The social lives of grass (dir. Dr. Jeremy Mayall, Sebastian J. Lowe)

The social lives of grass

The Social Lives of Grass was filmed on the 28 March (2018) in and around the city of Kirikiriroa (Hamilton) in Aotearoa (New Zealand). We filmed over 20 different types of grass in both urban and non-urban environments, in an attempt to capture the importance of grass to the lives of all life, human or otherwise. We have focused not on what grasses sound like, but what goes on audibly around the grasses, that is to say, their ‘social lives’. The human ear has the ability to focus in on individual sounds within an acoustic context, for example, we can sit beside a river and shift our focus between the sounds of the river to the birds in the trees, or we can walk into a crowded room and differentiate individuals from within the collective body of human voices. As we move through the world, our perceptions change and sounds as we know them are fleeting. If we take the time to consciously listen to what is going around us, we are able to strengthen our understanding of what it means to be part of our shared world.