome Home Everybody!
The HomeSounds project began working with the National Trust in the autumn of 2022 through its Riverlands project and has installed two live-streaming microphones at their Felbrigg and Blickling Estates. Running Alongside these installations are a series of educational activities encouraging people to become more active in their environmental listening.
In today's episode we are joined at Sheringham Park by staff and young people from Norwich City College's MINT employment project. This project focuses on getting young people aged between 16 and 25yrs into sustainable paid employment. The aim of the today's walk was to give the group some experience of working as a ranger at the National Trust, as well as to to get them actively listening to the environment, and learning about the habitat and wildlife of the park. With the help of current ranger Hannah Blades, the group took part in some Rhodie bashing, a colloquial term for managing the Rhodedenron plants that whilst a major attraction of the park, are also invasive and damaging to its bio-diversity.
Throughout the day we tried to capture something of the sounds of the working life of the park. We also introduced the group to bio-sonification, a tool for translating the electrical currents created by organisms, in this case Rhodedendron, into sound. Everyone was wondering what the plants were going to say...
LINKS
Symbiotic (Bio-sonification device)
Sheringham Park
MINT Project
Homesounds
HomeSounds Show Supporters Club
Image Credit: National Trust
The HomeSounds project began working with the National Trust in the autumn of 2022 through its Riverlands project and has installed two live-streaming microphones at their Felbrigg and Blickling Estates. Running Alongside these installations are a series of educational activities encouraging people to become more active in their environmental listening.
In today's episode we are joined at Sheringham Park by staff and young people from Norwich City College's MINT employment project. This project focuses on getting young people aged between 16 and 25yrs into sustainable paid employment. The aim of the today's walk was to give the group some experience of working as a ranger at the National Trust, as well as to to get them actively listening to the environment, and learning about the habitat and wildlife of the park. With the help of current ranger Hannah Blades, the group took part in some Rhodie bashing, a colloquial term for managing the Rhodedenron plants that whilst a major attraction of the park, are also invasive and damaging to its bio-diversity.
Throughout the day we tried to capture something of the sounds of the working life of the park. We also introduced the group to bio-sonification, a tool for translating the electrical currents created by organisms, in this case Rhodedendron, into sound. Everyone was wondering what the plants were going to say...
LINKS
Symbiotic (Bio-sonification device)
Sheringham Park
MINT Project
Homesounds
HomeSounds Show Supporters Club
Image Credit: National Trust
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:30):
Welcome home, everybody, and welcometo episode eight of The Home Sound Show.
My name is Martin and I'm afield recordist and teacher. I'm the
creator of the Home Sounds Project andyour co host for the show along with
Rob. Hello everybody. My nameis Rob and I'm an educator and naturalist.
I work for the National Trust atSheringham Park in Norfolk as part of
(00:53):
their Children and Young People Hub.The Home Sound Show invites everyone to become
active environmental listeners. Each month wevisit a different location, seeking out seasonal
natural sound and focusing on a differenttheme. In this episode, Rob and
I are joined at Sheringham Park bya group of young people from Norwich City
College's Mint Employment Project. This projectfocuses on getting young people aged between sixteen
(01:19):
and twenty five years old into sustainablepaid employment. The aim of today's war
was to give the group some experienceof working as a ranger at the National
Trust, as well as to getthem actively listening to the environment and learning
about the habitat and wildlife of thepark. With the help of current ranger
Hannah Blades, the group took partin some roadie bashing, a colloquial term
(01:42):
for managing the rhododendron plants that,whilst a major attraction of the park,
are also invasive and damaging to itsbiodiversity. Throughout the day, we try
to capture something of the sounds ofthe working life of the park. Also
in introduced the group to biosonification,a tool for translating the electrical currents created
(02:05):
by organisms, in this case rhododendroninto sound. You see that behind us
here, we've got loads of rhododendron. Now I mentioned at the very start
that Sheringham Park was preserved by theNational Trust because it's a Repton landscape,
(02:29):
so a design landscape by Humphrey Repton, and Repton did his landscape design long
before there were only rhododendrons in Britainactually, but nowadays Sheringon Park is best
known for its rhododendron garden which formsand azalea garden that forms them out.
Quite a small part that we're goingto be working on the edge of today.
