Microplastics is an acousmatic work derived solely from plastic sound sources. These sounds are predominately from waste accumulated from household use (empty milk containers, bottles, straws, lids, cling film, and wrappers).

Further sources were captured at the Manchester Education Centre and Materials Recovery Facility in Sharston (England, UK), which illuminated ways in which plastics are separated and sorted by the Aladdin machine. This visit provided an eye-opening visual for the monumental scale of plastic waste, which is represented sonically half-way through the work through an unprocessed raw recording of plastic rubbish being dumped out into a colossal mountain of unbelievable proportions.

Further to these recordings and sources are sounds collected from micro-sized plastics, sourced from the south coast of England courtesy of Rob Arnold (visual artist and microplastics cleanup expert). These microplastic pieces, no larger that 5 mm in diameter, are a mix of worn-down remnants of past plastic objects (lids, shards, tubing, rims and strips) and ‘nurdles’ or ‘bio-beads’ waste, which present hazardous, detrimental ecological damage to marine life and the environment. The plastics industry converts nurdles into plastic products, however the movement and transportation of these tiny pellets of plastic regularly encounter accidental spills, spreading out into water and drainage systems. Bio-beads are equally problematic, entering the sea via their use in sewage filtration systems. These minuscule plastic particles can be mistaken for food by marine life and birds in the environment.

This work explores the sound world of this disastrous pollution and unfortunate particles debris that now inhabit the world in insurmountable quantities.

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Microplastics was realized in 2021 at the Snowdon Studio in the Clock House of Keele University (England, UK) and the composer’s studio in Manchester (England, UK) and premiered online on April 23, 2021 during the BEAST FEaST festival in Birmingham (England, UK). Thanks to plastic waste sculptor Rob Arnold for providing the microplastic waste collected from Tregantle Beach in Cornwall (England, UK), John Wiggins for providing an old plastic bottle, and the Waste Experience team at the Manchester Education Centre and Materials Recovery Facility in Sharston (England, UK). On April 2, 2021 Microplastics was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Composed with Sound category of the 1st Sound of Year Awards (UK), and a prize at the Ars Electronica Forum Wallis (Leuk, Switzerland, 2021).

Preparation

• 2020, Manchester Education Centre and Materials Recovery Facility, Sharston (England, UK)

Composition

• 2021, Snowdon Studio — Clock House — Keele University, Keele (England, UK)
• 2021, Personal studio, Manchester (England, UK)

Premiere

• April 23, 2021, BEAST FEaST 2021: Concert 5, Birmingham (England, UK)

Awards

• Honorable Mention, Composed with Sound, Sound of the Year Awards 2020, UK
• Prize, Ars Electronica Forum Wallis 2021, Leuk (Switzerland)

Mastering

• May 2024, Dominique Bassal • Studio Inverse, Montréal (Québec)