Your Seedling Language is a site-responsive sculptural apparatus that translates atmospheric flows into syllabic sounds, speaking this place-based language in conversation with the earth.
The artwork consists of two parts: a cluster of sound-and-light-producing sculptures in the school’s entry stairwell, and a sensor tower outside of St Catherine’s National School, Rush, Co. Dublin. The artwork utilises environmental data that is commonly related to the growth of plants. The moisture of the soil, light and temperature outside the school provide organic compositional parameters that manipulate a generative eight-channel vocal composition. With over 1,000 syllabic samples to call upon, the artwork unravels ideas surrounding the theory of biolinguistics, providing the school with a language of its own. The development of the artwork stemmed from research into Fingal’s rich multicultural history and how this influenced the now unused Fingallian dialect. It celebrates the mixture of cultures and languages that flourish in this school.