Sense 03 — Underfoot

Listening to life in the soil

Last year, I had a conversation with Michael Kennard from Compost Club about compost - its care, and how easily its living complexity slips beyond our attention.

At Compost Club, soil felt less like a material and more like something active and ongoing, full of relationships, labour and life. Michael spent time showing me around where he works, walking through his process as he spoke. The audio I’m sharing here comes from our conversation that afternoon.

Afterwards, there was one thing in particular that stayed with me. Before I left, we placed a microphone into the ground in his garden, and listened.

What came through wasn’t a single sound, but a shifting chorus of soft crackles, faint movements, a low, constant activity. Not loud enough to demand attention, but unmistakably alive. It felt like tuning in to a world usually closed to us, one that continues beneath our feet whether we notice it or not.

In that moment, a simple piece of technology gave us a way to listen more closely, something usually unseen and unheard becoming briefly present. Not dramatic, but alive.

It felt like a reminder that attention doesn’t always arrive on its own. Sometimes it needs help; a tool, a gesture, a shared act of listening and when we offer it, the world beneath us feels wider.

I’m sharing the conversation here as part of Sense, as an invitation to pay attention in a slightly different way.