(02:54):
And the rhododends were introduced by oneof the owners of Sheringham Park in
two hundred years ago, now nearlysomething like that, I guess bit less
than that, and in the springtimekind of May June time, it becomes
a display of flowers because these shrubbygreen shrubby evergreen shrubs do produce spectacular flowers.
(03:19):
I'm sure you've all seen rhododendron flowers. The typical one is the big
purple rhododendron ponticum, big purple flower. Yeah. Now there's a bit of
a double edged sword with the rhododendronsbecause growing in this area are all the
different sorts of rhododendrons that are ableto grow outside in Britain because they're not
a British species. They come fromChina, the pool really yeah, so
(03:46):
they cloud forests in the Jungles andthe pool is where they're native to bring
them to Britain and actually they loveit here and grow really really well to
the point at which they grow outof control. Yeah. And so this
is called the wild garden because lotsof the rhodendrons hire are grown, well,
(04:06):
lots of different rodent I'm saying now, lots of different rhododendrons grow,
but the main one is this ponticum. But the ponticum does then spread out
and spread everywhere, and so bigpart of the rangers jobs is to help
to try to control the spread ofrhododendron. And in terms, it's a
(04:28):
really a big conservation problem rhododendron growingwhere it's not supposed to grow and in
lots of places in Britain, inScotland down on the south coast, you've
got rhododendron kind of growing out ofcontrol and so cutting it back is an
impact job. They need an acidicsoil, they do. They prefer an
(04:50):
acidic soil, quite a well drainedsoil. And yeah, so they actually
love it on the the saw we'vegot here, all right, and they
do. Yeah. The problem withit from a conservation perspective is that it
(05:12):
acidifies the source that makes the sawmore acid that it's growing in. It
shades out any native plants that mightgrow on the woodland floor. We've got
fox loves coming through here at themoment, but you wouldn't see if you
look over underneath the rhododendrons, there'snothing growing underneath them, nothing much,
nothing feeds on it. So obviouslyif it's from Nepal in nepool that it's
(05:35):
not doesn't grow rampantly in the poolnecessarily because other things are feeding on it.
Here, it's got no natural thingsthat are eating it. Yeah,
and it's kind of nothing really nestsin it, So it's it's actually it's
not very good if you get rhododendagrowing everywhere, it's at the expense of
(05:57):
lots of other things that would havebeen there in their apps. So that's
why it's it's cut back. Butat the same time, it's a very
important part of what Sheringon Park isbecause it's the display of rhododendrons is what
brings our visitors in in their numbers. Should we go on make sure everyone
knows what they're looking at in termsof rhododendron y, Yeah, so yeah,
(06:20):
so let's go look. Let's goand have a look at the rhododendrons.
Sheringham Park is well known for itsrhododendrons and the Wild Garden, an
extensive collection of rhododendrons and azaleas whichgrow in a natural woodland setting alongside the
main approach drive to the Hall.Is a major visitor attraction, drawing tens
(06:44):
of thousands of people who come towalk through the sea of color that the
blooms provide. In May and JuneHowever, rhododendron has a dark side,
and the purple flowering Rhododendron ponticum thatforms the major component of the display at
Sheringham is one of the UK's worstinvasive weeds. Rhododendron ponticum is native to
the Iberian Peninsula in southwest Europe andthe Caucasus region in northern West Asia.
(07:09):
In its native environment, it doesn'tshow the aggressive tendencies that we see in
Britain. Introduced to these shores inseventeen sixty three, Ponticum was cultivated and
used as a rootstock for other rhododendrons, as the showy flowers made the plant
a popular addition to Victorian gardens andpleasure grounds. Hybridized plants or iron clads
(07:30):
began to pick up some frost hardytendencies, and when a severely cold winter
in the late eighteen eighties killed offmany rhododendrons, the hardy hybrids survived.
Enterprising gardeners and horticulturalists collected their seedsand seedlings, which were then further distributed
around the country, and the killerrhododendron was unleashed. So this is our
(07:54):
rhododendron so it's green foliage. Youcan see some of the buds already here
that will turn into flowers, orthey would do if this wasn't gonna get
chopped down. It's got kind ofleaf shape. How would you describe that,
(08:15):
A leaf shaped leaf? A perfectyeah, A sort of long I
think obit. It's probably the correctthat leaf because it's evergreen. Obviously he's
really bush. He grows really quickly. So this is the stuff to remove.
