‘Be the Sea’ is a collaborative project between artists, communities, the University of Sunderland, and Durham Wildlife Trust. Through their separate interests in deep listening and acoustic ecology, artist Louise Mackenzie and composer Hayley Jenkins (Co-Is) investigate new practices in sound-art composition asking if it is possible to make soundscapes for both the human and the non-human. The project worked wtih community participants in the areas of field recording, audio editing, risograph printing and sound composition, to increase their engagement and custodianship of the Tyne to Tees coastline through deep listening (Oliveros, 1971) and acoustic ecology (Schafer, 1993) activities.

This radio discussion reflects upon the project so far and was released on Slacks Radio in October 2021