The Sensory Attunement Coracle

"In the Sensory Attunement Coracle, artist Ryan Powell floats down the River Roding in a handmade hazel and reed vessel, inviting the viewer into a ritual of slowness and recalibration. The coracle’s passage through a neglected waterway becomes an act of listening – to the river, to the self, and to histories submerged beneath the surface."
-Estuary Festival

The Sensory Attunement Coracle is a floating pod, conceived as a ritual object for an imagined ceremony and made using ancient boat building and thatching techniques from materials (mostly) from the banks of the River Roding in East London.

Unlike traditional coracles, the Sensory Attunement Coralce has a roof. This top section has been made from a hazel structure covered in a thatch of reeds cut from the banks of the river.

This roof obscures vision for the the passenger inside the pod, encouraging them to tune in to the feeling of the wider forces at work that are controlling their journey as well as to the sounds of the river and the worlds at its banks.

Once complete, I will enter the pod and go on a journey directed totally by the forces of the river: by the moon, the currents and the wind. I will float up the river on the incoming tide and then allow the rivers current to return me to where I began when the tide recedes.

The River Roding is an under-appreciated river. Few Londoners know about it despite it being the cities 3rd Largest waterway. Stretches of it are used as a dumping ground for all kinds of waste: Fly tipping is constant along its banks, it has the highest level of "forever chemicals" of any river in the country and suffers from regular dumps of untreated sewage from Thames Water.

The Sensory Attunement Coracle project aims at raising the profile of this river, encouraging local people to enjoy and care for it and drawing attention the ways that we are failing to respect and value the Roding and other rivers in the country.

This floating sculpture is a ritual object for an imagined animist ceremony where participants celebrate the river as a being to learn from and commune with and pledge to protect it. The ceremony, of which the coracle is the centre piece, would be a fusion of practical citizen conservation, and pagan-esque ritual:

Participants would first walk a stretch of the river, picking rubbish from the banks, whilst also collecting flowering branches from the trees in blossom such as Hawthorn and Cherry to decorate the thatched roof of the coracle. Water samples will also be gathered and pollution levels recorded in a ceremonial book that will be used as a measurement of success or failure over successive years in efforts to improve the rivers health. A person would then be chosen by lottery to float in the coracle, a symbolic human offering to the river. They enter the coracle, the roof is placed above them and they are pushed out into the water. From that point on they give over their autonomy and their attention to the river in a merging of movement and thought. The incoming tide carries them up river and they return on the ebb.

River Lyre (in development)

I am developing an acoustic version of the River harp, an instrument invented by Sam A Mcloughlin.

Earlier versions of the instrument require a contact microphone and amp to be able to hear the sound produced by the water flowing past the strings. I have been experimenting with adding a sound box so that it can be heard without equipment. The photo is of prototype made to test the concept. It was a success but was not very loud, you need to be right by it to hear. This was not surprising as it's just made from plywood offcuts. I am going to develop the design and make a version with proper tone wood to try and get the volume up and refine the sound.