So we've got some here, we'vegot some there. And the more
you look, the more you see. Yeah, so anywhere within here and
(08:37):
there's very little bits of singular stemaregion get out as well. There's a
pile that's been start cut there,so we'll leave that bit a bit little
bit rather than corner. But mightbe this case of taking a side and
slowly cutting your way in because okay, the some of it's gonna be right
(09:03):
in the middle, so so youcut your way in, okay, And
then with the piles, if youput your all the cut ends at the
same side, cause it just makesa nice easier to collect neat pile.
So we have the buttons, whichis the cut end at the pathside,
and then the foliage and this way, and it's easier for track to get
(09:26):
it with this grab. Okay,so you sort of drag it from the
cut end, so he's not draggingit against its against its growth. Otherwise
it's difficult to pull. And theyeah, the the probably most apart from
it is growing quickly. It alsoseeds a lot, so these little seedlings
coming through it also comes up fromits root root suck us from its roots
(09:48):
as well, So it's a veryvigorous plant, isn't it. The pain
the bump? Okay? Everyone happywith that? Any questions about what we're
going to attempt to murder, now, okay, selective I didn't have that
we're going to murder. It's managementof an invasive, but a selective management
(10:15):
of an invasive. Yeah. Soactually, yep, if you it's okay
at the moment with this in somesome senses because it hasn't there's still plenty
of open space around it. Butif you left it in about five or
six years time, it would justbe a complete dense forest. And this
(10:35):
whole thing so none of the thingsthat would and so also you know,
prevents other things from the trees fromregenerating, stuff like that as well,
so again with the making it moreacidic under it has a stiltic relationship with
a specific type of fungi, whichmeans that only it grows underneath. So
(10:56):
it's quite quite naught. And yeah, and an oak tree needs a bit
of open space and plenty of lightto regenerate, and so any well even
here really, but any any acornsthat fall underneath the rhodendron, even if
they germinate, there'll be not enoughlight for them to grow, so they
won't be able to regenerate. Somethingthat would probably come back and then plug
(11:26):
it with some chemicals together, right, gloves Okay, yeah, it's going
and get the gloves on. They'velesson to the mhm back Yeah, no
(13:28):
end born uh yu. The boyslooking game like right? Are one those
the right beyond the gardens. Thesuper charge rhododendron began to be used as
(14:01):
game cover on shooting estates. Oncereleased into woodland, it soon creates a
safe roosting space for pheasants. Rhododendrongrows very quickly, its twisting stems,
expanding into space and creating a dense, evergreen jungle, reproducing prodigiously by seed.
It can also advance by stem layering, where a branch touches the soil,
roots are put down and new cloneforms. Native plants are excluded by
(14:26):
a combination of being shaded out,smothered, and also the acidification of the
soil as an alien leaflet of forms. Rhododendron is a significant plant in Greek
mythology, where it is a symbolof Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
and is also prominent in Chinese folkor a medicine. Addicinal use should be
(14:46):
treated with caution, however, asRhodendron ponticum is known to be toxic,
with the pollen, nectar, flowers, and foliage containing potentially harmful grayanotoxins.
Creyanotoxins are neurotoxins that can affect thenervous and cardiom vascular system as well as
producing side effects are as hallucinations.In its native countries, these side effects
(15:07):
are well known, leading to theproduction of so called mad honey. Mad
honey made by bees collecting nectar fromRohmdendron ponticum has been made both wittingly and
unwittingly throughout history and has been responsiblefor poisoning incidents as well as being used
as a recreational drug and traditional medicine. The most famous of these incidents involved
(15:28):
King Mithridates, who left a consignmentof honey for pomp his invading Roman army
in sixty nine BC. The Romansoldiers feasted on the honey and were left
incapacitated as Mithridates launched a successful counterattack Beware of Grieg's bearing gifts. Yeah.
