Dawn Chorus Broadcast

Listen in as ornithological investigator, J D Swann,  livestreams the wild sounds of Tump 39 on International Dawn Chorus Day!

5:00 am - 7:30 am, 3 May 2025

      A handmade wooden sign is attached to a tree in a lush, green forest area. The sign reads 'LISTEN HEAR’, the first word in white letters and the second in black letters on a yellowish-orange background.

      On International Dawn Chorus Day between 5:00 am and 7:30 am, the ornithological investigator J D Swann will livestream Tump 39’s soundscapes, creating a space for better understanding non-human life within urban environments. The artist will move across the site, transmitting wildlife narratives including the sounds of trees, grasses and animal inhabitants before turning to the Friends of Tump 39 for final reflections on humans’ roles and responsibilities in this shared sonic ecology.

      Through this event, the sounds of Tump 39 will contribute to a global dawn network as part of Soundcamp’s Reveil 2025 Streams, a 24-hour audio broadcast that transmits the sounds of sunrise across the Earth, collectively produced by participants from all around the world. Starting in London at dawn, the broadcast will pick up different live streams one by one, tracking the sunrise west, with each stream adding to and altering the loop. 

      Listen to the livestream here.

      Photo: This is No Ordinary World at Tump 39, 2023, by Blanc Sceol. 

      J D Swann is an ornithological investigator often working with communities in Bexley and Greenwich, London. Walks and events include with Estuary Festival, Stephen Turner’s Exbury Egg, Bow Arts, Three Rivers, InspiralLondon, Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park and RSPB Rainham Essex with Kinetika. He has live streamed with InspiralSE2 (Calum F Kerr & Miyuki Kasahara) in various locations in South-East London and Isle of Portland, Dorset.  

      Soundcamp is an arts cooperative based at Stave Hill Ecological Park in Rotherhithe. They work on transmission ecologies from DIY broadcasting devices to public sound and radio projects. As part of the Acoustic Commons network, they coordinate the long-form radio broadcast Reveil (2014—) and a series of sound and ecology events (soundcamps) on Dawn Chorus day each year. SC have been part of the Creative Europe small cooperation project: Acoustic Commons (2020—22) in partnership with arts organisations in Europe and Japan. Recent projects include l a g with Kate Donovan for Sonic Acts (10/22), As if radio.. at COP26 Glasgow, Meet Me On The Radio with Hannah Kemp-Welch and the Deptford Albany, Biosphere Open Microphones (BIOM – with Leah Barclay and Biosphere Soundscapes) and PITCH, a portable auditorium designed and built by Public Works and Michael Speers.

      Tump 39 is a long-term project working with communities in North Thamesmead to re-imagine a disused and re-wilded Victorian munitions magazine that has been closed for 20 years. Alongside reopening the site to the locals, we’re collaborating with artists, storytellers, activists, and ecologists through a seasonal program. 

      Friends of Tump 39 is a team of local volunteers who act on behalf of the communities who use and care for Tump 39. They are the natural starting point for cultural work where people and places meet and work closely with the Three Rivers team to develop a site-sensitive creative programme that recognises both human and more-than-human ‘beings’ in the co-creation process.