Cracked open with a crowbar, soil runs like silk through fingers — from rose pinks and greys to darker clumps of clay. Warm, acid, floury—tenuous and rudimentary soils devoid of visible life. Silence holds the space of expectation. Pink galahs shriek from cypress pines at the thought this dirt holds anything of worth.
Excerpt ‘Good-for-nothing Dirt’ by Kim V. Goldsmith, 2024
As presented in Florence, Italy 19-24 May with thanks to ecoartspace.
Details here
Blog post here
(image: Patricia Watts)
Subterranean serenade – listen to the soundscape
🔊 Listen to Subterranean serenade, duration 8 minutes. Multi-track soundscape composition made from soil field recordings.
Good-for-nothing Dirt – read or listen
🔊 Digital version on ISSUU (click on the cover) or listen to the narration of Good-for-nothing Dirt. 650-word poetic prose below.
Buy a hard copy of Good-for-nothing Dirt
Good-for-nothing Dirt & Subterranean Serenade
Good-for-nothing Dirt, 650-word poetic prose; and Subterranean serenade, 8-minute soundscape composition (available by QR code from within the chapbook), with photos of unearthed fabrics. Written and produced in 2024 by Kim V. Goldsmith, Australia. Limited edition of 50. 8pp chapbook, 135gsm recycled uncoated paper, greyscale, stapled. $5 + A$5 postage within Australia, international postage quoted at time of order – additional postage payable by PayPal.
A$10.00
The story and the project
The #SoundOfSoils story is set near Dubbo on Wiradyuri Country in New South Wales, Australia. The story of these soils was revealed over two months of observations and recordings in the summer of 2023/24.
Using the burial of microbial-enhancing treated and untreated cotton fabric samples, Australian sound artist Kim V. Goldsmith spent two months listening to and recording the sounds of tenosol and rudosol soils on the unfarmed lands of her peri-urban property outside the city of Dubbo. The #SoundOfSoils project timeframe included a dry El Niño 2023 spring, and a two-week heatwave in early summer that sent soil temperatures above 30°C, followed by rain, cooler weather, and the regeneration of perennial native plants at two burial sites. Using specialist microphones, Goldsmith captures the initial silence of hot soils at burial through to an increasing range of clicks, rasps, crackles, munches and rustling as the subterranean world comes back to life, demonstrating how soil fauna-reliant ecosystems may adapt to extreme conditions.
#SoundOfSoils puts an ear to the unremarkable tenuous or rudimentary soils of Central West New South Wales, Australia, capturing an intimate, reciprocal conversation between the artist and these ‘good-for-nothing’ soils. Tenosol and rudosol soils have little organic matter, poor water retention, and are mostly considered unproductive. However, these ancient soils have supported an ecosystem of native Australian flora and fauna—including soil fauna, for hundreds of thousands of years. In the age of the Anthropocene, the value of these soils is based on their use to humans. Seventy per cent of soils in Australia are considered unproductive because they are arid or semi-arid. The #SoundOfSoils celebrates these ancient earthy sands for what they are, and their value to more-than-human life.
Follow the project on Facebook or Instagram #SoundOfSoils at @goldsmithsstudio
Find out more about the project
This project was self-funded, with the abstract presentation at the Centennial the International Union of Soil Sciences congress in partnership with artist, Anne Yoncha (USA), and the ecoartspace exhibition supported by the ecoartspace Soil Dialogues.