(16:10):
After an hour or more, theape workers had cleared a good area
rhododendron, piling up a substantial quantityof cuttings to be taken away by tractor
and trailer. At this point,we took a break to turn our attention
to another project in its infant stages. Biosonification is an emerging field where technology
can be used to turn the birhythms of living organisms into sound. By
(16:32):
attaching to electrodes to the leaf ofa plant, minor changes in conductivity can
be detected. These small changes canbe converted into musical notes, which allows
us to listen in to the invisiblebiological processes occurring within the plant. We
experimented on one of the rhodendrons thathad escaped the bowsaw okay, so hi
(16:57):
body, I've worked with the NuttleTrust. I run a project called Home
Sounds which looks at the sounds ofthe world around in a very general way.
And what I want it going toshow you. It's a bit of
an experiment. This spoiling to seeis this device here. So this is
(17:19):
this field called biosonification, which istrying to listen to I'm trying to find
a new way to understand what's goingon with the living things. And this
device here essentially what it does.You've got two little pads on here,
so it's like an ECG machine ifyou earn possible. You have on your
(17:41):
Tesha heart rates. But it's detectingtiny electrical occurrence in this on the surface
of the of the leafe, veryvery micro micro currents, very small currents,
and so when there's a charge thatruns across it creates a sound through
for using very device is us youcan choose what sound you create, but
(18:03):
you can get it to create sounds. But the interesting thing changes you see
for example, when st starts,when the light gets brighter, it'll start
to become really noisy. And equallyif you interact with it, so you
bring other your own electricity involved andthe variation between the different plants some music.
(18:41):
Yeah, well yeah, so thatI believe this is used as a
sample to make some music. Yeahyeah, yeah, it's it's kind of
uh, some kind of I havea go maybe something to have a like
you to go if you want to, if you want if you can actually
(19:03):
make the plants play the plants theplant mm hmm, very dark and very
(19:23):
dark sound. Yeah, this isthis is the This is the one of
the things we do with the Hometownproducts to get just start to think creatively
about how you interact with the widand this is one way to do that.
So it might be that if youput these probes and different plants of
the plants, it generates there's differentsounds, different pictures, different notes depending
(19:47):
on the strength of the electric current. If you put it on the roots
and you put it on the endof the branches, and if you put
on different kinds of plants. SoI have a rubber plant which is just
singing all the time. Wow itwith water, then it'll start to light
up even more. And then inthe in the nighttime they get fires and
(20:07):
the light's gone down. But thensome plants like this is very quiet intermittent
continue play. So maybe that's becauseit's very dense and so there's a lot
the current is spread. I don'tthink anybody really knows at the moment.
It's a bit of a it's abit of a new exploring field, so
you know, because no one's goneout and stop these one hundreds of millions
(20:29):
of plants and then kind of youknow, decided what the sounds are going
to be, or measure the currency. It has happened in different ways in
the past, but this is abouttrying to get you to think. So
musicians like use this kind of tocreate to create sounds, and also you
can use this to keep to controlanything like any kind of audio visual media
(20:56):
device. This could be the sourceof the inspiration. So this is very
much just see what it sounds like. You can try it with different sounds.
What is fine because if you calledyour own samples examples from how it's
saying I live here, I amliving so but yeah, so it can
(21:19):
depend on the sounds, change thecharacter, change the character. Different kind
of sound, a different kind oflife, some lesser. So it's like
a vibration in the planets. It'selectrical parent and that creates. Okay,
(21:47):
electical runs on the surface as faras I understand, and I know that
it's as it says, electric cellshave elements of electrical all living sees.
Yeah, this just measures very verysmall chan yes, large, So if
(22:12):
you can you you know the thingis you'll have to hold hands to complete
the circuit. Yeah, so we'reactually is taken from us electrics is electric
(22:47):
generate energy that's now joined that count? So what about me and the plants?
Can we do that as well?Yeah? So yeah, I'm going
to pass on the other size.And then how you wants to hold the
(23:11):
class? If I hold the playsmy hand, so I need to hold
the Yeah, that's fine that youguys. You guys have different it's just
(23:37):
love. Yeah, straight, Imean intimate different things. I'm tweet.
Yeah, I want to break thecircuits figure yes, yes, okay,
(24:15):
leave for movers that does have it'sgot a lot of energy. Yeah,
come on, then Emory Garlic,you want to go? Yeah, thank
(24:45):
you as well. Yeah, yes, I can pick cyct gout hold hands
anywhere, all right, agreed onthis, Bob, Yes, I have
(25:11):
seen this. Yeah, what happensif you've played? Okay, so if
you want to play, you canplay a song. Mm hmm, road
(25:48):
madam, I've tried you out.Yeah again, that's fine. I like
(26:29):
the word dangerous herself. Yeah,h m hm, that's most smoothly think
(27:00):
anyway, I think it's nice different. I'm going to try to welcome d
(27:33):
Well the biggest samples, the saplesand you actually most of you generated.
