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Voicing the Nonhuman: Exploring the Affectual Relationship of Sonification
Get PDFSonification can translate ecological and social changes into audible formats, yet little scholarship has explored the ways in which this process stands in place as ‘voice’ in communication. On one hand, sonification grants the listener an ability to understand their ecological environment in ways that may have been previously unable; however, this process relies on data extraction through a largely humanistic lens. I question, what happens affecutally in the process of voicing extracted data? How does this impact our relationship to place, self, and environment? What might a decolonial perspective on listening to the nonhuman offer in conversation with sonification projects? This exploratory paper considers the concept of voice through sonification within three case studies – NASA’s Perseus Black Hole, PlantWave, and Sonic Kayaks
Spatiotemporal Recording in the Field
Get PDFA method for recording continuously, in motion without audible interference by the recording apparatus is proposed. The purpose of this method is the verisimilar reproduction of soundscapes as spatiotemporal continua without any audible traces of the recording procedure, i.e. transparently. This method is the result of an experimental plan to capture spatial variability of a sound field along with its temporal counterpart envisaging audio reproduction of field recordings as spatiotemporal entities. The sound recorded in this manner captures the finest details of the changes of soundscape due to its spatial variability that should be otherwise artificially calculated. For this purpose, the Moving Sound-Receptor (MSR) system was designed and tried in a variety of field recording situations. In this paper, we present an overview of this system and its use in field recording projects. Particularly, we examine its use in recording along vertical trajectories
“Places for Hearing” in the City of Edo in 18th Century Japan: A Case Study of an Insect Listening Party on Dokan-Hill
Get PDFIn Japan, the introduction of the soundscape concept since the late 1980s has shed new light on various pre-modern practices in the context of soundscape ecology. For example, in Edo City (present-day Tokyo) in 18th century Japan, there were locations known as "places for Hearing”. Hiroshige's ukiyoe "Insect Listening Party on Dokan-Hill" illustrates the situation at that time. We can use these paintings as "ear witnesses" to understand that an urban sensibility that interacted with the natural world existed in Edo period, and that there was a particular land-based aesthetics that transcended modern Western art. Through these considerations, I am trying to make a new framework for our future and creative activity that goes beyond conventional musicking
Augmenting Urban Space with Environmental Soundscapes and Mobile Technologies
Get PDFAs locative media and augmented reality swell into mainstream culture, this article traces my creative explorations with locative sound, stretching across a decade of practice. The featured projects are all embedded into larger research initiatives, which are designed to explore the value of acous- tic ecology as a socially engaged, accessible and interdisciplinary field that can inspire communities across the world to listen to their environment. These interconnected projects draw on sound walking, mobile technologies and locative media to investigate the role of sound in achieving presence and connection to place. The creative works are accompanied by the introduction of new projects that are informed by this research, and reflections on the future possibilities of locative media in exploring layers of our social, cultural and ecological environments through sound
The Appreciative Ear: Sounds from the Ground Up
No full textThe hills are alive with the sound of music that increasingly falls upon unappreciative ears. It is the claim of this article that an appreciation of underground sounds can spur real, relevant responses to the environmental crises of our time. When people are educated in the earthly sounds, their sources, and benefits, they are more inclined to feel a sense of obligation to steward the earth. The focus here is on sound artists and acoustic field researchers and scientifically measuring the sounds. Sounds underfoot, more than any other category of sensate phenomena, teach appreciation by beginning at the ground level
The Acoustic Environment as a Public Domain
Get PDFAlthough I am not very fond of talking about noise only, and definitely do not equate soundscape with noise, questions concerning noise can serve as a pars pro toto, for it is through noise that people generally first become aware of the soundscape. Noise, properly used, is a good pedagogical way into the subject.
Summing up what has happened in the soundscape context internationally over the past seven years, since the memorable Banff conference of 1993, isn’t easy. My impression is that concern for a better acoustic environment has grown and is more widespread than before, with more conferences, more websites and artistic projects, more books. And yet—very few concrete results, at both national and international levels. We meet and present our new projects in yet another show-and-tell happening. This conference is no exception. The principal players are much the same as in 1993.
