Hell Kettle Mere

(2025)

“Hwæt!”

dawn lights and dirty nails;
bent and boughed and bowed-again;
slowly, thoughtfully, handing - down;
humming the song your father sang:

"FOR EVERY SILENT BIRD;
A TREE STILL SPEAKS
OUR WRIT-SPAKE WORDS AS ANGELS-DESCENDING.
WE HEARD THE VOICE OF WORDS;
BUT WE SAW NO FORM;
ONLY WE HEARD A VOICE."

Hell Kettle Mere is set within a virtual wetland submerged in water and shadow. Visitors enter a dark, enclosed world—part chamber, part chasm—where strange roots rise from a glossy black floor that mirrors their branching forms. Glowing trunks, stark silhouettes, and floating objects evoke a landscape that feels both spectral and suspended in time.

As visitors drift through a sequence of dimly lit groves and chambers, the environment unfolds as a series of vignettes: sculptural, slow, and symbolic. The experience merges landscape and narrative, linking to Twine-based texts that expand the world through lyrical, non-linear conversation.

CREDITS

The project has been co-created with collaborators and musicians Isaac Robinson and Claire Lleshi, artists Ama Dogbe and Tayler Fisher, and members of my family. It features excepts from Robert Macfarlane, Samuel Beckett, Pete Seeger, Jeremy Harte and Daisy Black.

MATERIALS

Browser-based 3D environment; stylised 3D models, digital animation, electronic folk compositions, and interactive Twine narratives; hosted on the New Art City platform. Dimensions variable (virtual installation).

EXHIBITION

Presented as part of Hybrid Realities Lab 2, organised by Six Minutes Past Nine.

© David John Scarborough 2025