Yeah, so you can never gowhat they're going to do. So really,
I think that's really very very interestingexperience. Yes, thank you,
(27:56):
I'm actually I thank you've been listeningto Thanks go to the National Trust,
(28:17):
in particular Ranger Hannah Blades, andto the staff and young people of the
Mint Project. If you'd like tokeep listening, look for the Riverlands Show
on poppy Land Radio, which broadcastslive sounds from Woodland in Felbrigg and the
Silver Gate Stream in Blickling every Wednesdayevening at ten pm. Alternatively, you
can visit homesounds dot Org, whereyou can find all previous episodes of the
(28:40):
show, as well as many moreopportunities to actively listen and numerous ways to
support and get involved with the HomeSounds Project. Links relating to this episode
can be found in the description we'llbe back again next month. Welcome home
everybody, m m m m andstay fo
Welcome home, everybody, and welcometo episode eight of The Home Sound Show.
My name is Martin and I'm afield recordist and teacher. I'm the
creator of the Home Sounds Project andyour co host for the show along with
Rob. Hello everybody. My nameis Rob and I'm an educator and naturalist.
I work for the National Trust atSheringham Park in Norfolk as part of
(00:53):
their Children and Young People Hub.The Home Sound Show invites everyone to become
active environmental listeners. Each month wevisit a different location, seeking out seasonal
natural sound and focusing on a differenttheme. In this episode, Rob and
I are joined at Sheringham Park bya group of young people from Norwich City
College's Mint Employment Project. This projectfocuses on getting young people aged between sixteen
(01:19):
and twenty five years old into sustainablepaid employment. The aim of today's war
was to give the group some experienceof working as a ranger at the National
Trust, as well as to getthem actively listening to the environment and learning
about the habitat and wildlife of thepark. With the help of current ranger
Hannah Blades, the group took partin some roadie bashing, a colloquial term
(01:42):
for managing the rhododendron plants that,whilst a major attraction of the park,
are also invasive and damaging to itsbiodiversity. Throughout the day, we try
to capture something of the sounds ofthe working life of the park. Also
in introduced the group to biosonification,a tool for translating the electrical currents created
(02:05):
by organisms, in this case rhododendroninto sound. You see that behind us
here, we've got loads of rhododendron. Now I mentioned at the very start
that Sheringham Park was preserved by theNational Trust because it's a Repton landscape,
(02:29):
so a design landscape by Humphrey Repton, and Repton did his landscape design long
before there were only rhododendrons in Britainactually, but nowadays Sheringon Park is best
known for its rhododendron garden which formsand azalea garden that forms them out.
Quite a small part that we're goingto be working on the edge of today.
(02:54):
And the rhododends were introduced by oneof the owners of Sheringham Park in
two hundred years ago, now nearlysomething like that, I guess bit less
than that, and in the springtimekind of May June time, it becomes
a display of flowers because these shrubbygreen shrubby evergreen shrubs do produce spectacular flowers.
(03:19):
I'm sure you've all seen rhododendron flowers. The typical one is the big
purple rhododendron ponticum, big purple flower. Yeah. Now there's a bit of
a double edged sword with the rhododendronsbecause growing in this area are all the
different sorts of rhododendrons that are ableto grow outside in Britain because they're not
a British species. They come fromChina, the pool really yeah, so
(03:46):
they cloud forests in the Jungles andthe pool is where they're native to bring
them to Britain and actually they loveit here and grow really really well to
the point at which they grow outof control. Yeah. And so this
is called the wild garden because lotsof the rhodendrons hire are grown, well,
(04:06):
lots of different rodent I'm saying now, lots of different rhododendrons grow,
but the main one is this ponticum. But the ponticum does then spread out
and spread everywhere, and so bigpart of the rangers jobs is to help
to try to control the spread ofrhododendron. And in terms, it's a
(04:28):
really a big conservation problem rhododendron growingwhere it's not supposed to grow and in
lots of places in Britain, inScotland down on the south coast, you've
got rhododendron kind of growing out ofcontrol and so cutting it back is an
impact job. They need an acidicsoil, they do. They prefer an
(04:50):
acidic soil, quite a well drainedsoil. And yeah, so they actually
love it on the the saw we'vegot here, all right, and they
do. Yeah. The problem withit from a conservation perspective is that it
(05:12):
acidifies the source that makes the sawmore acid that it's growing in. It
shades out any native plants that mightgrow on the woodland floor. We've got
fox loves coming through here at themoment, but you wouldn't see if you
look over underneath the rhododendrons, there'snothing growing underneath them, nothing much,
nothing feeds on it. So obviouslyif it's from Nepal in nepool that it's
(05:35):
not doesn't grow rampantly in the poolnecessarily because other things are feeding on it.
