The Burring Dor Hawk (2018)
22 June 2018 – 29 July 2018
The Burring Dor Hawk (2018)
Produced in collaboration with Geoff Sample and EYELEVEL Creative
Unison pastel, manipulated sonogram and digital print on paper
One metre square

This collaborative work by musician and sound artist Anna Svensdotter and artist Mike Collier was produced with sound recordist Geoff Sample using Geoff’s sonograms and field recordings of Nightjars.
The collaboration grew out of discussions between Anna and Mike at the Selfscapes conference in Dalby Forest at the end of January 2018 and developed through telephone, email and Skype meetings between Anna, Mike and Geoff over subsequent months.
Click here to see the book produced for the project
ANNA SVENSDOTTER
Nattskred – Dew Fall Hawk (2018)
The selfscape of the Nightjar (Nattskärra in Swedish)
Produced in collaboration with sound recordist Geoff Sample
Sound installation, duration 9 minutes
This soundscape is inspired by Swedish and English dialectal names for the Nightjar, as well as an old Swedish folk story about a woman who loved spinning so much that she did this on Sundays as well as on weekdays. As a result, she was turned into a Nightjar – destined to spin forever.
The title “Nattskred – Dew Fall Hawk” refers to two of the many Swedish and English dialectal names for the Nightjar.’
MIKE COLLIER
The Burring Dor Hawk (2018)
Produced in collaboration with Geoff Sample and EYELEVEL Creative
Unison pastel, manipulated sonogram and digital print on paper
One metre square
The churring voice of the nightjar is an extraordinary sound. It can be heard on still, silent, warm and windless summer evenings as dusk turns into night – a rapid succession of notes all at the same pitch with a down-toned slur interrupting at intervals.
The Nightjar has many superstitious colloquial names including the Corpse Bird or Lich (corpse) Fowl and Gabble Ratchet (a name for the Gabriel Hounds of the Wild Hunt. In Nidderdale (Yorkshire) there is folk legend that the souls of dead unbaptized children go into nightjars.
‘The Burring Dor Hawk’ is what Wordsworth called the Nightjar:
‘The burring dor hawk round and round is wheeling
That solitary bird
Is all that can be heard
In silence deeper far than deepest noon’
Information about the project
Part of The Great Exhibition of the North
Selfscapes – The Artist’s Information Company
Selfscape’s Twitter feed