Departures

"Starting with a field recording made in Nairobi Airport, this piece imagines a departure lounge for all the birds we have lost and stand to lose in the face of the climate crisis. A child quietly contemplates how we, as humankind, might learn from birds to create built environments that better serve the natural world, by making less noise and more space for them, not us.

"As we drift into her daydream of an airport for birds, we catch a glimpse of the possibilities whilst hearing a rich sonic world made up of archive recordings of threatened and extinct birds recorded in Kenya and elsewhere. The piece explores some of the metaphors at play in a departure lounge and navigates the sometimes jagged borders between humans and nature. Don’t get too comfortable, the gate is closing…

Additional recordings by Flora Zajicek, Cicely Fell
Archive recordings by A.R Gregory (with thanks to the British Library for their kind permission to use)"

Nairobi airport reimagined by Flora Zajicek and Cicely Fell.

Part of the Well-Being Cities project, a unique collaboration between Cities and Memory and C40, a global network of mayors of nearly 100 world-leading cities collaborating to deliver the urgent action needed right now to confront the climate crisis. The project was originally presented at the C40 Cities conference in Buenos Aires in 2022. Explore Well-Being Cities in full at https://citiesandmemory.com/wellbeing-cities/