The forgotten songs of Sydney’s birdsong
Forgotten Songs commemorates the songs of fifty birds once heard in central Sydney, before they were gradually forced out by European settlement. The calls, which filter down from the canopy of birdcages suspended above Angel Place, change as day shifts to night; the daytime birds’ songs disappearing with the sun, and those of the nocturnal birds, which inhabited the area, sounding into the evening.
This delightful installation was a collaboration between ecologists and sound artists, with the AWSRG’s Fred van Gessel providing the birdsong recordings.
This artwork was commissioned in 2009 and has now been retained as a permanent installation.