Here, it's got no natural thingsthat are eating it. Yeah,
and it's kind of nothing really nestsin it, So it's it's actually it's
not very good if you get rhododendagrowing everywhere, it's at the expense of
(05:57):
lots of other things that would havebeen there in their apps. So that's
why it's it's cut back. Butat the same time, it's a very
important part of what Sheringon Park isbecause it's the display of rhododendrons is what
brings our visitors in in their numbers. Should we go on make sure everyone
knows what they're looking at in termsof rhododendron y, Yeah, so yeah,
(06:20):
so let's go look. Let's goand have a look at the rhododendrons.
Sheringham Park is well known for itsrhododendrons and the Wild Garden, an
extensive collection of rhododendrons and azaleas whichgrow in a natural woodland setting alongside the
main approach drive to the Hall.Is a major visitor attraction, drawing tens
(06:44):
of thousands of people who come towalk through the sea of color that the
blooms provide. In May and JuneHowever, rhododendron has a dark side,
and the purple flowering Rhododendron ponticum thatforms the major component of the display at
Sheringham is one of the UK's worstinvasive weeds. Rhododendron ponticum is native to
the Iberian Peninsula in southwest Europe andthe Caucasus region in northern West Asia.
(07:09):
In its native environment, it doesn'tshow the aggressive tendencies that we see in
Britain. Introduced to these shores inseventeen sixty three, Ponticum was cultivated and
used as a rootstock for other rhododendrons, as the showy flowers made the plant
a popular addition to Victorian gardens andpleasure grounds. Hybridized plants or iron clads
(07:30):
began to pick up some frost hardytendencies, and when a severely cold winter
in the late eighteen eighties killed offmany rhododendrons, the hardy hybrids survived.
Enterprising gardeners and horticulturalists collected their seedsand seedlings, which were then further distributed
around the country, and the killerrhododendron was unleashed. So this is our
(07:54):
rhododendron so it's green foliage. Youcan see some of the buds already here
that will turn into flowers, orthey would do if this wasn't gonna get
chopped down. It's got kind ofleaf shape. How would you describe that,
(08:15):
A leaf shaped leaf? A perfectyeah, A sort of long I
think obit. It's probably the correctthat leaf because it's evergreen. Obviously he's
really bush. He grows really quickly. So this is the stuff to remove.
So we've got some here, we'vegot some there. And the more
you look, the more you see. Yeah, so anywhere within here and
(08:37):
there's very little bits of singular stemaregion get out as well. There's a
pile that's been start cut there,so we'll leave that bit a bit little
bit rather than corner. But mightbe this case of taking a side and
slowly cutting your way in because okay, the some of it's gonna be right
(09:03):
in the middle, so so youcut your way in, okay, And
then with the piles, if youput your all the cut ends at the
same side, cause it just makesa nice easier to collect neat pile.
