Emma Bennett

A short piece for voice and uncooperative powerpoint presentation.

Slideshow Birdshow is a songful paean to nature in all its uncooperative glory, and to the gasps, stutters and fluffed lines that emerge when we try to describe it.

Inspired by the attempts of ornithologists and poets to unlock the secret life of birds, Emma set out to find her own explanation. She discovered the scratchy music hidden in nature book descriptions. She impersonated a blackbird, got too close to a chaffinch and repeatedly failed to pin down a thrush. Here, with flickering slideshow and tremulous voice, she attempts to present her findings.