Eadar

Eadar (Scottish Gaelic for “Between”) weaves together research into Scottish folklore archives and their associated technologies, paranormal investigative techniques, and contemporary ecological thought. After erasing all traces of speech from archive tape recordings of people describing encounters with the daoine sìth (the fairies), what remains is the residual tape hiss — the silences between words.

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By cutting these “silences” together and treating them as sites of vibrant ecological potential, Eadar adapts the paranormal listening method of Electronic Voice Phenomenon to attune to the supernatural ecologies embedded in Gaelic folklore, attending to the presence of the more-than-human in archival materials.

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Complementing these ghostly resonances is a video filmed at a fairy mound — an ancient tomb and one of hundreds scattered across the Scottish landscape. As the Scottish ecologist Alastair McIntosh observes:

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Prominent amongst the many cultural landscape features of Scotland are the numerous hills and mounds said to be the underground dwellings of the fairy folk. Traditionally such places were viewed with apprehension and fear by many, but have also been recognised as gateways to another world. (McIntosh, A. Fairy Hills, Biodiversity & Heritage, 1997)

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Original recordings kindly supplied by The School of Scottish Studies Archives, The University of Edinburgh