So we have the buttons, whichis the cut end at the pathside,
and then the foliage and this way, and it's easier for track to get
(09:26):
it with this grab. Okay,so you sort of drag it from the
cut end, so he's not draggingit against its against its growth. Otherwise
it's difficult to pull. And theyeah, the the probably most apart from
it is growing quickly. It alsoseeds a lot, so these little seedlings
coming through it also comes up fromits root root suck us from its roots
(09:48):
as well, So it's a veryvigorous plant, isn't it. The pain
the bump? Okay? Everyone happywith that? Any questions about what we're
going to attempt to murder, now, okay, selective I didn't have that
we're going to murder. It's managementof an invasive, but a selective management
(10:15):
of an invasive. Yeah. Soactually, yep, if you it's okay
at the moment with this in somesome senses because it hasn't there's still plenty
of open space around it. Butif you left it in about five or
six years time, it would justbe a complete dense forest. And this
(10:35):
whole thing so none of the thingsthat would and so also you know,
prevents other things from the trees fromregenerating, stuff like that as well,
so again with the making it moreacidic under it has a stiltic relationship with
a specific type of fungi, whichmeans that only it grows underneath. So
(10:56):
it's quite quite naught. And yeah, and an oak tree needs a bit
of open space and plenty of lightto regenerate, and so any well even
here really, but any any acornsthat fall underneath the rhodendron, even if
they germinate, there'll be not enoughlight for them to grow, so they
won't be able to regenerate. Somethingthat would probably come back and then plug
(11:26):
it with some chemicals together, right, gloves Okay, yeah, it's going
and get the gloves on. They'velesson to the mhm back Yeah, no
(13:28):
end born uh yu. The boyslooking game like right? Are one those
the right beyond the gardens. Thesuper charge rhododendron began to be used as
(14:01):
game cover on shooting estates. Oncereleased into woodland, it soon creates a
safe roosting space for pheasants. Rhododendrongrows very quickly, its twisting stems,
expanding into space and creating a dense, evergreen jungle, reproducing prodigiously by seed.
It can also advance by stem layering, where a branch touches the soil,
roots are put down and new cloneforms. Native plants are excluded by
(14:26):
a combination of being shaded out,smothered, and also the acidification of the
soil as an alien leaflet of forms. Rhododendron is a significant plant in Greek
mythology, where it is a symbolof Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
and is also prominent in Chinese folkor a medicine. Addicinal use should be
(14:46):
treated with caution, however, asRhodendron ponticum is known to be toxic,
with the pollen, nectar, flowers, and foliage containing potentially harmful grayanotoxins.
Creyanotoxins are neurotoxins that can affect thenervous and cardiom vascular system as well as
producing side effects are as hallucinations.In its native countries, these side effects
(15:07):
are well known, leading to theproduction of so called mad honey. Mad
honey made by bees collecting nectar fromRohmdendron ponticum has been made both wittingly and
unwittingly throughout history and has been responsiblefor poisoning incidents as well as being used
as a recreational drug and traditional medicine. The most famous of these incidents involved
(15:28):
King Mithridates, who left a consignmentof honey for pomp his invading Roman army
in sixty nine BC. The Romansoldiers feasted on the honey and were left
incapacitated as Mithridates launched a successful counterattack Beware of Grieg's bearing gifts. Yeah.
(16:10):
After an hour or more, theape workers had cleared a good area
rhododendron, piling up a substantial quantityof cuttings to be taken away by tractor
and trailer. At this point,we took a break to turn our attention
to another project in its infant stages. Biosonification is an emerging field where technology
can be used to turn the birhythms of living organisms into sound. By
(16:32):
attaching to electrodes to the leaf ofa plant, minor changes in conductivity can
be detected. These small changes canbe converted into musical notes, which allows
us to listen in to the invisiblebiological processes occurring within the plant. We
experimented on one of the rhodendrons thathad escaped the bowsaw okay, so hi
(16:57):
body, I've worked with the NuttleTrust. I run a project called Home
Sounds which looks at the sounds ofthe world around in a very general way.
And what I want it going toshow you. It's a bit of
an experiment. This spoiling to seeis this device here. So this is
(17:19):
this field called biosonification, which istrying to listen to I'm trying to find
a new way to understand what's goingon with the living things. And this
device here essentially what it does.You've got two little pads on here,
so it's like an ECG machine ifyou earn possible. You have on your
(17:41):
Tesha heart rates. But it's detectingtiny electrical occurrence in this on the surface
of the of the leafe, veryvery micro micro currents, very small currents,
and so when there's a charge thatruns across it creates a sound through
for using very device is us youcan choose what sound you create, but
(18:03):
you can get it to create sounds. But the interesting thing changes you see
for example, when st starts,when the light gets brighter, it'll start
to become really noisy. And equallyif you interact with it, so you
bring other your own electricity involved andthe variation between the different plants some music.
