A world of perpetual sunrise

Planet will awake to a shared dawn chorus

Starting at dawn on 2 May in London, the world can listen to the day breaking as a live broadcast tracks the sound of sunrise around the world.  Twenty-four hours later, Tony Whitehead, a sound artist from Totnes in Devon, will record the final broadcast from nearby Dartington Estate.  Click the button any time between 5am UK time on 2 May and 6am the next day for access to the live stream.

listen here

Reveil starts in Rotherhithe near the Greenwich Meridian and travels west from one open microphone to the next, following the wave of sound that loops the earth with the rising sun, picking up audio feeds from forest cams, very low frequency receivers, deep ocean hydrophones, space radio stations, and a network of soundcamps and streamers, in a sequence lasting one earth day.

Ray Kennedy (rspb-images.com)

Tony, who works for the RSPB's South West England team, is especially hoping to capture the dawn song of Dartington's robins.  "Back in the 1930s, Dartington was where the pioneering ornithologist David Lack studied robin behaviour," he said, "his work became one of the first species monographs and I love the idea that I'll be recording birds who may well be descended from the ones he studied."

The Dartington broadcast will be part of a listening event called a SoundCamp - one of several being held around the world to mark International Dawn Chorus Day.  SoundCamps in the UK will be at Stave Hill Ecological Park, London; Piel View House, Furness Peninsula, Cumbria; Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon and the Ulster Museum, Belfast.  There will be others in New York, Chicago, Toronto, Italy, Slovenia, Estonia and Greece.  Tony will also be leading listening walks, continuing a long Dartington tradition of outdoor listening, recording and sonic art.

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