Please Use Headphones and go for a walk in nature or in a quiet place.

" We Are the Bodies of Water," by Ishita Chakraborty, combines field recordings, readings, organic sounds, and poetry. The artist explores climate change, migration, and multispecies relationships. The artist grew up near urban cities like Kolkata and in the foothills of the Himalayas; she is a resident of Switzerland, and in her ongoing research connecting the dots between melting glaciers not only in the Alps but its effects on rising sea levels and tidal erosion which is swallowing up the Indian Sundarbans, is the largest delta and mangrove ecosystem in the world.

The Sound piece starts with a poem by Birago Diop - Souffles, which means breaths. Diop was a Senegalese poet and storyteller whose work restored general interest in African folktales and promoted him to one of the most outstanding African francophone writers. One analysis of this poem emphasizes its source in Animism, the belief that there are souls not only in living things but all things. After that, the artist reads a piece from the Ecofeminism book by Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva. She is reading about the relationship between soil and society and how soil has embodied the ecological and spiritual home of most cultures. Slowly, the sound waves take you to the land of mysticism, the islands of Sundarbans, the mud flats, tidal streams, and rowing hand boat sounds of those who live by fishing and foraging in the jungle. The artist brings the voice of Dr. Abhra Chanda, the professor of Oceanography at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, who has expertise in this particular region. Dr. Chanda explains the climate migration situation and the future of these islands in the Indian Sundarbans, sea level rise, and precarious living of future climate refugees. The artist slowly takes you to the sounds of rapid melting glaciers in Swiss alpine regions like Rhone Glacier. You hear the voice of Professor Dr. Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, and at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research WSL. He narrates about the interconnected world through nature; he explains that if all the Himalayan glaciers and the enormous glaciers melt, it will significantly impact the sea level change and displacement in the future globally. The piece slowly ends with the song of a boatman called Jongolee from Indian Sundarban, the artist recorded during her research trip, who sings the song says – Who will help me to cross the river, I will offer my garland, I will offer my springtime to them when I reach on the other side of the river. This type of music genre, Bhatiali or Bhatiyali, is folk music in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Bhatiali is a river song sung mainly by boatmen going down river streams. The word bhatiyali comes from bhata, meaning "ebb" or downstream. 

Special Thanks to:

-Dr. Abhra Chanda, The School of Oceanography, Jadavpur University

-Dr. Daniel Farinotti, Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), -ETH Zurich, and at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research WSL.

-Jongolee da, the boatman.

-Tour de Sundarbans, Rajesh Shaw.

-Thomas Kern.

-Co-Habitations Project, WE ARE AIA.

This piece is only for listening. Copyright protected.