Wetland Project: Explorations in Sound, Ecology and Post-Geographical Art

"The Wetland Project is a beautiful, quietly amazing work of micro-post-geographical art that allows us to be wherever we are and somewhere wonderfully natural and real, simultaneously. It’s an experience I wish everyone could have, and I wish there were more experiences like it."
—William Gibson

The Wetland Project book is the print component of a multidisciplinary and multimedia project centred on the sounds emanating from the ṮEḴTEḴSEN marsh, in unceded W̱SÁNEĆ territory (Saturna Island, British Columbia). The book is edited by artists Brady Marks and Mark Timmings, who have been inspired by the sonic phenomena produced by this small patch of Earth to create a 24-hour Slow Radio Broadcast, based on field recordings from the marsh, that radio stations across North America and Europe have aired on Earth Day since 2017; a musical arrangement titled Wetland Senario, co-composed with Stephen Morris and performed by vocal ensemble musica intima; and a new media installation that algorithmically transforms sound frequencies from the marsh recordings into pure colour fields in flux.

Contributors to the book include novelist William Gibson, MP and former Green Party leader Elizabeth May, poet and spoken-word performer Susan McMaster, musicologist Stephen Morris, writer Alex Muir, poet and W̱SÁNEĆ First Nation member Philip Kevin Paul, Stó:lō artist, curator, and scholar Dylan Robinson, sound artist and World Soundscape Project member Hildegaard Westerkamp, and curator, writer, and PhD student Laurie White. The algorithmic flow of colour fields throughout the publication combined with photos of the project and an audio interface accessed using smartphones and tablet devices will give the book a colourful, music box-like quality.

Awarded first prize in the pictorial category at the 2022 Alcuin Awards for Excellence in Book Design.

Brady Marks is a digital media artist working primarily in audiovisual practices, new media and kinetic art. She has collaborated with Geoffrey Farmer on seven works, including “And Finally The Street Becomes The Main Character (Clock)” (2005–2008), a sculptural installation with computer-generated sound presented and acquired by the Art Gallery of Ontario; and “Let’s Make the Water Turn Black” (2013–15), a 24-hour computer-generated installation composed of 50 light fixtures, 26 audio speakers and 18 synchronized, animatronic sculptures presented at REDCAT (Los Angeles), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (Zurich), Nottingham Contemporary (UK), Kunstverein (Hamburg), Pérez Art Museum (Miami) and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Mark Timmings is a multidisciplinary artist and acclaimed graphic designer. In 2015, an audio installation of Narvaez Bay, including Timmings’s monumental illuminated score and a recording of the Vancouver performance, was exhibited in Montreal at Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain. He has received over 100 awards for his publication designs and has collaborated on artist book projects with Roy Arden, Christi Belcourt, Cedric Bomford, Shary Boyle, Hank Bull, Geoffrey Farmer, Robert Houle, Eleanor King and Etienne Zack. He lives and works on Saturna Island, British Columbia.