Theres no place called home

Mixed in the daily hum of city noises bird songs echo through space and ears. But something is out of place: certain chirps and tweets that don’t belong.

There’s No Place Called Home is a recurring, worldwide intervention wherein specific foreign bird-calls and songs are broadcasted from speakers concealed in local trees. The incongruent audio is mixed so as to appear as “real” and “lifelike” as possible in the environment. The sounds are from songs of birds that would never be found in that area. The work generates a multitude of readings pertaining to human and animal migration, ecological contingency, territory marking, communication streams and folkloric magic.

There’s No Place Called Home (Malmö Konsthall), 2016, songs of a Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli), native to the western United States, broadcast from speakers concealed in a tree outside the Malmö Konsthall.

There’s No Place Called Home (Triangeln), 2016, calls of a Magnificent Riflebird (Ptiloris magnificus), indigenous to New Guinea and Northeastern Australia, broadcast from speakers concealed in a tree outside the St. Johannes church, Malmö.

There’s No Place Called Home (Folkets Park), 2016, calls of a Taiwan Yuhina (Yuhina brunneiceps), endemic to Taiwan, broadcast from speakers concealed in a tree within Folkets Park, Malmö.

James Webb is a sound artist working with large-scale installations or creating unannounced interventions in public spaces. He often makes use of ellipsis, displacement and détournement to explore the nature of belief and the dynamics of communication in our contemporary world.