Birds Humans Machines Dolphins

Birds / Humans / Machines / Dolphins is the result of a residency with the University of Aberdeen's School of Biological Sciences in which Genevieve engaged with two main ecological fieldwork projects: a long-term study into breeding fulmars on the uninhabited island of Eynhallow in Orkney, and passive acoustic monitoring work studying dolphin and porpoise populations in and around offshore wind farm sites in the Moray Firth. The poems integrate poetic and scientific processes, data about animal life histories and first-hand encounters with ecological fieldwork, giving voice to the non-human in surprising and original ways. In addition to the text, Genevieve collaborated with composer Lucie Treacher to create the EP Hydrophonica, blending spoken word and music with underwater field recordings of bottlenose dolphins.

It’s such an interesting and surprising hybrid, which manages to be deeply funny and very sad at the same time, an unusual feat in both science writing and poetry, even more unusual when the two are blended. The ironic and the tender are perfectly fused, and formal innovations are cleverly tethered to meaning. Both the birds and the language were thrillingly – and in unexpected ways – alive…Max Porter