Sheringham Park - Rhodie-bashing and Bio-sonification

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...LINKSSymbiotic (Bio-sonification device)Sheringham Park MINT ProjectHomesoundsHomeSounds Show Supporters ClubImage Credit: National Trust