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Michael Collier Lecturer, Writer, Curator and Artist

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Mike in front of some of his work

Mike is currently a lecturer and Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Sunderland where I have had the pleasure to hear his lectures on two occasions. The first time was in person in the National Glass Centre, but the seconds was online due to Covid.

He is also the Principle Investigator of WALK (Walking, Art, Landscape and Knowledge) which is an interdisciplinary research centre looking how we creatively engage with the world as we walk through it. He has organized walks around the coastline of the UK so others can hear the different birdcalls.

Image from Mike Collier

His works of Art is based around the shapes in a birdsong as well the names we have given to the birds. These names can differ from region to region throughout the United Kingdom

Image from Mike Collier

To start a piece, he will take a walk to listen and record the birdsong he hears all around. To do so he says that cupping your hand to both your ears and turning slowly for several minutes lets you see what birds are singing. I imagine that doing this will get others wondering what you are doing.  He also uses sound equipment to record songs then Isolating each bird in a dawn chorus etc and turning their song into sound waves. He can recognize all the different birds that sing in the UK. These sound waves are then transformed into written music that he then screen-prints in a round onto sheet glass. He then mounts these on handmade paper that has been coloured beautifully with Union Pastels. The finished Art Works are amazing and he is visualizing sounds from other sources including the Hubble Telescope to make even more astonishing works.


To see more about Mike please click link below


Mike Collier and Bennett Hogg: A Dawn Chorus
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