(18:41):
Yeah, well yeah, so thatI believe this is used as a
sample to make some music. Yeahyeah, yeah, it's it's kind of
uh, some kind of I havea go maybe something to have a like
you to go if you want to, if you want if you can actually
(19:03):
make the plants play the plants theplant mm hmm, very dark and very
(19:23):
dark sound. Yeah, this isthis is the This is the one of
the things we do with the Hometownproducts to get just start to think creatively
about how you interact with the widand this is one way to do that.
So it might be that if youput these probes and different plants of
the plants, it generates there's differentsounds, different pictures, different notes depending
(19:47):
on the strength of the electric current. If you put it on the roots
and you put it on the endof the branches, and if you put
on different kinds of plants. SoI have a rubber plant which is just
singing all the time. Wow itwith water, then it'll start to light
up even more. And then inthe in the nighttime they get fires and
(20:07):
the light's gone down. But thensome plants like this is very quiet intermittent
continue play. So maybe that's becauseit's very dense and so there's a lot
the current is spread. I don'tthink anybody really knows at the moment.
It's a bit of a it's abit of a new exploring field, so
you know, because no one's goneout and stop these one hundreds of millions
(20:29):
of plants and then kind of youknow, decided what the sounds are going
to be, or measure the currency. It has happened in different ways in
the past, but this is abouttrying to get you to think. So
musicians like use this kind of tocreate to create sounds, and also you
can use this to keep to controlanything like any kind of audio visual media
(20:56):
device. This could be the sourceof the inspiration. So this is very
much just see what it sounds like. You can try it with different sounds.
What is fine because if you calledyour own samples examples from how it's
saying I live here, I amliving so but yeah, so it can
(21:19):
depend on the sounds, change thecharacter, change the character. Different kind
of sound, a different kind oflife, some lesser. So it's like
a vibration in the planets. It'selectrical parent and that creates. Okay,
(21:47):
electical runs on the surface as faras I understand, and I know that
it's as it says, electric cellshave elements of electrical all living sees.
Yeah, this just measures very verysmall chan yes, large, So if
(22:12):
you can you you know the thingis you'll have to hold hands to complete
the circuit. Yeah, so we'reactually is taken from us electrics is electric
(22:47):
generate energy that's now joined that count? So what about me and the plants?
Can we do that as well?Yeah? So yeah, I'm going
to pass on the other size.And then how you wants to hold the
(23:11):
class? If I hold the playsmy hand, so I need to hold
the Yeah, that's fine that youguys. You guys have different it's just
(23:37):
love. Yeah, straight, Imean intimate different things. I'm tweet.
Yeah, I want to break thecircuits figure yes, yes, okay,
(24:15):
leave for movers that does have it'sgot a lot of energy. Yeah,
come on, then Emory Garlic,you want to go? Yeah, thank
(24:45):
you as well. Yeah, yes, I can pick cyct gout hold hands
anywhere, all right, agreed onthis, Bob, Yes, I have
(25:11):
seen this. Yeah, what happensif you've played? Okay, so if
you want to play, you canplay a song. Mm hmm, road
(25:48):
madam, I've tried you out.Yeah again, that's fine. I like
(26:29):
the word dangerous herself. Yeah,h m hm, that's most smoothly think
(27:00):
anyway, I think it's nice different. I'm going to try to welcome d
(27:33):
Well the biggest samples, the saplesand you actually most of you generated.
Yeah, so you can never gowhat they're going to do. So really,
I think that's really very very interestingexperience. Yes, thank you,
(27:56):
I'm actually I thank you've been listeningto Thanks go to the National Trust,
(28:17):
in particular Ranger Hannah Blades, andto the staff and young people of the
Mint Project. If you'd like tokeep listening, look for the Riverlands Show
on poppy Land Radio, which broadcastslive sounds from Woodland in Felbrigg and the
Silver Gate Stream in Blickling every Wednesdayevening at ten pm. Alternatively, you
can visit homesounds dot Org, whereyou can find all previous episodes of the
(28:40):
show, as well as many moreopportunities to actively listen and numerous ways to
support and get involved with the HomeSounds Project. Links relating to this episode
can be found in the description we'llbe back again next month. Welcome home
everybody, m m m m andstay fo
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