Forgotten Songs, Art installation in Angel Place, Sydney, Australia

Forgotten Songs is an art installation in Angel Place, a narrow laneway in central Sydney, featuring 120 empty birdcages hung overhead. Each cage holds speakers playing recordings of native bird songs that sound continuously throughout the day and night.

Forgotten Songs was created by Michael Thomas Hill for the 2009 Sydney Laneway Temporary art scheme, part of the second stage titled By George! Hidden Networks. Its popularity led to it becoming a permanent installation in 2011 as part of a 9 million dollar laneway upgrade. The work addresses urban renewal and climate change, and its title honours birds displaced by European settlement.

The installation honors bird species that once filled the center of Sydney before the city expanded. It makes visitors aware of how urbanization changed which animals live downtown and draws attention to their absence from the area.

The laneway runs between George and Pitt Streets, so it can be walked through at any hour without a ticket. The two audio tracks switch with the seasons: summer lengthens the daytime bird sequence, winter lengthens the night one. Look down as well as up, since the species names sit in the pavement.

The names of the 50 displaced bird species are carved into the pavement below the cages, visible as you walk through. This hidden detail links the birds' story to the actual ground they once inhabited.