We are still more or less marking time. Is the reason to be found in the world around us or within ourselves?
I would like now to concentrate on a number of barriers, which prevent us from achieving visible results. What we have to do is to devise strategies for winning allies within these areas or, quite simply, break down the barriers in order to go further..
School Leadership Development for Sustainability in the Post-Digital Era
Get PDFThe role of school leaders must be balanced in attaining educational sustainability in the changing world. Millions of school students worldwide were affected by the COVID-19 shutdown, which accelerated the need for rapid digitalisation. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are embedded in 21st-century education. The ability to reorient students to the SDGs is key to achieving sustainable education in the post-digital era. This study examines school leadership development in a post-digital era from the sustainability perspective. To ensure sustainable education, school leaders must have relevant skills and competencies to lead schools in the post-digital age. In striving for a sustainable era, a school leader needs skills and knowledge to be an inspiring role model and motivator. School leaders must reorient students, teachers and all relevant stakeholders according to SDG goals to achieve sustainable education. Hence, continuous school leadership development is essential to accelerating digital transformation using factors such as leadership style, strategic planning, and knowledge management.
 
Fostering a Lifelong Love of Plants; Educator Stories from a Botanical Garden
Get PDFWith a growing interest in community-based STEAM education, 10 environmental educators with the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association share their experiences connecting people to plants at VanDusen Botanical Garden and Bloedel Conservatory, located on the unceded ancestral shared lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Each educator contributes various perspectives based on their unique backgrounds and lived experiences, which culminate in a shared story of passion for the natural world and its belonging in STEAM education. This narrative demonstrates that STEAM education flourishes when informal and formal educators work collaboratively and embrace new educational opportunities, engage senses through experiential place-based education, explore Two-Eyed Seeing and reciprocity, include diverse perspectives and recognize how lived experiences shape worldview, share passion and curiosity with learners, and foster appreciation of the natural world.
 
Windmills of Lapua
Get PDF“Direct impacts of wind farms can include collision and barotrauma (damage to tissues from air pressure changes around turbines); indirect impacts can include habitat loss (roosts, commuting routes and foraging areas) and fragmentation.” – bats.org.uk
This piece comments on the impact of wind farms on the bat population. It uses field recordings of windmills taken in Lapua, Finland using microphones that pick up normally inaudible frequencies (such as contact and electromagnetic mics), combined with various field recordings of bats.
Originally, the piece explores the use of field recordings with the 3D IKO speaker and investigates how a sense of place can be created using a speaker that projects sound from the inside outwards using the sound reflections of the performance space. This work was made possible thanks to the Develop your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England
Baby, It’s Cold Outside! Lessons from making audio-recordings of wildlife in urban/semirural environments
Get PDFThis article considers the adaptations required by the time-restricted wildlife sound recordist, who only has access to semiru- ral environments, to achieve recordings. More than 200 experimental recordings and reflections have been made, advice pages reviewed, experts questioned, texts scrutinised and specialist talks attended to inform this articles’ findings. The overall lessons learned will be of use to those who only have easy access to semi-rural environments and would wish to include nature sounds in their compositions that are either symbolic of a piece or characteristic of an environment. The article starts by comparing the differences in recording approaches used between a studio practitioner and the wildlife field recordist and latterly considers the tacit knowledge and skills employed by these wildlife-recording practitioners and the field-craft considerations, which underpin the successful projects. Subsequently it focuses on the barriers to recording in semi-rural environments and how the tacit knowledge of the experts can best be exploited to tackle these difficult recording domains. It includes first person observational accounts to illuminate what it is like to be immersed in these variable recording environments. It concludes by forming recommendations, which are based on tested approaches, that have yielded some success in these semi-rural environments. It is envisaged that the content and findings will be of use to those moving to record species and environment in the field, such as musicians, students studying soundscapes or composers exploring new environments